Well, it seems the old line from Scooby Do "we would have gotten away with it, too, if it ween't for you darned kids" has been turned upside down by the Bush League. The emerging excuse now seems to be: "We wouldn't have done it, except for those darned low-level partisan aides."
The problem with hiring from a pool of College Republicans seems to be that they rise to the top by valuing partisanship over ideas. Put them in charge of Iraq, or the DOJ, and the things which brought them success in college lead to inevitable disaster. Consider this nugget from TPM:
...Here we finally appear to have a bad act that Goodling believes or at least claims may expose her to criminal prosecution -- lying to Congress by proxy by intentionally misinforming an official about to testify before Congress.
(Source: Talking Points Memo, March 26, 2007
This seems to be the emerging defense - the "rogue aide" defense, aka "I'm an incredibly bad manager, not a criminal." Gee, I'm glad the grown-ups are in charge - or not.