Scandal Spotlights Regent University Law School

By: Lowell
Published On: 5/17/2007 11:30:00 AM

Listen here to yesterday's Fresh Air segment by "Pulitizer Prize-winning journalist Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe" on "a Christian law school, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, whose graduates have become influential in the Justice Department."

For instance:

Terry Gross: "...How does Regent connect to the larger story of changes in the Justice Department and the firing and replacing of U.S. Attorneys?"
Charlie Savage: "Regent University School of Law connects to the U.S. attorney firings and replacement affair in two ways.  The first way is through the person of Monica Goodling, the former Justice Department liaison to the White House, who played a central role in helping evaluate which U.S. attorneys ought to be fired and who they ought to be replaced with, and who was in regular communication with the White House, notably the office of Karl Rove during this process.  She later resigned."

"The second way in which Regent University connects to the scandal is in its unusual success in placing graduates, both of the law school and of the larger university, in government jobs of influence.  Under the Bush Administration, this university as a whole has placed at least 150 of its graduates into government jobs... And that's interesting because Regent itself is a very new university, it's a school that is still struggling to build an academic reputation, its law school is ranked as a Tier 4 school by U.S. News and World Reports, which is the lowest possible score.  And it's not the kind of place that you would normally suspect that many many many graduates would find success at the upper reaches.  Part of the U.S. attorney hiring and firing affair has been this larger question, accusations of politicization at the Justice Department...under the Bush Administration, which critics charge have placed ideology and partisan credentials above qualifications...when deciding who should be filling these powerful positions of government responsibility."

Listen to the whole thing here. It's very troubling.

P.S. For more on Regent, Monica Goodling, and our old friend Bob McDonnell, see here.


Comments



Well, Duh! (K - 5/17/2007 12:02:52 PM)
While a whole lot of people haven't been paying much attention, the little religious righties have been infiltrating the Bush administration. Smug little kiddies from  Regent, and Liberty, and Patrick Henry, and from faith-based robot factories in other states are swarming all over the Federal government, worse than the multitudes of cockroaches in the worst apartment you ever had.

And except for the political appointees among them, most are civil service and will still be around after W. has slunk back to Texas. Think about THAT, the next time you need something stronger than caffeine to keep you awake.



Add to that the aggressive evangelization (Catzmaw - 5/17/2007 12:27:49 PM)
by right-wing fundamentalist Christians within our Armed Forces, particularly the military academies, and you've got a real situation.  I keep trying to tell this to my Catholic family and they just don't get it.  My mother believes since she's a Christian and they're Christians that it's somehow innocuous and nothing to worry about. 


This Is The Most Disturbing Piece Of Evidence Yet (mmc0412 - 5/17/2007 12:37:57 PM)
The infiltration of DOJ by Christian fundamentalists whose aim it is to make sure the Constitution is interpreted with a Christian slant (and their misguided (at least in my opinion) version of Christianity to boot).


Regents "Law School" (bertholland - 5/17/2007 12:50:52 PM)
How about a look at the Virginia Attorney General office.  How many Regents graduates there?  I know of one, Fiorelli, the disgraced school board member from Henrico who went to work for the AG's office when McDonnell took office.

How many others?  How do we find out?

Feel safer with these powerhouses of the law protecting us?

We are Amer-idiots...

Give us celebrity news and bright trinkets, we'll be happy.



Didn't Know (mmc0412 - 5/17/2007 1:03:14 PM)
I didn't know Fiorelli was a Regent's guy.  That explains everything!  He's a total nutjob.  Just saw this morning that he won't be running again for school board.  We just can't allow McDonnell to become Gov.


more regent (bertholland - 5/17/2007 1:23:04 PM)
There is also an asst AG named Jason Eige, Regent Graduate

How many more?



American Taliban Incubates in Virginia Beach (elevandoski - 5/17/2007 12:51:29 PM)
I think it's also ironic the fact that I moved from Purcellville, home of Patrick Henry College, to Virginia Beach, home of Regent University.  They like Virginia.  Therefore more than any other state we got the greater responsibility to put a stop to this dangerous theocratic agenda.  That starts with keeping a Democrat in the Governor's Mansion. 


American Taliban (bertholland - 5/17/2007 1:10:47 PM)
Amen.
How many of these characters are planted in the state and county attorneys offices around the U.S., hired by right wing political operatives over the past few years.


Don't forget redistricting (Andrea Chamblee - 5/17/2007 2:19:53 PM)
Redistricting by Tom Delay in Texas changed the history of the nation, for the worse.  From Grover Norquist to the Green Zone.  Be sure to vote in your local elections so that doesn't happen!


My opinion (Rebecca - 5/17/2007 4:12:35 PM)
My opinion is that this is part of the "right's" effort to establish a theocracy. One of their methods is to work via stealth. That means not letting on what their real agenda is until they are in positions of power. Then it will be too late for the rest of us. I hope we nip this thing in the bud.


This reminds me (Susan P. - 5/17/2007 9:22:02 PM)
This reminds me of the suggested methods of the John Birch Society: take over the Civic League, the PTA, the School Board, hiding who you really are, and move on from there.  Only now we have whole pseudo-universities and law schools and societies and quasi-governmental think tanks designed to perpetuate these narrow-minded partisans.  I wonder how many of those who founded these organizations started out in the John Birch Society, and are still carrying out its mission.


What are they going to do? Make everyone go to Church? (totallynext - 5/17/2007 9:34:55 PM)
They can gain access to positions but they still are not the majority.  And in fact this overreaching because they thought "it was their time" will be their undoing.  This attorney scandel will not go away - and their own will be the ones to stop it, like Comey, Ingelis, etc.


Regent has teamed up with Prince William County Schools (pol - 5/17/2007 10:00:02 PM)
to offer master's and doctoral degrees at a discuss.

http://www.pwcs.edu/...