They Screwed the Pooch

Posted on 06/13/2009 at 9:33 am by Bob Cesca

While I understand that the Department of Justice is tasked with defending the law (that whole “we’re a nation of laws” thing matters) until the White House and Congress change the law, this DOJ legal brief on DOMA is a pooch-screwer. Two mistakes here — mistakes that have lead to many people feeling rightfully shocked and hurt:

1) How is this wingnut Bush appointee, W. Scott Simpson, still around, and allowed to write briefs on sensitive social / civil rights issues like this?

2) Why didn’t anyone vet the brief?

In other words, the disparity between the president’s words on DOMA and the awfulness contained inside the brief are so vastly different that it leads me to believe that the content was just a colossal, unintentional error. I do believe, however, that the DOJ planned to defend the law insofar as that’s what it’s tasked with doing (until the law changes). But the language in the brief was so insulting and poorly constructed, I can’t help but to think that this was a matter of shoddy oversight rather than design.

There are many people who are owed an apology for this one.

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  • http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/ Annette

    I think this is where a lot of the problems are coming from, Bush holdovers, and they are so swamped, they are lacking in oversight. Unfortunately this is a case that really needed it.

  • http://www.intoxination.net Jamie

    Well one problem is that there are still tons of appointments to be made and confirmations to be held for top positions at DOJ. Oh and we know how the Republicans have been having so much fun playing “block the nomination”.One big example. Tom Perez has been nominated for Asst Attorney General, Civil Rights Division. He’s been nominated for over 2 months and a hearing still isn’t scheduled.

  • ElGoddamnMystico

    >>He’s been nominated for over 2 months and a hearing still isn’t scheduled.Well, they probably have to read every case, and they can only read 6 cases a day. Don’t worry, they’ll have most of the positions filled by the end of the term.

  • J

    Is W. Scott Smith one of those people W. put in a cushy position before he left?

  • http://www.intoxination.net Jamie

    >>Well, they probably have to read every case, and they can only read 6 cases a day. Don’t worry, they’ll have most of the positions filled by the end of the term.Yup – right now its about as much Obama’s DOJ as it is Bush’s. And think about the poor ones that have been confirmed. They are stuck there with all these Bush people and really can’t do anything about it since right now they need people.

  • Jan

    They need to get a handle on these monumentous blunders. The gay community is enraged-as they should be.Guess we’ll be hearing another walk back speech from Obama.I’m not sure why they can’t toss out Bush appointees in the DOJ or why it takes 6 or more months to hire a staff attorney or two. They don’t require Congressional approval do they?

  • http://tarackian.deviantart.com J M Goddamn Ashby

    Sabotage from within

  • http://arkytek.blogspot.com/ ∇•B=0  Goddamn Silly Ratfaced Git  ∇•D=ρ

    Jan -The people that would be doing hiring/firing are the appointments that the Giant Obstructionist Party are blocking.These criminal conspirators (the Rs) have no credibility on any issue. They have demonstrated that they represent corporations that rob us blind. That they are given any media time is an indication of the complicity of the MSM in the corporatist agenda.If people realized what the vicious lying scumbags like Cantor, Boehner, and the rest of the corporatist slime molds were really up to, they would be riding them out of DC tar and feather on a rail. Thieving conmen every one.

  • cd

    J asks: “Is W. Scott Smith [Simpson] one of those people W. put in a cushy position before he left?”Mr. Simpson was working in the same office at least as early as the Clinton administration.

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    Question: is it possible that Obama allowed the case to go forward in the hope it would lose?

  • J

    @cd: good grief. Is the job really that fun??Seriously, though, I think we’re going to be hearing from President Obama soon. We’re at a tipping point and the last thing he needs–with Gitmo, the wars, Iran, North Korea, health care–is to see his approval ratings start dropping.