Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The Department Previously Known as Justice
Although it is admittedly difficult to keep track of all the ways and instances in which the Bush Administration lies to and deceives the American public on the one hand, and corrupts the process of governing on the other, the unfolding story of how the Justice Department has been turned into a tool to promote the careers and political agendas of Republicans in general and Bushies in particular does make for for entertaining—if rather sickening—reading. The blogger who, in my understanding, first broke this story also does an excellent job of day-to-day updates on it, and keeps the juicy details coming. Although the blog seems fairly liberal and its authors conspicuously enjoy skewering the neocons (but of course, who wouldn't?), it's an excellent source for gruesome details and insightful commentary on the Attorney General story. The blog is called Talking Points Memo, by Joshua Micah Marshall, and it is hereby recommended to the devoted readers of this page.
And as a semantic aside, what could possibly be more appropriate and representative that the Bush Administration's corruption of the JUSTICE Department? How perfect is that?!!
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3 comments:
So, of course an awful lot of folks are looking at this and saying: how horrid.
And awful lot of other folks are looking and saying: politics as normal/expected but with the ever-expanding press-freedoms that are characteristic of the post-1950s, we actually see it.
Is there any evidence that we didn't have analagous stuff going on in the Kennedy era, for instance? Or Clinton?
There is little doubt that Bush is a politician. There is notable doubt about whether his brand of politician is any worse than most. By observation, public seems to dislike Congress even more than they dislike bush, and the folks who like congress the least is not republicans, but independents. Can we shed light on this topic?
As Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy played fast and loose with the rules at times, but in pursuit of mobsters, not votes or political power. There is zero evidence that Janet Reno ever did anything unethical while in office. Contrast that to John Mitchell, Ed Meese, and now Gonzo.
Cynical GOP political appartchiks—including these several Attorneys General—feel it is their birthright to break the law in the name of their ideologies and in the name of pure power.
"And awful lot of other folks are looking and saying: politics as normal/expected but with the ever-expanding press-freedoms that are characteristic of the post-1950s, we actually see it."
Is this supposed to be an excuse for the behavior? A traditional 'wrong' does not make a contemporary 'right.'
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