WASHINGTON — Not long after President Bush was first sworn in, White House political guru Karl Rove and his lieutenants met with officials of nearly every Cabinet agency to brief top officials on the latest polling data and issues that could influence voters and key constituencies.
But the departments of Justice, Defense and State were exempt. Given their missions -- to administer federal laws, protect national security and conduct foreign policy -- it was considered inappropriate to make such partisan presentations to them.
Nonetheless, suspicions that the White House's partisan political priorities may have made their way into Justice Department decision-making have grown in recent weeks.
Not only have two of eight recently fired U.S. attorneys complained that in specific cases they felt pressure to make decisions that would advance Republican political interests, but last week several former career officials in the Justice Department said they had felt similar pressures on voting rights cases.
"The political decision-making process that led to the dismissal of eight United States attorneys was standard practice in the Civil Rights Division years before these revelations," Joseph D. Rich, recently retired head of the division's voting rights section, said in a sparsely attended House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing last week.
"This connection should not be minimized," he said.
All administrations set law enforcement priorities in the Justice Department. The Clinton administration emphasized white-collar crime and drugs, and Bush has pushed for action on terrorism, border control and voter fraud. Pressuring political appointees and career workers to follow those priorities is considered appropriate.
But injecting partisan considerations into individual cases is another matter.
Some Civil Rights Division veterans -- mostly Democrats -- have been expressing concern for months. But last week more officials spoke out about what they described as a pattern of partisan decision-making on individual cases.
They said their superiors, who were political appointees, repeatedly bottled up cases that might harm the electoral position of Republicans while encouraging the staff to pursue matters that might damage Democrats' prospects.
Department spokesman Erik Ablin said the allegations were recycled and wrong.
"These are not new allegations. If you look at the actual records of these cases in the courts, it can't be squared with what they are saying."
