The Attorney General's galaxy of delusion

In the Attorney General's galaxy, the exodus of staff from her Chambers has nothing to with her, and furthermore is "not unusual". According to an RJR story today (July 07, 2008):

Minister of Justice, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne is maintaining that the recent exodus of employees from the Attorney General Department is not unusual.

She laid blame at the feet of the media for what she says is its continuous reference to problems between herself and her employees.

Senator Lightbourne says there is no truth to the rumours.

"All government have resignations. Persons leave law school, they go into the government service, they gain experience for two or three years and then they go," said the Minister.

"I don't see anything unusual, I don't see why it is being made unusual in this one because if you look at the DPP and all government departments people leave and move on for better conditions of service,"
"I don't interfere, there is a Solicitor General and I work through him. He consults me, he advises me and my own intervention is policy,"

Ten attorneys have resigned from the Attorney General's Department since January, the latest being Director for State proceedings, Nicole Foster Pusey.


I wonder if the learned Attorney General could point to any similar exodus that has occurred under any of her predecessors? While it is true that lawyers often move on after a few years, none of her precedessors have suffered the loss of almost a dozen members of staff in less than a year. In my world, that is unprecedented. How does the Attorney General explain the departure of Patrick Foster, for example? Most of his 26 years as a lawyer were spent in the government service, and in particular, the Attorney General's Department. Patrick left the AG's Department in the early 90s and returned in the early 2000s. Patrick was hardly someone who was simply passing through the Department to gain experience. He was a skilled, committed lawyer who came second to Stephen Vasciannie in the initial SG recruitment exercise. It is no secret that the AG bullied (or attempted to bully) Patrick and others while Patrick was acting as Solicitor General. It is also no secret that the AG accused staff members of being aligned with the PNP when she first assumed office as AG. The AG undoubtedly interfered directly with ongoing litigation, for example, the electoral litigation between Dabdoub and Vaz. Who does the AG think she is fooling?

For the AG to now claim that she doesn't interfere is frankly, a bald-faced lie. Perhaps in her galaxy, undermining the selection of a Solicitor General doesn't count as interference, but in my world it does. The AG was plain about wanting Douglas Leys as SG and nobody else. When the PSC 'failed' to play ball with the AG, they were fired and a pseudo-PSC established that oould do nothing more than rubber stamp Douglas Leys as the new SG. Indeed, the AG engineered things so well, that Douglas ended up being the only applicant.


If the AG stepped out of her galaxy of delusion for a nanosecond, I think she would see her tenure at the AG's Chambers for what it is: an unmitigated disaster.