Scrambling for the lifeboats
By A friend of mine was telling me today that the US Attorney’s office in Denver has just hired several fairly high-ranking Department of Justice lawyers as Assistant US Attorneys. What’s notable about this is that it’s very strange for high-ranking DOJ types to take AUSA positions out here in flyover country, instead of getting some white-shoe law firm gig or something along those lines. An AUSA job is a nice catch for a fresh-faced recent law grad, but for somebody who has been a muckety-muck in the DOJ it’s a big step down.
The reason is simple: under the Bush administration, a lot of high-ranking DOJ positions went to people with, shall we say, dubious resumes but excellent ideological credentials. Now they can’t get good private sector jobs, so they’re getting the best jobs they can find in the government, using those ideological connections while the getting is good.
Of course in a world where the former Attorney General of the USA can’t find a job, it’s not surprising that a lot of his underlings can’t either.
Kind of ironic dontcha think? I always thought it was the latte-sipping libruls who couldn’t get jobs in the “real world.” Or at least that’s what my email inbox indicates.
Update: To be clear, these are people high up enough that their jobs are political appointments, i.e., they’ll be replaced by a Democratic administration.