Ongoing adventures of the Keystone Kops

Today, while one Bush Administration employee admitted that she violated the law by taking politics into account when hiring career attorneys at the Justice Department, a potential government employee was such a blatantly ridiculous choice that his candidacy was abandoned under pressure from members of Congress from both parties.

Monica Goodling, in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, said that -- while hiring lawyers for the Justice Department who are supposed to be treated as civil servants and not political appointees -- she "may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions." Such a political litmus test is illegal, but it seems that the Bush Administration has used such criteria throughout the Justice Department and beyond. Goodling also indicated that former Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty misled Congress about the firings of eight US attorneys when he testified in February.

Meanwhile, Michael E. Baroody withdrew his name for consideration as the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Baroody's current job? Senior lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers, which wanted to give him a $150,000 going away present. In his position as a lobbyist, Baroody has worked against the implementation of the safety regulations that he would have been enforcing had his nomination been approved. Another case of Bush trying to appoint foxes to guard our hen houses.

This is an Administration that is, both domestically and overseas, completely out of control. The level of incompetence is staggering -- and possibly criminal.