Since when does "the adults are now in charge" mean passing the buck?

One of the traits of effective managers is to hire good people, communicate their responsibilities, trust them to do their work, and leave them alone, then check in periodically on their progress. But when push comes to shove, and the department's performance is evaluated by the higher-ups, it's the manager who is accountable.

Not in the Bush administration, however, where responsibility and accountability, not just tasks, are delegated downward. We know that George Bush wants to remove himself from accountability for the Iraq war by hiring a "war czar" -- a position no one, understandably, seems to want. But it seems that Alberto Gonzales has run the Justice Department in the same way.

Murray Waas:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed a highly confidential order in March 2006 delegating to two of his top aides -- who have since resigned because of their central roles in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys -- extraordinary authority over the hiring and firing of most non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department. A copy of the order and other Justice Department records related to the conception and implementation of the order were provided to National Journal.

In the order, Gonzales delegated to his then-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, and his White House liaison "the authority, with the approval of the Attorney General, to take final action in matters pertaining to the appointment, employment, pay, separation, and general administration" of virtually all non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department, including all of the department's political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation. Monica Goodling became White House liaison in April 2006, the month after Gonzales signed the order.

The existence of the order suggests that a broad effort was under way by the White House to place politically and ideologically loyal appointees throughout the Justice Department, not just at the U.S.-attorney level. Department records show that the personnel authority was delegated to the two aides at about the same time they were working with the White House in planning the firings of a dozen U.S. attorneys, eight of whom were, in fact, later dismissed.

A senior executive branch official familiar with the delegation of authority said in an interview that -- as was the case with the firings of the U.S. attorneys and the selection of their replacements -- the two aides intended to work closely with White House political aides and the White House counsel's office in deciding which senior Justice Department officials to dismiss and whom to appoint to their posts. "It was an attempt to make the department more responsive to the political side of the White House and to do it in such a way that people would not know it was going on," the official said.

Instead of being an effective management technique, delegation in the Bush Administration and its associated agencies is all about covering the ass of upper management. One wonders, then, why Gonzales' underlings were so willing to be a part of this scheme designed so obviously to give cover to the Attorney General. And also why so many people in this Administration have been willing, time and time again, to play the fall guy for this bunch. (Arianna has more on why those who know they're just being set up to be fall guys don't just resign.)

(h/t: Cernig)