By DAVID MARTIN
Please speak your political lines into the microphone, Brad.
Reason No. 17,438 why people should be judged by what they do and not what they say: political hack and possible perjurer Bradley Schlozman complained about the "partisan and shrill" atmosphere in Washington when he became the U.S. attorney for western Missouri in 2006.
In an apparent attempt to show that he was beyond politics, Schlozman suggested in an interview with The Kansas City Star that umpiring baseball games during law school steeled him for life in the nation's capital. "I've been called things that would make a sailor blush," Schlozman told reporter Mark Morris.
But Schlozman, we now know, was more Karl Rove than pre-burn-unit Harvey Dent.
As U.S. attorney, Schlozman brought dubiously timed election-fraud charges against individuals working for the liberal advocacy group Acorn. Reports later surfaced that, as acting head of the civil-rights division in the Department of Justice, Schlozman hired and promoted an inordinate number of lawyers with conservative credentials, such as membership in the Federalist Society.
A Department of Justice investigation released Monday showed that Schlozman continued to favor Republicans when he arrived in Kansas City. The report described instances in which Schlozman vouched for the conservative bona fides of applicants for an assistant prosecutor's job. In one instance, he said a candidate was "hard core (in the most positive sense)."
The investigation concluded that aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez violated internal procedures and federal civil-service law by using politics to guide hiring decisions. A grand jury is reportedly exploring Schlozman's testimony before the Senate for possible perjury.
Schlozman now works in private practice in Wichita, far away from the shrillness in Washington.
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