Confusion Overtakes Elephant Stampede
Are Republicans finally beginning to figure out that they had really better start fighting back against U.S. attorney-gate before the Dems start racking up a Cabinet Secretary per month?
Actually, it's kind of hard to say. The White House may now be coming more stoutly to Attorney General Alberto "Speedy" Gonzales' defense, or they may still be having a devil of a time getting their minds and mouths around the concept of message discipline, or even being on the same rhetorical page:
After sitting on their collective hands with their collective thumb up their collective ass for the past week, the Bushies are finally giving the A-G some backup:
The "counteroffensive," and the need to be on board with it, may be getting through to the yellowbellies on Capitol Hill as well:
Ordinarily I'd make a sacrastic comment about GOPers having a tremendous grasp of the obvious, but it's borderline miraculous just to see that the Stupid Party has a partisan pulse after all. Hell, this was coordinated from the beginning with not just the DSCC but the Democrat National Committee as well. It's from the same template as the Mark Foley uproar last fall and the Tom DeLay persecution before that and on and on, etc., etc. It's a cottage industry with those people. It's like a life support machine for their self-righteous moral insecurities, which are akin to a facial tick that causes spontaneous decapitation. If they aren't pursuing Bushophobic/anti-Right witchhunts, they get terrible headaches and break out in hives and run the risk of erectile dysfunction (except for Mrs. Clinton, of course, whose priapism has lasted for her entire adult life).
The next obvious thing Republicans can point out is that the Democrats' beloved former leader, Bill Clinton, wrote the book on "political purges" of U.S. attorneys; and their beloved former attorney general, Janet Reno, was that administration's designated cover-upper throughout its second term; and Democrats on Capitol Hill knowingly, willfully, and gleefully aided and abetted those cover-ups of its genuine multiple scandals by sabotaging one GOP-led congressional probe after another; and all of them, via the Enemy Media, brazenly "deflected attention" by attacking their pursuers, and reveled in Sick Willie's Houdini-like ability to not only run rings around these Republican posses but the skyrocketing popularity that they helped him generate in the midst of it all.
A third bit of crystal clarity Pachyderms can deploy is that presidents can terminate U.S. attorneys any time they wish, for any reason they choose. Clinton was within his rights and powers to do so to all ninety-three of them fourteen years ago just as Bush was to sack a twelfth that many last year.
And, just for giggles, it would be awfully appreciated in the grassroots if some Republican, ANY Republican - say, one of the '08 presidential hopefuls - would stand up and declare that any party that spent nearly a decade defending an ongoing criminal racket operating from the Oval Office itself is entitled not to scandalmonger or accuse or fingerpoint, but only to sit down and shut the hell up.
Sure, that last one will never happen. Neither will the two before that, in all likelihood. But it would be awfully appreciated. Heck, it might even make me priapistic.
But not the Cap'n; he's "above" that sort of thing, evidently:
I touched on this ill-timed high-mindedness briefly yesterday. It looks like I need to get into it with more than just a passing quip.
In and of itself, Mr. Morrissey's position is not unreasonable. Indeed, the aforementioned La Clinton Nostra is a notorious example of what he's referring to. But that only underscores how badly the Cap'n misses the point: this White House ISN'T that one; the Bushies did not, are not, and aren't capable of "turning federal prosecutors into partisan attack machines." The Democrats are not sincerely making that argument, do not give a frog's fat leg about "the reputation of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Justice Department," and are indeed trashing both in their quest to attain their true goal, which is to line up the entire Bush Administration against the propaganda wall and mow them down like the Moran gang in the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
The integrity and competence of the Bush DOJ will not be aided or enhanced by casting ourselves "above the partisan fray" and facilitating the hatchet job the Donks are trying to carry out against Alberto Gonzales. That isn't "tribal Republicanism"; it's political survival, and that's something that somebody in this Party had better start concerning themselves with, if they want any sort of vehicle to remain that can carry us back to the "competent and intelligent conservative government" Mr. Morrissey purports to seek.
When you're in a back-alley knife fight, you worry about peaceably settling your differences AFTER your knife is protruding from one of your opponent's vital areas. It's the best way of keeping his out of yours.
We're clumsily wielding a plastic ice cream spoon, holding it by the wrong end, and facing the wrong direction, not unlike a child playing "pin the tail on the donkey" after downing a fifth of Everclear, but at least we're in the fight.
Maybe if Speedy survives, he can help vote the Cap'n off the island.
I could certainly agree with that.
Actually, it's kind of hard to say. The White House may now be coming more stoutly to Attorney General Alberto "Speedy" Gonzales' defense, or they may still be having a devil of a time getting their minds and mouths around the concept of message discipline, or even being on the same rhetorical page:
President George W. Bush gave embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales assurances he wants him to remain on the job, the White House said today as the administration mounted a counterattack aimed at quelling the controversy over the firing of eight federal prosecutors.
In an early morning phone call to Gonzales, ``the President reaffirmed his strong backing of the attorney general,'' said spokeswoman Dana Perino. Reports that Bush is looking for a replacement of the attorney general are ``just flat false,'' White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. ``The White House is not calling for the ouster of anybody.''
Well, actually, nobody said that they were. It's just that their defense of Gonzales was, shall we say, flatter and more tepid than week-old soda pop. Saying that "We hope the attorney-general survives" isn't exactly a George Gip pep talk.
That's what made the next graf of this story less than reassuring:
The President urged Gonzales to fight efforts to force him out, said a Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.Um, don't Cabinet officers serve, like U.S. attorneys, at the pleasure of the President? I suppose it would be up to Speedy if he decided that all this bogus ruckus wasn't worth it, but assuming he was willing to fight back, wouldn't the success or failure of "efforts to force him out" hinge on Bush? Does this mean that Gonzales is wavering on throwing in the towel and Dubya is trying to convince him to resist?
After sitting on their collective hands with their collective thumb up their collective ass for the past week, the Bushies are finally giving the A-G some backup:
Late last night, the Justice Department gave Congress e- mails that show the fired U.S. attorneys were the target of complaints and had policy disputes with officials in Washington. The counteroffensive came as lawmakers continued to call for Gonzales, 51, to step down and congressional investigations heated up.
The "counteroffensive," and the need to be on board with it, may be getting through to the yellowbellies on Capitol Hill as well:
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, has long been seen as one of the best political performers in Washington, a master of spotting hot issues and wringing the most out of them.
Now Republicans are using that reputation to raise questions about Mr. Schumer’s credibility, as he mounts a fierce assault against the White House over the ouster of eight United States attorneys in what critics call a political purge.
Over the last few weeks, Mr. Schumer has been using his position on the Judiciary Committee to push a Senate inquiry, feeding a political furor that has erupted over the dismissals....
But Republicans are questioning his motives. They say that as chairman of the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, Mr. Schumer has been more interested in exploiting the issue for political gain than he has been in conducting an impartial investigation.
Republicans note, for example, that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has aggressively highlighted the dismissals in campaign literature it has disseminated in recent days, even as Mr. Schumer forges ahead with the investigation.
Ordinarily I'd make a sacrastic comment about GOPers having a tremendous grasp of the obvious, but it's borderline miraculous just to see that the Stupid Party has a partisan pulse after all. Hell, this was coordinated from the beginning with not just the DSCC but the Democrat National Committee as well. It's from the same template as the Mark Foley uproar last fall and the Tom DeLay persecution before that and on and on, etc., etc. It's a cottage industry with those people. It's like a life support machine for their self-righteous moral insecurities, which are akin to a facial tick that causes spontaneous decapitation. If they aren't pursuing Bushophobic/anti-Right witchhunts, they get terrible headaches and break out in hives and run the risk of erectile dysfunction (except for Mrs. Clinton, of course, whose priapism has lasted for her entire adult life).
The next obvious thing Republicans can point out is that the Democrats' beloved former leader, Bill Clinton, wrote the book on "political purges" of U.S. attorneys; and their beloved former attorney general, Janet Reno, was that administration's designated cover-upper throughout its second term; and Democrats on Capitol Hill knowingly, willfully, and gleefully aided and abetted those cover-ups of its genuine multiple scandals by sabotaging one GOP-led congressional probe after another; and all of them, via the Enemy Media, brazenly "deflected attention" by attacking their pursuers, and reveled in Sick Willie's Houdini-like ability to not only run rings around these Republican posses but the skyrocketing popularity that they helped him generate in the midst of it all.
A third bit of crystal clarity Pachyderms can deploy is that presidents can terminate U.S. attorneys any time they wish, for any reason they choose. Clinton was within his rights and powers to do so to all ninety-three of them fourteen years ago just as Bush was to sack a twelfth that many last year.
And, just for giggles, it would be awfully appreciated in the grassroots if some Republican, ANY Republican - say, one of the '08 presidential hopefuls - would stand up and declare that any party that spent nearly a decade defending an ongoing criminal racket operating from the Oval Office itself is entitled not to scandalmonger or accuse or fingerpoint, but only to sit down and shut the hell up.
Sure, that last one will never happen. Neither will the two before that, in all likelihood. But it would be awfully appreciated. Heck, it might even make me priapistic.
But not the Cap'n; he's "above" that sort of thing, evidently:
Patrick Ruffini spoke for many on the Right last night when he scolded Republicans for not defending Alberto Gonzales and fighting back against the Democrats. I know that several CQ commenters feel the same way. However, my interest in this blog isn't just tribal Republicanism, but competent and intelligent conservative government. I agree that the President can fire federal prosecutors at will, but that doesn't make it right for him to do so outside of allegations of specific malfeasance - which has been the standard for the previous 25 years. If any administration starts turning federal prosecutors into partisan attack machines, it becomes dangerous for Americans as a whole, and that's worthy of criticism, even if it falls within the limits of the law.
I touched on this ill-timed high-mindedness briefly yesterday. It looks like I need to get into it with more than just a passing quip.
In and of itself, Mr. Morrissey's position is not unreasonable. Indeed, the aforementioned La Clinton Nostra is a notorious example of what he's referring to. But that only underscores how badly the Cap'n misses the point: this White House ISN'T that one; the Bushies did not, are not, and aren't capable of "turning federal prosecutors into partisan attack machines." The Democrats are not sincerely making that argument, do not give a frog's fat leg about "the reputation of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Justice Department," and are indeed trashing both in their quest to attain their true goal, which is to line up the entire Bush Administration against the propaganda wall and mow them down like the Moran gang in the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
The integrity and competence of the Bush DOJ will not be aided or enhanced by casting ourselves "above the partisan fray" and facilitating the hatchet job the Donks are trying to carry out against Alberto Gonzales. That isn't "tribal Republicanism"; it's political survival, and that's something that somebody in this Party had better start concerning themselves with, if they want any sort of vehicle to remain that can carry us back to the "competent and intelligent conservative government" Mr. Morrissey purports to seek.
When you're in a back-alley knife fight, you worry about peaceably settling your differences AFTER your knife is protruding from one of your opponent's vital areas. It's the best way of keeping his out of yours.
We're clumsily wielding a plastic ice cream spoon, holding it by the wrong end, and facing the wrong direction, not unlike a child playing "pin the tail on the donkey" after downing a fifth of Everclear, but at least we're in the fight.
Maybe if Speedy survives, he can help vote the Cap'n off the island.
I could certainly agree with that.
posted by JASmius at 9:04 PM
<<< Home