skippy the bush kangaroo: where' serena southerlyn when you need her?

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

where' serena southerlyn when you need her?

apparently in anticipation of a fred thompson presidency, the united states attorneys office fired a woman presumably for being a lesbian. npr:

the justice department's inspector general is investigating whether a career attorney in the department was dismissed from her job because of rumors that she is a lesbian. the case grew out of a larger inquiry into the firings of u.s. attorneys and politicization at justice under former attorney general alberto gonzales.

several people interviewed by the inspector general's staff described the case to npr and said they came away with the impression that the attorney general's office decided not to renew leslie hagen's contract because of the talk about her sexual orientation. hagen received the highest possible ratings for her work as liaison between the justice department and the u.s. attorneys' committee on native american issues. her final job evaluation lists five categories for supervisors to rank her performance. for each category, a neat x fills the box marked, "outstanding." and at the bottom of the page, under "overall rating level," she also got the top mark: outstanding.

the form is dated february 1, 2007. several months before that evaluation, hagen was told her contract would not be renewed.

anyone who worked with ms. hagen had nothing but praise for her. except, apparently, monica "law school for a quarter" goodling:

justice department e-mails obtained by npr show that [alberto] gonzales's senior counsel monica goodling had a particular interest in hagen's duties. a few months before hagen was let go, according to one e-mail, goodling removed part of hagen's job portfolio — the part dealing with child exploitation and abuse…

"i crossed the line of the civil service rules," goodling told rep. bobby scott (d-va) at a congressional hearing in may 2007.

goodling's conversation with scott focused on whether republican party loyalty factored into her hiring decisions. but by all accounts, hagen was a gop loyalist…

the justice department's inspector general is looking into whether hagen was dismissed after a rumor reached goodling that hagen is a lesbian.

as one republican source put it, "to some people, that's even worse than being a democrat."

just probably more fun.

addendum: the carpetbagger report muses further.

Labels: attorneygate, feminism, gonzales, judicial, womens issues

posted by skippy at 6:20 PM |

2 Comments:

Just out of interest, what percentage on the Butch Dyke-o-meter do you think she hits?

My guess is about 20%-30% but I'd be interested in more ducated guesses.

ADG

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