Hiatt: Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson in a Vacuum

This morning, Fred Hiatt, from his editorial perch, delivers a blistering denunciation of Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson and their hiring practices at Justice, which involved asking applicants for nonpolitical Civil Service positions such questions as "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?"

That's good, right?

It might be, except that in Hiatt's world, Goodling, Sampson, and their screening techniques apparently lived in a bell jar, disconnected from the rest of the world.

First of all, Hiatt never raises the question of whether then-A.G. Alberto Gonzales, or anyone in the White House, knew anything about how Goodling and Sampson were filling vacancies. This is rather odd, since Sampson was Gonzo's chief of staff, and Goodling was DoJ's White House liaison.

Nor does he connect the dots to the U.S. Attorney firing scandal, which these two young idiots were up to their armpits in as well. Last year, Hiatt was only mildly suspicious that there might be anything political to the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys. Now it's pretty clear that hiring of career attorneys was extremely politicized, by two of the principals in the attorney firings.

One would think that the moment had finally come when Hiatt would demand that Congress dig into the politicization of DoJ as a whole, follow every lead wherever it goes, tell Bush that there are situations where Executive Privilege should be abandoned, and tell Congress to use all of its authority and not take 'no' for an answer. Better late than never, right?

Nah. Hiatt says some contradictions between the Inspector General's report and Goodling's 2007 testimony "should be investigated."

That's all, folks.

Gawd, what a lamer.