OBAMA HELPS REPUBLICANS TREATED UNFAIRLY BY BUSH…. A few years ago, Bush’s Justice Department removed a respected and accomplished attorney from her job because Monica Goodling had heard a rumor that the lawyer might be a lesbian. This year, despite the fact that the lawyer is a life-long Republican, the Obama administration brought the fired attorney back to the Justice Department.
The moral of the story seems to be, if you’re a capable Republican treated unfairly by the Bushies, Obama is willing to undo the damage. We saw another example yesterday.
President Obama on Friday nominated Daniel G. Bogden, whose firing as a federal prosecutor by the Bush administration is under congressional investigation for its potentially partisan motivation, to return to his former job nearly three years after his dismissal.
Bogden’s nomination as Nevada U.S. attorney marks a step toward reversing what many Democrats consider the previous administration’s illegal firing of nine federal prosecutors in 2006…. “The president believes that Mr. Bogden has demonstrated a strong commitment to serving the people of Nevada and that he will work closely with the leadership of the Department of Justice to follow the facts and the law in the pursuit of justice,” said Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman.
A former Air Force judge advocate general and county prosecutor, Bogden served as U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada from 2001 until he was fired in December 2006.
Like all of Bush’s U.S. Attorneys, Bogden is a Republican lawyer. But James Comey once described Bogden as “straight as a Nevada highway,” and his performance records showed him to be a highly regarded U.S. Attorney by the federal judiciary. That, apparently, was a problem — Karl Rove and Bush’s Justice Department expected him to politicize his office. When the U.S. Attorney chose instead to do his job properly, he was fired.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) recommended that the White House give Bogden the job Bush unfairly took away, and yesterday, the president agreed.
Sam Stein added, “That [Bogden] would be reinstated by a Democratic administration to the position he lost is undoubtedly meant to be a message from the Obama White House that they are elevating law above politics, or at least removing partisanship from the Department of Justice.”
It’s about time.
