Anatomy Of A Scandal

The Wall Street Journal editorial board weighs in on the Rachel Paulose "Scandalette" (sub req):

Most of the criticism against Ms. Paulose amounted to the accusation that she can be a difficult boss. If that's a hanging offense, most of Congress would be out of a job. It's also alleged that Ms. Paulose "mishandled" classified documents, and that she called a black woman in her office "fat and lazy." Yet the employee who was supposedly insulted never filed an adverse report against her boss, and Ms. Paulose has said she self-reported the documents incident to the Justice Department. Meanwhile, the accuser who claimed to have been "demoted" in retaliation for making the charges was one of the three who had publicly resigned in protest.

In sum, Ms. Paulose seems to have been an innocent political bystander who got drawn into a classic Beltway bloodletting. Congress wanted to take some public hostages, the media played up the fight, the career staff took the chance to trash a political appointee they don't like, and a scandalette was born.

It would be a scandal of its own if Ms. Paulose lost her job in these circumstances, and her transfer allows her to stay at Justice if she wants to. The Office of Legal Policy advises the Attorney General on a variety of public policy matters, and Mr. Mukasey will presumably have a chance to judge Ms. Paulose's capacities for himself. As for replacing Ms. Paulose in Minnesota, the AG ought to send that office someone who'll take no grief and clean out the whiners.