Josh Marshall’s outfit isn’t the only group doing actual journalism, as opposed to the driving by to check out countertops kind. Scott Horton has covered the politicization of DOJ prosecutions like cheet on Goldberg.
Within the Justice Department itself, the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Inspector General are conducting a joint investigation into the case of the “Gonzales Eight,” namely the firing of eight U.S. attorneys on December 7, 2006. Preliminary inquiries by Congress produced the resignation in disgrace of most of the senior leadership of the Justice Department, including Attorney General Gonzales. Now ee hear that Alberto Gonzales has “lawyered up” — for good reason. The internal probe will, I am told, demonstrate a stunning pattern of management of political prosecutions out of the White House. Karl Rove himself figures at the center of the process. And George W. Bush will put in more than a couple of key appearances in the process before this drama has been played out. The internal probe has already assembled explosive evidence of precisely this sort of abuse in its examination of the dismissal of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. And the inquiry has barely begun to address the parallel facts in Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas and Little Rock.
We have to assume that Attorney General Mukasey will find a way to get these investigators working on more politically acceptable subjects (there must be a black person committing vote fraud somewhere). Marshall has more, via The Hill:
[A]lthough Fine has never said when the probe will wrap-up, the Hill cites “one source close to the investigation” who “expects the offices to issue a scathing report within the next three months.” We’ll see.
Out of the countless corners of government perverted by the mayberry machiavellis, the most galling wasn’t actually turning the DoJ into the enforcement arm for one political party. That dubious honor would go to the decision to use war, lies about war and terrorism fear as an election strategy. Provoking an unnecessary war that killed more Americans than 9/11 based on motives that at best can be described as tragically mistaken, and then managing every aspect based on partisan politics instead of competence will have to top any list of disgraceful legacies from the Bush years.
On the other hand, screwing up a war counts more as a utilitarian tragedy. Politicizing the government’s law enforcement cost us less in blood and treasure, but from a fundamental constitutional perspective it might be the more catastrophic failure with lasting consequences for the country. The present administration, for example, loves to cite America’s weak moments when Lincoln suspended Habeas corpus, or FDR rounded up American citizens, as useful precedents. Think about the cornucopia of precedent that Rove’s Permanent Majority project will leave behind for the next President with a gaping hole where his moral core ought to be. A leftwing wannabe Stalin could hardly ask for more – surveillance, detention and torture of American citizens without trial, intimidating political enemies through a grossly skewed investigation bias, show trials, it’s all in there.
If nobody sees a day of jail then the seeds will be planted for a president with a similar disregard for the principles of America’s founders, but competent.
Cyrus
I think you’re being too optimistic, Tim.
No, seriously.
Chuck Colson saw jail for Watergate, and probably others as well. Maybe more and longer terms would have got the message across, and Nixon himself going to jail would probably have done it, but if we’re counting on Bush getting a few years in jail to prevent the presidency of someone like Giuliani, we’re all fucked.
4tehlulz
I look forward to 1/20/09, when the Republicans will discover the right the privacy and the fourth amendment.
The Grand Panjandrum
Horton’s blog is part of my daily read. He might be the most thorough and effective legal eagle in the blogosphere. I particularly appreciate the matter-of-fact tone in his writing.
Zifnab
Well, that’s the kicker. You need enforcement to make people think twice before breaking the law like the Bush Admin has. That, at least, keeps the law breaking on a less blatant key. If Bush/Cheney thought they’d be looking down the barrel of impeachment come Jan ’09 2007, they wouldn’t have been so brazen.
But if you want to keep people from breaking the law in the first place – from lying 935 times to the press, the public, and Congress or from warrantlessly wiretapping or from hiring and firing people on purely political grounds – you need deterrence. That means you need Senators willing to filibuster corrupt judicial nominees even when faced with nuclear options. You need House Reps willing to fight tooth and nail for subpoena power to dig out the dirt as its being shoveled in. You need independent third-party watch dog groups who can take advantage of full government transparency. And you need a press corps that isn’t bought and paid for by special interest groups, guys who aren’t afraid to print reality over fluff and spin.
Public embarrassment, political counter-measures, and an informed citizenry are the tools you need to stop this kind of corruption. Without containment, the political opposition just learns to get more ruthless.
Let’s face it. Bush never had Senators arrested. He’s been pretty free about throwing Islamofascists in jail, but Dan Rather hasn’t been dragged before the firing squad. This could have been worse. If Bush knew he was looking at life in prison for fucking up, it might have been. But that wouldn’t have stopped him from trying. Just made him a little more aggressive in tying up loss ends.
Deterrence is what nips this shit in the bud. It’s what kept Nixon and Reagen in line. It’s what gave Clinton a slap on the wrist. You see it in the courts, even today, and its the only thing that keeps the Bush Regime in check (god bless our Judiciary – about the sanest part of our government left).
The Other Steve
Pick Flick!
Dan
“If nobody sees a day of jail then the seeds will be planted for a president with a similar disregard for the principles of America’s founders, but competent.”
That is almost verbatim the argument I have been using on my holdout-republican friends for the past few years. Except I added “you know…Hillary” to the end.
Had this been another time, another era I would positively welcome the prospect of a president like Hillary Clinton, though with reservations.
But Hillary Clinton, for all of her good traits (intelligence, perseverance, grasp of the fundamentals of government, etc) is just a wee bit too much of an authoritarian to trust with the shiny new toys that BushCheneyCo have been happily forging, sharpening, and polishing for her.
Jake
Stop.
If I say people with red hair and freckles are demons, and I believe it, I am mistaken and possibly need to have my meds adjusted.
If I say the same when I know it is not true, I am a liar.
If I know it is a lie and tell more lies to make people think it is right to declare war on people with red hair and freckles, I am a criminal.
Unless you’re using the Special Johan Goldberg Dictionary, you can’t say an outright lie is a mistake.
Jen
….and Greenwald weeps quietly, wondering exactly how much he has to write in order to be considered “thorough”…
Punchy
Partisan witchhunt by Dem operatives bent on screwing Republicans.
The evidence is fraudulent; check and recheck the kerning. Besides, Iglesias has spoken out against Bush, it’s clear he’s a Dem operative bent on screwing Republicans.
And very soon, the money to fund such an inquiry will be shut off, to prevent more Dem operatives from screwing Republicans in Fo-nix, S’attle, Vegas….
See how easy that is?
Elvis Elvisberg
Well, no, actually, there isn’t any evidence of that ever happening.
However, it would be helpful to the interests of the GOP if there were black people committing voter fraud.
Sounds like a job for… The One Percent Doctrine! Turns any vaguely plausible problem into a pressing emergency in seconds flat! 100% guarantee!
And therefore anywhere. It’s not like we’re getting good journalism from any print sources, is it?
Davis X. Machina
I don’t think the Iraq war was an unreasonable response to what was, after all, an existential threat to the Republic.
Maybe you forgot that in the aftermath of 12/12/2000 there was a real risk that the Democrats could use the ballot box to seize control of both Houses of Congress and the White House, and destroy the Revolution.
Just think — all that hard work, some of it dating back to 1994, some back to the Reagan administration, some all the way back to 1968, undone in a few hours by irresponsible voters.
Given the magnitude of the threat — one in 2002, or both of them in 2004 — the Iraq war was a moderate response.
Try not to think of it as a war — think of it as a campaign commercial with really, really good production values, and a lot of location work.
Svensker
No, sorry. I heard from a wingnut troll (on BJ?) that Scott Horton was “discredited”. So anything he says is dust. Please try to keep up.
cleek
unfortunately, nobody running for president is about to turn back any of that – not really. maybe tiny things here and there around the edges will change, but i believe the Republicans have succeeded in scaring the public (and their representatives) enough that any move to stop even one little bit of the BushCo War, Surveillance & Torture Apparatus will be immediately met with hysterical resistance from all corners.
pharniel
“You have called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind” should be copy-pasted liberally around when the redstaters, deadeneders and el capitian start to ‘discover’ government abuses over the next few years.
pharniel
*cleek* Says:
I gaurentee 1-9 odds that if a D wins the white house EVERY right wing nutjob (and faux news) will be discovering the 4th admendmant, and any naughtyness discovered will be laid at thier feet and talk about the lack of rule of law, execuitive privliage etc.
it is….thier destiny..
pharniel
…oh, and it will be imperitive to ‘fix the system’ so that the ‘unfortunate oversights that were made with the best interest int he nation’ cannot be repeated. because they were cool when Boy King George was doing them, because, he’s a nice guy, but hitlery is just going to abuse all those shiney new toys.
honest.
so they need to never be allowed again…untill we find new ways to break them the next time we get R in the white house.
Jamey
Amen, Tim. We’re fucked when a fucker who knows how to fuck is doing the fucking.
myiq2xu
Isn’t it reassuring to know that we’re probably less than a year away from having Congress start exercising its oversight responsibilities again and having the press remember how do do investigative journalism.
January 21, 2009 GOP talking point memo: “Cry havoc, and let slip the special prosecutors!”
These special prosecutors won’t be allowed to conduct partisan witch hunts. They will only be allowed to investigate important issues.
The last time we saw special procescutors in action they investigated things like failed land deals, suicides and blow-jobs. Depending on who winds the Democratic nomination it will either be deja vu all over again or let’s see how many skeletons there are behind door number three in Barak HUSSEIN Osama’s closet.
RobRoser
I think you mean…’there must be a black person trying to vote somewhere
D. Mason
Uhhhh, I’m pretty sure that’s what right wingers mean when they say voter fraud.
TheFountainHead
I don’t understand the people who think sending Boy George or any of the upper deck of cards he surrounds himself with would act as a deterrent for more than one, maybe two presidencies, if that, not that it’s even remotely probable that any of them would ever see a day in court. The only true deterrent comes when the people of this country, as a collective, not as individuals, exercise their constitutionally granted powers over the government. As a collective, we sat back and watched this happen. We have given far too much power over to intermediary groups like the mainstream media and corporate lobbyists, and in so doing, have let the contact with our government corrode. We won’t see better behavior in the White House until they feel the pain of an angry and undivided (no Obamishness here, though if the shoe fits…) electorate.
Shorter: If your Congressional representatives are fucking you, fuck them back. If they are fucking you by not fucking the Executive when they should, fuck them all the harder. Why leave it to them to play hardball? It’s our fucking country.
Xenos
Shorter: If your Congressional representatives are fucking you, fuck them back. If they are fucking you by not fucking the Executive when they should, fuck them all the harder. Why leave it to them to play hardball? It’s our fucking country.
Which also means putting the Bushists, and their core supporters, on the defensive. We need to move the Overton Window way over, and there is nothing like exposing corruption to do it. Such as:
–investigate and prosecute the tax fraud committed routinely by certain evangelical churches that are, at their core, political operations;
–punish the oil companies who were part of the secret group that met with Cheney and were part of the planning for the Iraq war: specifically, since these corporations created scarcity by promoting warfare they should face a steep windfall profits tax, and should be at risk of being nationalized;
–take out the Texan kleptocrats who have made corrupt politics a business model – send a few special prosecutors to Texas the same way one was once sent to Little Rock, Arkansas;
–shut down, break up, or otherwise put an end to enterprises such as Halliburton and the major mercenary outfits;
–clean out the DOJ, seeking criminal prosecution of all the lawyers there that went along with Gonzales’ crooked schemes;
–begin impeachment proceedings against Alito for making false statements to Congress, and against Roberts and Scalia for conflict of interest.
That would make a nice agenda for a first 100 days of a new administration. Hell, bills accomplishing these goals could be submitted and debated even now- it would get people talking about these crimes now, before the election, even if the bills had no chance of succeeding.
bob
EVERYONE in this administration should go to prison. Everyone who participated in the coup of 2000 belongs in prison. For LIFE. No parole. The entire Bush family in solitary confinement for life. And keep them alive a LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNGG time. Everyone who accepted an appointment from this illegal administration should be out of a job, possibly in prison. Everyone in the Republican National Committee should be in prison. I TRULY mean without exception. It’s time to rein this shit in. Nixon should have been in prison for life. Ford should be dug up the way they dug up Cromwell and his dead body should be executed and defiled. Reagan should suffer the same fate with his worthless whore of a wife watching. These people are the worst criminals the world has ever seen. No punishment is good enough for them. If I left anyone out, it’s due to not wanting to look under another rock. A mere oversight, not an indication of innocence.
Chris Johnson
Heck with US justice, it’s too broken. Let’s talk war crimes and the Hague. Do you seriously think any American justice is actually going to impress anybody with our seriousness at this point?
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
No, not without the core 27% to apply the positive response to the propaganda.
Oh, did you hear? I’m going to run the FCC next year. By the end of my tenure, swearing will be legal, but live sports, reality shows, and displays of talentless fucks will be explicitly banned from broadcast channels. Only documentaries, national news, global news, and live-action yoga will be available.
I’d short TV manufacturers if I were you. Dumb fucks have lost their screen privileges.
/those worthless deficient sister-ogling urine-swilling primates!
//RAGE!!
Xenos
Now that is going too far. Just send the body, intact, to East Timor, and let the Timorese handle the rest. But first, Kissinger takes a one-way trip to Chile, and Rummy can be rendered unto the French…
We can just leave Dick Cheney in his hideout in Suriname, or wherever it is. The mosquitoes will get him eventually.
Dug Jay
LOL
And “bob,” you may want to ease up on those drugs before you have a stroke. However, I must admit that you really have a way with words; I can easily envision the spittle drooling from both sides of your mouth while your fingers speed across the keyboard as you translate your latest brain fart into words.
RSA
I don’t think that the ideologically-driven Republicans running the executive branch today think or know much about utilities. The one percent doctrine, on the one hand, versus the response to global warming, on the other? Forget all about consistency.
Enlightened Layperson
You know what gets me about this whole scandal? I understand that the Democrats might not care too much about trivia like war on falese pretenses, indefinite detention, torture, black sites and other things that affect only Arabs in some other country. The the US attorney scandal threatens their own political fortunes. Now that’s something I would expect them to really go the the mat over!
Chuck Butcher
Oh pah, over 40% of the eligible voters won’t, 90% will not contribute to a campaign while whining it’s bought, you’ll get to choose from the media approved Demlicans or Repubrocrats and…
Politics and general Civil Liberties will bring no “Revolution,” starvation might, but not principles. You think I exaggerate? Read RICO and tell me so. That’s real old news of our modern country. (re: the 4th and…)
BushCo in jail? Speaking tours with big fees is more likely. Is Scooter in jail? You saw the uprising? Jose Rodrigez may go for the CIA tapes, but that’s the chum, it’ll go no farther.
goddamm, this is a country that takes Hillary Clinton seriously??? She was married to somebody, so what? She’s 1 1/2 terms in elected office and she’s experienced? WTF? Her politics suck for a Democrat and she’s all the rage, and the black guy? Obama’s about spit different than Clinton II so he’s a big deal. Sometimes I think I’ve lost my mind and wound up in the looney bin. Let’s make heroes out of people because of their sex or race, that’s as stupid as making goats out of them for that reason.