Thursday, May 17, 2007

I'm the Horned One. The Devil. Let me give you my card.

As consumers of information, as most of my friends who read this blog no doubt are, It's fascinating to me how disparate tidbits of information gel into the larger narrative. Just this morning I'm reading Digby's take on yesterday's Comey testimony before congress and Josh Marshall's continuing coverage of the U.S. Attorney firing scandal and am struck by how very much alike these two scandals are.

First Digby -


How over-the-top must this have been for staunch Republican John Ashcroft to have risen from his ICU bed to argue against it and the entire top echelon of the DOJ were preparing to resign? These are not ordinary times and the law enforcement community has not been particularly squeamish about stretching the Bill of Rights. None of those people are bleeding heart liberals or candidates for the presidency of the ACLU. For them to be this adamant, it must have been something completely beyond the pale.

My suspicion has always been that there was some part of this program --- or an entirely different program --- that included spying on political opponents. Even spying on peace marchers and Greenpeace types wouldn't seem to me to be of such a substantial departure from the agreed upon post 9/11 framework that it would cause such a reaction from the top brass, nor would it be so important to the president that he would send Gonzales and Card into the ICU to get Ashcroft to sign off on it while he was high on drugs.

Then Marshall -


If you look over the broad scattering of documents thus far released on the Attorney Purge, there's at least an argument to be made that it unfolds something like this. Someone gets the bright idea, very early in 2005 to can all of the US Attorneys or a lot of them. But for one reason or another the idea gets rejected or just dies a slow bureaucratic death. However it happens, by the end of 2005 the idea's basically moribund.

But then in early 2006 some problems come up -- a rising wave of Republican corruption scandals and declining Republican political fortunes. And the US Attorney Purge idea gets revived -- but now with a much more specific focus, with an eye toward the 2006 and 2008 elections. Certain US Attorneys become more of a problem with expanding corruption investigations.

If I'm sure of anything with regards to what the founders intended for this country it's this: the power of the federal government should never be engaged in partisan political activities. The modern Republican party as embodied by the Bush administration seems to care less about this truism.

This is just one of the examples why I consider the Republican/ Democratic party are equivalent argument absurd. The Democrat party has a hell of a lot of problems. But nothing they could do could compare to the sheer un-American evil we've seen out of Bush and his crew in congress this past six years.

7 comments:

Don Snabulus said...

When it comes to corruption, the Republican counter argument goes like this:

Democrat discovers a gravel road paved to a Republican's house with public money. On the way to the Republican house, a pebble tumbles off of the dump truck and lands in the Democrat's dirt driveway.

Democrat: Over 50 tons of gravel was poured into your driveway, sir. What is your explanation for this misuse of public funds?

Republican: Well, we've spent a few thousand hours looking at your driveway and you are complicit...behold!!! (holds up pebble) You have the same public property in your yard that I do! You are just as guilty!!! I will hear no more of this witch hunt!

TV news: The Democrats and the Republicans both seem to have a corruption problem. While the Democrats have gone on at length about a simple gravel driveway, they seem keen to COVER UP, nay erase from the historical record, their own smoking pebble, as it were. Orwell rides again, but this time on the Democrat's donkey.

This allows the cynics to win the day and the Republican dream of a moral nation is imperiled. Tonight's newscast was brought to you by Oxycontin and Viagra.

Democrat: WTF????

Dean Wormer said...

Don that's a great example.

What I'd like is that the level of Republican corruption could be decreased to the level that we could honestly bitch at both parties as the source of corruption for their pebbles.

Then to make the pebbles go away.

Instead we live in this weird, Orwellian world of relativism where more than just the Democratic politicians are going "WTF?"

In fairness Democrats do buy expensive haircuts.

Swinebread said...

It's real close to a Coup d'état

Overdroid said...

This is the crux of the frustrating argument I seem to have with some friends of mine who believe that both parties are equally bad. Many people are just unaware that "business as usual" for the republicans went out the door about 30 years ago. I also think that argument is fundamentally defeatist. If you really believe that, then why are you voting at all?

Dean Wormer said...

Yeah, "they're all the same" ers are almost worse than the 28%ers. The 28%ers are crazy, the all-the-samers just aren't paying attention.

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