From Dan Drezner via Kevin Drum, here is the Nexis search used by the Justice Department's Monica Goodling to vet potential Bush administration appointees (see page 20-21 of the DOJ report [PDF]):
[first name of a candidate] and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!
It's the fever swamp of the conservative mind. Who knew that people's past statements about racism, outsourcing, the Florida recount, or (my personal favorite) the spotted owl had anything to do with prosecuting terrorism cases for the Justice Department?
(By the way, the search string would make a great geek t-shirt.)
Update 8/1 10:06 AM: In a comment below, Drezner alerts us that someone has already made a CafePress store with the search string on t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, etc.:
I'm with Brendan on this. Clearly what any Administration ought to do is hire people with no awareness of whether there have been published articles reporting unsavory facts or intemperate remarks by them. Then the Administration's critics can run a Nexis check and not only attack the appointee but also attack the Administration for failing to vet its people.
I'm sure that's the way the Obama Administration will handle hiring, and I'm personally looking forward to discovering that its new hires for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, for example, have previously gone on record as saying that spotted owls are expendable and global warming is a crock. Fun times!
Posted by: Rob | July 31, 2008 at 07:33 PM
See, Rob, your response would have more credibility if we didn't already know that the Justice Department and Goodling in particular were specifically weeding out people for being Democrats, or liberals, or civil libertarians, or environmentalists, or rumored to be gay. These aren't considered unsavory facts by at least half of the country and certainly shouldn't be a criteria for vetting future prosecutors.
Posted by: Jinchi | July 31, 2008 at 07:59 PM
Your wish has been granted by someone already: http://www.cafepress.com/casedismissed
Posted by: Dan Drezner | August 01, 2008 at 08:35 AM