Today, we pride ourselves on being part of a post-racist, post-sexist culture. And today, April 17, 2008, the SCUM-O at least can pride itself on being post-sexist. We have our first woman awarded the highest honor of cronyism: Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) at the Department of Justice, Alice S. Fisher.
Previous SCUM-O's:
4/14: Philip Cooney
4/15: Dr. Reid Lyon
4/16: Dr. William Banner, Jr.
We even have a face to put with the name.
Alice S. Fisher isn't on the SCUM-O list so much for what she's done in her crony position, though there is some shady stuff there; but more for the fact that she was nominated recess appointed to a high-profile position in the DOJ without ever having tried a criminal case:
Fisher is a Republican who in her former job was registerd as a lobbyist for HCA, the healthcare company founded by Bill Frist's father. Her appointment was also controversial due to the fact that like her boss Abu Gonzales, Fisher has no trial experience and with Comey gone there would be no senior member of the Justice Department who was an experienced criminal prosecutor. But Senatorial oversight was dispensed with and BushCo. continued on its Brownie-esque rampage to replace experience with cronyism.
Why a recess appointment? Eric Lichtblau has the skinny:
Democrats said their hesitation over Ms. Fisher's nomination was driven not by politics but by concerns over her possible role in overseeing detention policies at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. They are seeking access to an F.B.I. agent who wrote an e-mail message in May 2004 about weekly Justice Department meetings to discuss military interrogation tactics that they felt did not produce reliable intelligence.
This is what Senator Patrick Leahy had to say
Fisher "had a substantive law firm career, and she worked for two years in the Criminal Division overseeing the Department’s prosecutions in the high-profile areas of counterterrorism and corporate fraud. She [had] also been a long-time protégé of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff," Vermont Senator Patrick J. Leahy said in his May 12, 2005, statement. "I am somewhat concerned, however, that Ms. Fisher is nominated for one of the most visible prosecutorial positions in the country without ever having prosecuted a case, and she brings to the position minimal trial experience in any context," he said.
Leahy also expressed concerns about Fisher's "views on checks of controversial provisions of the Patriot Act and her opposition to the Act’s sunset provision; her participation in meetings in which the FBI expressed its disagreement with harsh interrogation methods practiced by the military toward detainees held at Guantanamo, and her ideas about appropriate safeguards for the treatment of enemy combatants." Leahy was also concerned about "reports that she has had ties to Congressman Tom DeLay’s defense team" and "also [wanted] to know what steps she [intended] to take to avoid a conflict of interest in the Department’s investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and possibly Mr. DeLay."
But everything should be just OK, right? I mean, it's not like she's "in charge" in charge, or anything. Then, kaboom!!!
WASHINGTON -- When President Bush nominated Alice Fisher to head the Justice Department's criminal division last year, some Capitol Hill lawmakers said she lacked prosecutorial experience. Soon, a number of them may get to gauge her skills firsthand.
That's because Ms. Fisher, just four months into her job, is at the helm of the widest-ranging congressional corruption investigation in more than two decades. As she probes wrongdoing by Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others, associates say the 38-year-old's grit and effectiveness may surprise her targets.
Well, grit & effectiveness, it's as much as over for Abramoff and the double-dealing Congressional slimeballs he operated alongside, right? Here's what Jane Hamsher says in Huffington Post:
Said Newsweek:
For the Hammer, the involvement of the Department of Justice is bad news -- but not as bad as it could be. The allegations are serious enough to have drawn the attention of the Feds -- whose motives can't be as easily dismissed as those of Ronnie Earle, a Texas state prosecutor and Democrat who's been tracking DeLay with Javert-like intensity. The probe is being overseen by Noel Hillman, a hard-charging career prosecutor who heads the Public Integrity Section and who has a long track record of nailing politicians of all stripes. But politics almost certainly will creep into the equation. Hillman's new boss will soon be Alice Fisher, who is widely respected but also a loyal Republican socially close to DeLay's defense team. The larger question is whether Justice -- run by Bush's buddy Alberto Gonzales -- will aggressively seek evidence that could lead to DeLay or to other Republicans in Congress. "I just don't know that they have the stomach for it," said a lawyer close to the probe.
You can say that again.
Staring down the twin barrels of the Abramoff and DeLay investigations, Bush's urgent insistence on having Fisher in there does not bode well. Imagine the shock and horror of BushCo. after James Comey testified that "I don't care about politics. I don't care about expediency. I care about doing the right thing" and it turned out the guy actually meant it. I really have a hard time imagining that they took Fisher off the hot seat, bypassed the Senate approval process and then jammed her into a critical spot without feeling some comfort that she would not, indeed, turn into another Comey.
Oh.
Well, you can't win 'em all!