ASHCROFT POLITICIZES JUSTICE DEPT. IN TIME FOR THE ELECTION: The New
Yorker reports that "under Ashcroft, the Justice Department has changed
its method of hiring lawyers, who are supposed to be apolitical."
Specifically, he put a key hiring program under the purview of his political
appointees (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040920fa_fact) ,
instead of allowing career professionals to continue administering it.
Now, "lawyers inside and outside the department say that the change has
already had an effect -- especially in politically sensitive places like
the Voting Section." Ashcroft "disbanded the hiring committee and took
over all hiring," one lawyer told the magazine. "That was a huge deal.
Under previous Republican Administrations, that hadn't happened."