We don’t have both sides here yet, and I would expect that the defendants, as defendants do, are putting their best argument forward. The idea here is to make the other side look as nefarious as possible.

Still, this story is very troubling and underscores what some of us have been saying for months.

The Associated Press has posted the e-mails in question, which you can read by clicking here [pdf file].

Here is part of the Sun-Times’ take:

Two former state officials accused by Gov. Blagojevich’s administration of misconduct unleashed a barrage of documents Wednesday that they say show the governor’s office repeatedly steered state jobs to favored applicants.

In one instance, an aide to Blagojevich’s intergovernmental affairs chief demanded that personnel employees “find out what it will take” to help a Blagojevich donor pass an exam for a job for which he lacked qualifications.

And in some cases, Blagojevich appeared to take an interest in helping place people in middle- and upper-management posts, including one applicant who had received suspensions when he previously had worked for the state.

The AP:

The documents were filed with the Civil Service Commission by Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey, who are trying to get their jobs back after Blagojevich fired them in April, claiming they manipulated hiring procedures to favor politically connected applicants.

Dawn DeFraties was personnel director at the Department of Central Management Services, the state’s hiring agency. Casey was her assistant. A hearing on the charges before an administrative law judge begins next week.

The pair claim they were blocked in their attempt to create an electronic hiring system to take subjectivity out of the process, and that the so-called “special applications'’ they’re accused of favoring emanated from Blagojevich’s office.

“They conveniently left out the governor’s office involvement in all of these charges and we’ll be getting into this,'’ said the pair’s attorney, Carl Draper.

Copley:

Draper has said DeFraties and Casey are being made scapegoats by the administration, which is under federal investigation because of its hiring practices. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has said his office is investigating “very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud” in state government.

Draper said members of Blagojevich’s inner circle were the ones who wanted favored treatment for politically connected job applicants.

The Tribune:

A review of more than five dozen of the e-mails disclosed Wednesday identify 37 individuals who were seeking jobs in the early years of the Blagojevich administration. A review of state hiring records shows that 15 got state jobs. All of those who got jobs were named on a previous list of those who had political sponsors or were given special treatment in the state hiring process.

The other 22, including some whose political sponsors were identified in the e-mails, were never hired, records show. […]

Also in August of 2003, Casey wrote an e-mail to Blagojevich’s patronage office, questioning a push for an applicant named Ralph Caro, who was recommended for a state job by the director of what was then the state Department of Professional Regulation. […]

But Casey responded that Caro had “no credible experience or related degree” for the positions for which he was being considered. State records showed Caro contributed $1,000 to the governor’s campaign fund, including $500 within days of the e-mail exchange. .

Connecting a campaign contribution, however small, to state hiring is bad news indeed for the governor. But, again, as the governor’s office said yesterday, we’re only seeing one side so far.

The AP also has a summary of a few e-mails.

* When told by colleagues on Oct. 12, 2004 of a job applicant who claimed he had been promised a job by the governor, DeFraties responded, “Politics are not my bag here. I have no knowledge of this individual nor do I care what he may or may not have been promised. Please proceed as you would with any individual.” […]

* When DeFraties informed Cini aide Laura Casper on May 15, 2003 that two applicants were rejected as too inexperienced, Casper responded that officials would then ask the hiring agency to declare the positions “exempt” from the rules. […]

* One allegation against the pair is that they put favored application into an online database for consideration ahead of others. But Casey wrote to a colleague on Oct. 22, 2004, asking why some applications had been marked “rush.” He was told that the employee in question had forgotten about the rule against doing that and was sorry.