As Hans notes below, the premise for the FY 2010 Budget request for the Civil Rights Division of the Dept. of Justice is that the increased funding is necessary because “the President has explicitly stated his desire to strengthen civil rights enforcement efforts that have been eroded over the past eight years…” (emphasis added)

Of course, it’s axiomatic that the Bush administration did everything it could to strip everyone — whether waterboarded terrorists or innocent, innocent grocery clerks – of all available civil-rights protections. Just ask Nancy Pelosi. Or anyone in the media.

Unfortunately, the facts are somewhat at variance with the axiom. Amazingly, it just so happens that we have an agency charged with monitoring civil-rights enforcement efforts! That agency conducts regular hearings. It collects and analyzes reams of data. And it makes reports to the president and congress. The data compiled by that agency — the U.S.Commission on Civil Rights — doesn’t support the assertion that civil-rights enforcement efforts “eroded over the last eight years.” In fact, the data refute the assertion.

Just a few data points: Funding and staffing for the Civil Rights Division of DOJ increased throughout the Bush years. For example, in the last year of the Clinton administration, the Division’s staff consisted of 589 FTEs ( Full Time Employees). By the end of Bush’s first term, the number had risen to 755. The Division’s Voting Rights Section alone experienced more than a 25% increase in staffing levels.

In President Clinton’s last year, Congress appropriated approximately $71.5 million for the Division. By 2005, funding had increased to $107.6 million. Both civil-rights prosecutions and convictions also increased during the Bush years.

These data standing alone don’t necessarily prove that civil rights enforcement increased or improved during the nightmarish Bush years, but they hardly support the claim that civil rights enforcement eroded during that time.

When the Bush-bashing reflex infects even the appropriations process, it transcends the political and becomes pathological. Besides, do facts have any relevance anymore?