At 3:13 p.m., the attorneys in the Minnesota Office of the U.S. Attorney received the following email message:
Subject: A message to my colleagues
Dear Colleagues:
I have accepted a new position in Washington, D.C. I will be serving as Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy. I am excited for a new opportunity to work on policy issues that are important to the mission of the Department.I have been honored by the opportunity to serve the United States in this capacity and to work with you, our tremendous law enforcement partners,and the people of Minnesota. I expect my last day in this Office to be towards the end of this year.
I am very grateful for the hard work of the talented AUSAs and staff in this office. Your efforts in the pursuit of justice have been outstanding, and the accomplishments of the past two years have produced a record in which you should take great pride. I wish you all the best in the future.
With Appreciation,
RKP
Rachel K. Paulose
United States Attorney, District of Minnesota
The mood in the office is described as a combination of relief and euphoria.
One member of the office’s leadership team resigned this morning (not sure whether that person might withdraw the resignation) and others were discussing a group resignation to protest the continuing problems with Paulose’s leadership.
Without comment from Paulose, I can’t say whether the timing of her announcement was an effort to head off the embarrassment of a second group of leaders resigning in protest, but as of Friday, Paulose was still fighting to save her job.
Paulose alienated most of the office staff with a leadership style that was described as insulting, an inability to listen respectfully to opinions that ran contrary to her own. Recently, she has been under investigation by two federal agencies for a series of alleged misdeeds, mostly involving the way she treated the staff but also her alleged improper handling of classified national security materials. She was also the subject of a very negative job review, based substantially on her management style.
Her own political based crumpled over recent months, as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and most of his team, including those who advocated Paulose’s appointment, left their jobs under a cloud. The cloud was caused, in large measure, by their efforts to replace U.S. attorneys whom they viewed as insufficiently loyal to the Bush administration, with new appointees, including Paulose, whom they deemed (as one of the group unfortunately described it in an email that later became public) “loyal Bushies.”
The replacement of Gonzales by Attorney Gen. Michael Mukasey led to a new round of speculation that she would be asked to resign, but she had vowed to stay. In recent months, in hopes of keeping her job and reducing conflict in the office, Paulose had largely avoided contact with much of the staff and spent many days out of the office.
Last week, Paulose and some of her allies mounted a new defense of her, attempting to portray her as a victim of racism, sexism, ageism, bias against her conservative ideology and her religious faith, and as a victim of unnamed elements within the Justice Department that didn’t like the fact that she was aggressively prosecuting human trafficking.
If, in fact, the final straw leading to her resignation was the prospect of more resignations, she may have caused it herself with those statements. Much of the staff was offended by the blanket and unsubstantiated assignment of biased motives to her critics, and by the fact that she made public statements against her accusers while the accusers did not. The discussion, over the weekend and during the day today of a mass resignation of the supervisors may have been motivated somewhat by her comments last week.
Since Paulose is remaining in a federal government job, at least one of the investigations may continue to haunt her. The Office of Special Counsel, which is investigating several prohibited personnel practices that Paulose allegedly committed, will continue its investigation and if the special counsel makes an adverse finding, the consequences could follow her to her new Washington job.
Good Lord, right off of one fast track and on to another. Now she can do some real damage. I feel a lot better now that I know that someone as competent as Ms. Paulose will be deciding what is and is not legal for the President.
[…] that’s another two down. Okay, maybe Rachel Paulose doesn’t count because they’re just reshuffling her to main Justice (yippee…), but […]
Well, looks like several commenters on the “seven victim cards” thread hit the nail on the head—Bravo.
Looks like another instance of “failing upward”—the Bushco modus operendi.
[…] Eric Black has the scoop: Rachel Paulose has resigned as Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney. […]
AP has a story
Actually, one of the few rational personnel decisions that the Bushies have made.
Sounds like she’s been moved into a position that is basically nonmanagerial, and more suited to her (real) abilities.
Be interesting to know the salaries of the two positions, but I doubt that the new one is a good career move if she intended to stay in public service.
I suspect that when Bush moves out she’ll be hired by one of his corporate friends.
Reliphoria? Eulief?
Sounds like they tossed her back into the puddle they found her in:
from the Strib:
I wouldn’t call it a promotion.
The sad part of this era (and it has affected nearly all federal agencies) is that it has left a permanent void in civil service. As a result of individuals like Paulose, the best and brightest have already departed. Many professionals chose government because they wanted to make a difference to America. They could have made more money in the private sector from the start. What will be left on Uncle Sam’s payroll now will be individuals with less pride and less ambition. I only hope that for this office those who have announced their resignation are allowed to reconsider.
Her email message: Three paragraphs, each beginning with I. Eight sentences, seven beginning with I. Says pretty much all you need to know about Rachel.
Destroying and laming the federal bureaucracy and civil service so that “lib’rul” laws and no longer function or cannot be enforced was a very important goal of Bushist conservatism, and that goal has been accomplished over the past 8 years. The only government service we “invest” in now is offense-focused militarism.
This damage is now irreversible. Heckuva job, Brownie!
I rather imaging that the people in the Minneapolis US Attorney’s office were dancing in the aisles and singing, “Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead.”
That is what they did when Fiorina left HP.
Now maybe there will be some action on indicting former United Healthcare CEO William McGuire over the backdating of stock options and stealing millions from the shareholders. Let’s hope that his Republican connections will not save him from serving prison time. I am so happy that under new healthplans offered by my employer that I will no longer have my health care claims processed by this crooked corporation. The last two years have been a nightmare being covered by this people and their constant denial of claims, out of network costs. Happy 2008, good riddance!
[…] here, Paulose alienated most of the office staff with a leadership style that was described as […]
Maybe now, with a high-level position in DC, Ms. Paulose can get to the bottom of the pro sex slave cabal that took her down here in Minnesota.
I was disappointed that the local papers and MPR didn’t reveal more about her new position. The Office of Legal Policy, according to Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe, is quite powerful, essentially setting out how laws are to be interpretted for the Executive Branch. This is especially important where there is little chance of judicial intervention. Remember John Yoo and the infamous torture memos? He was an aide to the former OLP chief when those were written. I take little comfort from her move.
It has taken me too long to realize this, but, much to my embarrassment, I made a mistake in my 11/20 post, one which was central to the point I was trying to make. I confused the Office of Legal Counsel (Yoo’s former employer) with the Office of Legal Policy (where Paulose is going to work). My apologies to all readers who may have been misled.