May 10, 2007

David Lat breaks the story of an appalling Department of Justice document production screwup in the DOJ-attorney-firing scandal that was only a scandal because the DOJ failed to forthrightly say "Yes, we made political firings, because these are political positions and we wanted to make political hirings of attorneys who agreed with the executive branch's priorities, just as every president has done since the office of U.S. Attorney was established" when the story first broke.

Now the DOJ has so damaged its credibility that it gives license to the New York Times' Adam Cohen to engage in what would otherwise be ludicrous conspiracy-mongering over Deborah Yang. Gibson Dunn (earlier criticized for its perceived lack of "diversity" to the extent of losing clients) had an opportunity to hire a well-qualified "twofer" female minority as a partner and up its diversity numbers, and is now being slimed in Congressional hearings for doing just that. (Gibson Dunn refuted the story in an interview with Peter Lattman.)