Monica Goodling's Dirty Words

Just how politicized is federal hiring? Behold the Bush Justice Department's Nexis string of red flags.

outfront-search-and-destroy-312x162.jpg

Just how much has the Bush administration politicized federal hiring? Behold the LexisNexis search string used by Monica Goodling at the Justice Department to screen applicants, as exposed in a July report from the department's inspector general. (In the database, "w/7" searches keywords that are within seven or fewer words from the search term; "pre/2" searches the two preceding words; an exclamation point finds word variations, so a search for "accus!" would turn up hits for "accuse" or "accusation.")

Advertise on MotherJones.com

Daniel Schulman

Senior Editor

Daniel Schulman is Mother Jones' Washington-based senior editor. For more of his stories, click here. To follow him on Twitter, click here. Email him at dschulman (at) motherjones.com. RSS |

Get Mother Jones by Email - Free. Like what you're reading? Get the best of MoJo three times a week.