So now the Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Iglesias was wrongfully terminated due to his reserve duty, Newsweek reports. It is against the law for employers to discriminate against members of the U.S. military.

....

Of course, Justice Department officials had been scheming for almost six months to install Griffin when he was finally appointed last December, so the maternity excuse was a lie. But as Pryor later pointed out, it's against the law for employers to discriminate against women on the basis of a pregnancy -- something well known at the Justice Department, of course.

It's not enough to try to turn the Justice Department into an arm of the GOP, they managed to try doing it in ways that are both stupid and discriminatory against our soldiers and mothers. Incomprehensible. Yes. Unbelievable? Sadly no, more like expected.

The US Attorney Mess: Part Deux

President Bush named Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress, where Democrats had derailed Fox's nomination.

The appointment, made while lawmakers were out of town on spring break, prompted angry rebukes from Democrats, who said Bush's action may even be illegal.
....

Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation in the Foreign Relations Committee, Bush withdrew the nomination last week. On Wednesday, with the Senate on a one-week break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.

....

Bush also used his recess appointment authority to make Andrew Biggs deputy director of Social Security. The president's earlier nomination of Biggs, an outspoken advocate of partially privatizing the government's retirement program, was rejected by Senate Democrats in February.

Fox got pulled because he was going down. Biggs had already gone down. The relevant section from the Constitution is in Article 2, Section 2 and reads:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

What King George has done here is blatantly unconstitutional. The Senate was asked to give their advice and consent on both nominations and in both cases it when it became clear their response was going to be no, the nominations were withdrawn.

The purpose of the recess appointment provision was to put people in when the senate was not there to exercise their authority, not to deliberately circumvent it. Yet again, King George has violated his oath of office. I guess to him, "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" means the piece of paper, not what it says.

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador - Yahoo! News

Among other things, the April 3 memo alleges that Shaha Riza, Wolfowitz's romantic interest was given a "promotion [that] clearly does not conform" to bank procedures. Moreover, the memo alleges, she was then given a raise "more than double the amount allowed" by the bank's rules.

....

Then last year, she received yet another raise which brought her salary to $193,000. That salary increase not only meant that Riza earned more than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but apparently made her the single highest paid State Department official.

And the pigs continue to gorge themselves at the government trough.

Murray Waas: Favoritism Shown Towards Wolfowitz's Girlfriend

Gabe Neville, Pitts' chief of staff, said Monday the conference between Assad and the three Republicans was intended to be "low profile."

"It was done in cooperation with the administration," he said.

People doing things either in concert with or contravention of whatever an occupant of the White House would like is not abnormal. Jesse Jackson went to Iraq, Leo Ryan made the mistake of going to Jonestown and became the first US Congressman assassinated, and there is a long history of this.

This particular exchange is especially odious. "Politics as usual" covers a multitude of sins, but blasting a member of the opposition party while a member of your own is doing the exact same thing is hypocrisy of the first order. That is not "politics as usual," that's bullshit and it should be called.

Lancaster Online.com: News : Pitts in Syria before Pelosi

In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle to break so publicly with him.

He said his decision to step forward had not come easily. But, he said, his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s presidency is so great that he feels a sense of duty to go public given his role in helping Mr. Bush gain and keep power.

Not even his inner circle supports him anymore.

Ex-Aide Details a Loss of Faith in the President - New York Times

I personally was ordered to change performance evaluations of several attorneys under my supervision. I was told to include critical comments about those whose recommendations ran counter to the political will of the administration and to improve evaluations of those who were politically favored.

This isn't new, no one was paying attention because Congress didn't care.

Bush's long history of tilting Justice - Los Angeles Times

The head of a California company hired by the U.S. government to help build a fence along the Southwest border to curb the flow of illegal aliens into the United States has been sentenced on charges of hiring illegals for the job.

And now from the irony department...

Fence firm hired illegals - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Jennings's 28-page presentation included 2006 election results and listed the names of Democratic candidates considered beatable and Republican lawmakers thought to need help. At a hearing Wednesday about the GSA, Waxman said the presentation and follow-up remarks allegedly made by agency chief Lurita Alexis Doan may have violated the Hatch Act, a law that restricts federal agencies and employees from using their positions for political purposes.

I expect blatantly corrupt governments (Ferdinand Marcos, Manny Noriega, etc.) to do things like this. It seems those are the standards of the Bushies.

Panel Asks Rove for Information on '08 Election Presentation - washingtonpost.com

"The decision makers in this case were the attorney general and the counsel to the president," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I and others made staff recommendations but they were approved and signed off on by the principals."

The White House response was notably muted.

"I'm going to have to let the attorney general speak for himself," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

That "FWOOMP!" sound you're hearing is Alberto Gonzales going up in flames.

Ex-Aide: Gonzales Signed Off on Firings | The Huffington Post

The onetime senator from Tennessee is known to many Americans for playing New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on "Law & Order" and an admiral in the film "The Hunt for Red October." But his real-life record as a no-nonsense lawmaker who also served as the minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee is appealing to party activists dissatisfied with the current crop of Republican hopefuls.

I'm not sure "President Fred" has quite the ring to it, but if he steps in, he's probably the instant front runner for the red team. He hasn't been in government during the Bush administration so he's not polluted by that and everyone already has seen his face. Money may be an issue, but...

If he throws in, I think he gets the nomination walking away.

A 'Law & Order' Presidential Candidate? - washingtonpost.com