Justice Department

Does anyone in the Justice Department of the United States of America actually know anything?

I'm just asking because there would appear to be no one who can recall anything that has ever been done, even in their areas of expertise. It just seems that it would be a good idea if the people in the Justice Department had some idea, and recollection, about what they did. The administration of justice might better be served that way.

The other amazing thing about this Justice Department is what it has resource for and what it does not. For example

Things got testy when Leahy questioned Schlozman on his indictment of four voter registration workers one week before the November 2006 elections, despite a department policy that discourages politically sensitive indictments close to an election.

Schlozman testified that he brought the indictments against the employees of ACORN, a liberal community activist group that registers poor people and minorities to vote, "at the direction of the Public Integrity Section," the Justice Department unit that oversees voter-fraud prosecutions.

So in spite of a department policy against bringing indictments close to an election, they were able to find the time and resources to bring an indictment against the liberal ACORN organization.

On the other hand

Schlozman also testified that his office was too overwhelmed in the fall of 2004 to fully investigate a complaint from a U.S. attorney that Native Americans were facing voter discrimination because of a decision by Minnesota's Republican secretary of state.

Rather than giving the chief of the Voting Rights Section full authority to investigate the complaint, Schlozman limited him to contacting the office of Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer.

"Anytime we're doing anything in a pre-election situation ... we want to make sure we don't go off half-cocked," Schlozman said.

They were just too overwhelmed to fully investigate Native Americans were facing voter discrimination. Amazing how that works out, huh?