"On May 17, 2005, the White House's political affairs office sent an e-mail message to agencies throughout the executive branch directing them to find jobs for 108 people on a list of "priority candidates" who had "loyally served the president."

"'We simply want to place as many of our Bush loyalists as possible,' the White House emphasized in a follow-up message, according to a little-noticed passage of a Justice Department report released Monday about politicization in the department's hiring of civil-service prosecutors and immigration officials.

"The report, the subject of a Senate oversight hearing Wednesday, provided a window into how the administration sought to install politically like-minded officials in positions of government responsibility, and how the efforts at times crossed customary or legal limits.

"Andrew Rudalevige, an associate professor of political science at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania who studies presidential power, said that while presidents of both parties over the last half-century had sought ways to impose greater political control over the federal bureaucracy, the Bush administration had gone further than any predecessor.

" 'The Bush administration is unprecedented in how systematic the politicization is and how it extends both across the wider organization chart and deep down within the bureaucracy,' Professor Rudalevige said. 'They've been very consistent from Day 1 in learning the lessons of previous administrations and pushing those tactics to the limit.'

"The report released on Monday by Justice Department investigators said that the context of the May 17, 2005, message from the White House made plain that it was seeking politically appointed government jobs, for which it is legal to take politics into account. The report did not say who sent the message.

"But the message also urged administration officials to "get creative in finding the patronage positions ” and some political appointees carried out their mission with particular zeal.

" 'We pledge 7 slots within 40 days and 40 nights. Let the games begin!' Jan Williams, then the White House's liaison to the Justice Department, said in an e-mail message two days later.

"Within a week, messages between Ms. Williams and the White House showed, she began trying to match the White House-vetted names of people who had been "helpful to the president” like campaign volunteers” with openings for immigration judges, positions that are supposed to be filled using politically neutral, merit-based criteria."

And impeachment is still off the table.