God's Law School

Marion Robertson's Regent University is finally coming under long-overdue scrutiny, thanks to the chicanery of White House liaison Monica "Fifth Amendment" Goodling. Turns out that the federal system is being (for lack of a better word) infested by Marion's student minions.

But even in its darker days, Regent has had no better friend than the Bush administration. Graduates of the law school have been among the most influential of the more than 150 Regent University alumni hired to federal government positions since President Bush took office in 2001, according to a university website.

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Documents show that Goodling, who has asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress, was one of a handful of officials overseeing the firings. She helped install Timothy Griffin, the Karl Rove aide and her former boss at the Republican National Committee, as a replacement US attorney in Arkansas.

So, 150 federal positions now occupied by a hitherto little-known and highly polarizing school. And of course, this is no accident.

Not long ago, it was rare for Regent graduates to join the federal government. But in 2001, the Bush administration picked the dean of Regent's government school, Kay Coles James, to be the director of the Office of Personnel Management -- essentially the head of human resources for the executive branch. The doors of opportunity for government jobs were thrown open to Regent alumni.

"We've had great placement," said Jay Sekulow , who heads a non profit law firm based at Regent that files lawsuits aimed at lowering barriers between church and state. "We've had a lot of people in key positions."

Many of those who have Regent law degrees, including Goodling, joined the Department of Justice. Their path to employment was further eased in late 2002, when John Ashcroft , then attorney general, changed longstanding rules for hiring lawyers to fill vacancies in the career ranks.

Previously, veteran civil servants screened applicants and recommended whom to hire, usually picking top students from elite schools.

In a recent Regent law school newsletter, a 2004 graduate described being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in October 2003. Asked to name the Supreme Court decision from the past 20 years with which he most disagreed, he cited Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling striking down a law against sodomy because it violated gay people's civil rights.

"When one of the interviewers agreed and said that decision in Lawrence was 'maddening,' I knew I correctly answered the question," wrote the Regent graduate . The administration hired him for the Civil Rights Division's housing section -- the only employment offer he received after graduation, he said.

The graduate from Regent -- which is ranked a "tier four" school by US News & World Report, the lowest score and essentially a tie for 136th place -- was not the only lawyer with modest credentials to be hired by the Civil Rights Division after the administration imposed greater political control over career hiring.

Now, why exactly would the federal government be making a concerted effort to clog its own systems with graduates from a thoroughly mediocre place? The article does say that Regent has dumped money and effort into improving its standing and becoming more competitive, but Goodling and her lot were plucked from fourth-tier status, and given very high-powered positions. Remember, Goodling's job was to facilitate communications between the DoJ and the White House. There's only a few reasons, none of them good, why she would take the fifth on a supposedly contrived case.

What's really surprising is that Gonzales has not been thrown under the bus already, and I can only assume that this is deliberate on the part of the Democrats. After all, an emasculated Gonzales serves as a completely disempowered totem, both symbolic of the incompetence and corruption of the entire administration, and contained in an operational box of his own making. It might just be better to let him twist in the wind for a while, effectively closing Bush off in this area, and keep hammering them on other fronts.

And while it's nice to think that some evangelicals are supposedly softening their focus, away from the fire-and-brimstone Old Testament efforts to control people's thoughts and actions, the fact is that a lot of the goofier ones have already entrenched themselves in various areas of the government. The Rachel Paulose story is a good example of this.

Three of Paulose's ranking assistants surrendered their management posts Thursday to become rank-and-file prosecutors, expressing frustration with her dictatorial management style and priorities, according to sources familiar with the situation.

....the shakeup drew attention from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is investigating whether the removal of eight U.S. attorneys under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was politically motivated. Some senators have questioned the qualifications of the federal prosecutors appointed by the Bush administration.

Bush appointed Paulose acting U.S. attorney in February 2006. She replaced Tom Heffelfinger, who resigned his post and was not one of the eight U. S. Attorneys fired by the Justice Department.

Paulose has been swept up in the controversy. She was among a new batch of top federal prosecutors with strong ties to the Republican Party and officials close to President Bush.

Paulose, 34, is the youngest sitting U.S. attorney. She served as a special assistant to Gonzales and senior counsel to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who has testified before the judiciary committee about the firings. She also has been a Republican Party contributor and volunteer. Her resume indicates membership in the Federalist Society, a conservative legal affairs group.

It's all just coincidence. It always is.