Beaumont Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/14/m...ion-of-the-doj/ This was absolutely outstanding ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/14/m...ion-of-the-doj/ This was absolutely outstanding ... I love that guy, he's funny and he hits the nail on the head every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 that is hilarious and actually right on the money. still never met anyone from regent though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spain Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 150 DOJ Lawyers from Regent? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furd Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 150 DOJ Lawyers from Regent? I think the statistic is that the Bush administration has hired 150 graduates of the law school. I doubt that they are all employed by the DOJ. Hell, I doubt that any of them are practicing lawyers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beaumont Posted April 16, 2007 Author Share Posted April 16, 2007 Furd is right. Here is a good article ... Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school Grads influential in Justice Dept. By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | April 8, 2007 VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to preserve their Christian values. "Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law student warned. Regent University School of Law, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson to provide "Christian leadership to change the world," has worked hard in its two-decade history to upgrade its reputation, fighting past years when a majority of its graduates couldn't pass the bar exam and leading up to recent victories over Ivy League teams in national law student competitions. 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. One of those graduates is Monica Goodling , the former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who is at the center of the storm over the firing of US attorneys. Goodling, who resigned on Friday, has become the face of Regent overnight -- and drawn a harsh spotlight to the administration's hiring of officials educated at smaller, conservative schools with sometimes marginal academic reputations. 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. Because Goodling graduated from Regent in 1999 and has scant prosecutorial experience, her qualifications to evaluate the performance of US attorneys have come under fire. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, asked at a hearing: "Should we be concerned with the experience level of the people who are making these highly significant decisions?" And across the political blogosphere, critics have held up Goodling, who declined to be interviewed, as a prime example of the Bush administration subordinating ability to politics in hiring decisions. "It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were generally reserved for the best of the legal profession," wrote a contributor to The New Republic website . ". . . That a recent graduate of one of the very worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually no relevant experience could ascend to this position is a sure sign that there is something seriously wrong at the DOJ." The Regent law school was founded in 1986, when Oral Roberts University shut down its ailing law school and sent its library to Robertson's Bible-based college in Virginia. It was initially called "CBN University School of Law" after the televangelist's Christian Broadcasting Network, whose studios share the campus and which provided much of the funding for the law school. (The Coors Foundation is also a donor to the university.) The American Bar Association accredited Regent 's law school in 1996. 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. The changes resulted in a sometimes dramatic alteration to the profile of new hires beginning in 2003, as the Globe reported last year after obtaining resumes from 2001-2006 to three sections in the civil rights division. Conservative credentials rose, while prior experience in civil rights law and the average ranking of the law school attended by the applicant dropped. As the dean of a lower-ranked law school that benefited from the Bush administration's hiring practices, Jeffrey Brauch of Regent made no apologies in a recent interview for training students to understand what the law is today, and also to understand how legal rules should be changed to better reflect "eternal principles of justice," from divorce laws to abortion rights. "We anticipate that many of our graduates are going to go and be change agents in society," Brauch said. Still, Brauch said, the recent criticism of the law school triggered by Goodling's involvement in the US attorney firings has missed the mark in one respect: the quality of the lawyers now being turned out by the school, he argued, is far better than its image. Seven years ago, 60 percent of the class of 1999 -- Goodling's class -- failed the bar exam on the first attempt. (Goodling's performance was not available, though she is admitted to the bar in Virginia.) The dismal numbers prompted the school to overhaul its curriculum and tighten admissions standards. It has also spent more heavily to recruit better-qualified law students. This year, it will spend $2.8 million on scholarships, a million more than what it was spending four years ago. The makeover is working. The bar exam passage rate of Regent alumni , according to the Princeton Review, rose to 67 percent last year. Brauch said it is now up to 71 percent, and that half of the students admitted in the late 1990s would not be accepted today. The school has also recently won moot-court and negotiation competitions, beating out teams from top-ranked law schools. Adding to Regent's prominence, its course on "Human Rights, Civil Liberties, and National Security" is co taught by one of its newest professors: Ashcroft. Even a prominent critic of the school's mission of integrating the Bible with public policy vouches for Regent's improvements. Barry Lynn , the head of the liberal Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said Regent is churning out an increasingly well-trained legal army for the conservative Christian movement. "You can't underestimate the quality of a lot of the people that are there," said Lynn, who has guest-lectured at Regent and debated professors on its campus. In light of Regent's rapid evolution, some current law students say it is frustrating to be judged in light of Regent alumni from the school's more troubled era -- including Goodling. One third-year student, Chamie Riley , said she rejected the idea that any government official who invokes her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination could be a good representative of Regent. As Christians, she said, Regent students know "you should be morally upright. You should not be in a situation where you have to plead the Fifth." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spain Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Why do yall hate Skins' alma mater? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skins Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Why do yall hate Skins' alma mater? Please. The Jesuits molded my fragile little mind into the vicious legal machine it is today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 I think the statistic is that the Bush administration has hired 150 graduates of the law school. I doubt that they are all employed by the DOJ. Hell, I doubt that any of them are practicing lawyers. Furd is right. Here is a good article ... 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. actually, if i'm reading that correctly, furd is NOT right. 150 is the total number of all graduates (not just from the law school), who got jobs at any level in any federal agency over the past 7 years. considering there are 2 million federal employees, that number is not quite so remarkable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 actually, if i'm reading that correctly, furd is NOT right. 150 is the total number of all graduates (not just from the law school), who got jobs at any level in any federal agency over the past 7 years. considering there are 2 million federal employees, that number is not quite so remarkable. It is when you think about how many federal employees are not grads at all. BTW, do the armed forces count as federal employees? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiley Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Please. The Jesuits molded my fragile little mind into the vicious legal machine it is today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furd Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 actually, if i'm reading that correctly, furd is NOT right. 150 is the total number of all graduates (not just from the law school), who got jobs at any level in any federal agency over the past 7 years. Noted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 It is when you think about how many federal employees are not grads at all. how do you figure? 150 people working at any level of the federal government? there have no doubt been in the hundreds of thousands of college grads hired into the civil service since bush took office. i'm sorry, 150 is NOT a hugh number any way you slice it (unless you lie and say it's 150 DOJ lawyers, or 150 graduates of the law school). i'm sure it's more than got hired under kliton, given that the former president of the school is now head of OPM. but, as usual, this is a mountail out of a molehill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 I love that guy, he's funny and he hits the nail on the head every time. Let's see, you like something from Bill Mahre....shocking. Pretty much explains all you need to know about you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Let's see, you like something from Bill Mahre....shocking. Pretty much explains all you need to know about you. Geez Zeke...did you lose another alias? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Geez Zeke...did you lose another alias? Nope...just on a different pc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Let's see, you like something from Bill Mahre....shocking. No, I like Bill Maher. Is this Mahre guy funny too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yo mama Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 No, I like Bill Maher. Is this Mahre guy funny too? Isn't he a back up running back for the Eagles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furd Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 No, I like Bill Maher. Is this Mahre guy funny too? Isn't he a back up running back for the Eagles? Actually, I think that he and his brother were Olympic skiers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beaumont Posted April 16, 2007 Author Share Posted April 16, 2007 how do you figure? 150 people working at any level of the federal government? there have no doubt been in the hundreds of thousands of college grads hired into the civil service since bush took office. i'm sorry, 150 is NOT a hugh number any way you slice it (unless you lie and say it's 150 DOJ lawyers, or 150 graduates of the law school). i'm sure it's more than got hired under kliton, given that the former president of the school is now head of OPM. but, as usual, this is a mountail out of a molehill. I think 150 is probably remarkable when considering the size of Regent. However, the real story is that the DOJ is (at least partially) "run" by a 7 year lawyer from a tier 4 law school with little practical experience ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildcat2334 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 I think 150 is probably remarkable when considering the size of Regent. However, the real story is that the DOJ is (at least partially) "run" by a 7 year lawyer from a tier 4 law school with little practical experience ... Exactly- while all 150 may not be Law School grads- for a small, "tier 4" school- that number is staggering to me. This chick was the #3 ranking Attorney in the DOJ? ridiculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 No, I like Bill Maher. Is this Mahre guy funny too? I generally don't pay attention regarding the spelling of the names of America hating idiots. Got that Urso Clitoris? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 I generally don't pay attention regarding the spelling of the names of America hating idiots. Got that Urso Clitoris? This user name of yours.....Hank Williams Jrs' nickname.. You know how he got that name, right? a name given to him by his father because he thought his son as a baby resembled a TV ventriloquist dummy named Bocephus How apt it is for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 I'm not a huge Maher fan, but I actually saw this rant on TV. Fantastically witty, and spot-on with a number of observations. My favorite line: By now you've heard the constant right-wing attacks on the "elite," or as it's otherwise known, "hating." They've had it up to their red necks with the "elite media." The "liberal elite." Who may or may not be part of the "Washington elite." A subset of the "East Coast elite." Which is influenced by "the Hollywood elite." So basically, unless you're a Sega!kicker from Kansas, you're with the terrorists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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