Justice Dept. Scandal

    Look at the pattern.

    The administration used fear about nonexistent WMDs as a means to justify the ends of invading Iraq. It outed a CIA operative to punish critics, eliminated civil rights under the misnamed Patriot Act to expand executive authority, crafted energy policy with energy companies to benefit the energy industry, and allowed the subprime mortgage mess to perpetuate to generate obscene wealth for a few.

    And now there are official findings of fact about the politically charged dismissals of U.S. attorneys conducted to satisfy a White House agenda. Scandal-weary Americans may be inclined to dismiss yet another administration disgrace, but what happened at the Justice Department is too big a deal to ignore.

    We're supposed to be a country that requires ìequal justice under the law,î not tainted justice under political consideration. But that's what we had under shameless administration zealots like Mr. Rove and Mr. Gonzalez.

    The former administration officials allowed the most invaluable assets of the Justice Department - its integrity and independence - to be jeopardized for political ends. They permitted wholesale politicization of the department, as one commentary put it, ìby subjecting new hires and sitting U.S. attorneys to rigid ideological litmus tests.î

    Even though new Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed a federal prosecutor to investigate whether criminal laws were violated all the way to the Oval Office, the administration may luck out again. As time runs out on its lamentable tenure, the injustice it perpetrated on a once-venerated institution may go unpunished.

    But before the next administration takes over, Americans need firm assurance that the rule of law will be applied fairly by the Justice Department. Never again can there be partisan allegiance required of incoming professionals, or political criteria that outweigh the legal and ethical.

    The impartial administration of justice in this nation, its very credibility, was nearly destroyed by the tyrannical ambitions of a few.

    How's that for big news almost buried?