Friday, November 23, 2007

What Happened in the Minny US Attorney Office?

...Minnesota Lawyer Blog has the first truly balanced take I've seen. As crazy as the whole scenario was, it's worth remembering that Rachel Paulose was NOT Monica Goodling, who went to the Pat Robertson School of Law. Paulose had an outstanding academic record in both undergrad and law school, as well as an outstanding, if brief, pedigree in terms of her career. But right-wing conservatives are living in denial when they argue that she was unfairly victimized in the cross-fire over the DOJ firing scandal. Fact is that calling her tenure as US Attorney "stormy" would be a gross understatement.

Instead, Minnesota Lawyer Blog attributes Paulose's controversial reign to something completely devoid of politics: the poorly developed management skills of a still-young attorney. Money quote:

She was only 32 when she was thrust into a management situation that most 50 year olds couldn’t handle. She was given little or no good support from an incredibly dysfunctional DOJ. She struggled mightily, but was unable to pull it off in the end. No shame in that.


Balanced inquiries like this are all-too-rare these days, and Minny Lawyer Blog should be applauded for actually trying to get the story right rather than score political points.

(HT: Orin Kerr at Volokh).