Princess Rachel Gets A Babysitter

Yupper.  Monica Goodling’s BFF and fellow former Gonzales employee is getting a babysitter. Check this out from the Strib late last night:

Justice official is expected to help U.S. attorney’s office

John Kelly had tried to resolve differences with three attorneys who left management posts.

By PAUL McENROE, DAN BROWNING and PAM LOUWAGIE

Star Tribune staff writers
Last update: April 06, 2007 – 9:48 PM


A Justice Department official in Washington is expected to return to Minneapolis next week to help run the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, according to an attorney with knowledge of an upheaval that led three lawyers to quit their management jobs Thursday.

The official, John Kelly, the chief of staff and a deputy director in the U.S. attorney’s executive office in Washington, may wind up being tapped to be the first assistant to U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose in Minneapolis, the attorney said Friday.

Kelly’s potential role in quelling turmoil in the 110-person office underscores the dissatisfaction among some prosecutors with the 34-year-old Paulose’s management style, which several sources described as abrasive and, at times, disrespectful.

More after the jump.

The thing to bear in mind is that the folks who quit their managerial posts weren’t just any old prosecutors. They were tasked with running the office in the US Attorney’s name, as most USAs, being political appointees, aren’t exactly expert in how the job is done. (Tom Heffelfinger, Paulose’s predecessor, is a notable exception.) It’s their job to make their bosses look good and to clean up after them and to suffer their temper tantrums if need be. Just imagine how bad Paulose must be if they can’t stomach her.

And it’s not as if the former managers are hacks. They’re not:

The attorneys who resigned managerial duties were highly regarded in the office — people responsible for ensuring cases were on track and at the same time keeping office politics and personalities from paralyzing the daily operation.

“John Marti — you have to remember that John Marti is retired from the Marines,” the second attorney said. “He was a company commander who led combat infantry and fought in the Gulf War. He is no stranger to difficulty. He has a highly developed sense of loyalty, more integrity than anyone I’ve ever met.”

And as the article shows, the managers who quit their jobs en masse are by no means the only ones to have suddenly left their positions (or refused ones) recently:

- Andy Dunne no longer runs the office’s narcotics section because he refused to falsely play up a drug bust on her orders.

- Al Durand was the office administrator for twenty-six years, ever since Ronald Reagan’s first term as president. He took early retirement this February, right before Paulose’s investiture.

- Tim Anderson, a human services officer who had agreed to serve as Durand’s replacement until the job was filled, had apparently asked on Thursday not to be considered as a candidate for Durand’s job.

Also, KSTP-TV reported the following: “Sources said Paulose’s style of management has already sent several other attorney’s out the door from an office historically viewed as one of the more stable in the country.”

Bear in mind that the Minneapolis US Attorney’s office, for all but eight of the past twenty-six years, has been controlled by Republican appointees who have hired like-minded people to fill the jobs therein, especially the top jobs. This whole scandal is not the result of Democrats being disgruntled. These people are mostly if not all Republicans, particularly in the uppermost levels of management.