Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “The Politics of Politics”

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March 28, 2007

The Politics of Politics

Hatched by Dafydd

Yes! Exactly!

The Democrats are finally understanding the underlying issue of the U.S. 8:

Democrats have described the firings as an "intimidation by purge" and a warning to remaining U.S. attorneys to fall in line with Bush's priorities. Political pressure, Democrats say, can skew the judgment of prosecutors when deciding whom to investigate and which indictments to pursue.

You got it at last! That is exactly the issue: the fired United States Attorneys were canned precisely because they refused to "fall in line" with the president's priorities. And I sure hope "political pressure... can skew the judgment of prosecutors when deciding whom to investigate and which indictments to pursue." What's wrong with that?

Under the Democrats, political pressure skewed prosecutors' judgment to not investigate, indict, or prosecute terrorists; and it skewed their judgment to investigate and indict corporate polluters and "institutional racism."

Political pressure under the Bush administration has skewed prosecutors' judgment to investigate and prosecute terrorism, financial support for terrorism, corporate accounting scandals, and election fraud. That is the consequence of rejecting a Democratic presidential candidate and electing (and reelecting) a Republican president instead: The Executive priorities likewise change.

[Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former chief of staff Kyle] Sampson, who resigned this month because of the furor over the firings, is to testify Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In his prepared testimony, he maintained that adherence to the priorities of the president and attorney general was a legitimate standard.

Of course it is. Congress may differ with the president; the Court may file its own flight plan. But we have a unitary Executive; every single person in the administration -- every department, every agency, all of the Gnomes of the EOB... and even the 93 United States Attorneys -- should "fall in line with [the president's] priorities."

The Secretary of State doesn't get to conduct his own foreign policy contrary to the president's. The Secretary of Defense cannot start a war or invade a country over the objections of the Commander in Chief... just as the VP of sales cannot decide simply to ignore the product priorities of the CEO and the board of directors and pursue his own policies, as if he were in charge.

If he does, he will be given his walking papers.

Thank you, Democrats, for finally understanding that. What took you so long? (Did you attend public schools in Democratic districts?)

"Presidential appointees are judged not only on their professional skills but also their management abilities, their relationships with law enforcement and other governmental leaders and their support for the priorities of the president and the attorney general," Sampson said.

He strongly denied Democrats' allegations that some of the prosecutors were dismissed for pursuing Republicans too much and Democrats not enough in corruption cases.

"To my knowledge, nothing of the sort occurred here," he said.

To my knowledge, though the Democrats frequently drop sly hints to that effect, none has had the honesty to point to a single, specific instance where a prosecutor was demonstrably fired for pursuing corruption cases against a Republican, causing the case to collapse. And a "scandal" must have many such instances to warrant attention. Democrats don't even trouble to make the case anymore, preferring to rely upon inuendo and journalists' morbid imaginations.

True, individuals, including Sampson himself, are at risk if they deliberately lied to Congress. But on the merits of the case itself -- firing the attorneys -- there is not only no underlying crime, there is no underlying scandal: The firings were completely proper.

And I'm pleased that the Democrats themselves seem to recognize that fact, albeit only tacitly; that explains their shift of focus from "what did Bush know, and when did he know it" to "what did Kyle Sampson say, and why did he say it?"

In the end, even there, I suspect nothing will come if it, except to convince the American people that the Democrats are obsessed with one and only one goal: to "get" the president, by any means necessary.

This was charming, no doubt; but they shortly found out
That the Captain they trusted so well
Had only one notion for crossing the ocean,
And that was to tingle his bell.

Let Leahy tingle his bell. Poor fellow... what else has he got?

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, March 28, 2007, at the time of 5:49 PM

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» Voter fraud from Sister Toldjah
It’s just a myth, according to these guys. Right. Uh huh. Yep. Don’t you just love when you have a manufactured scandal over the firing of 8 US attorneys, some of them fired for (according to the DOJ) not pursing voter fraud allegations agg... [Read More]

Tracked on March 29, 2007 12:21 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist

The Politics of Politics

"The Politics of Politics" DURING a War sounds better.

Anyway, Americans are so stupid. We will pay dearly for such stupidity in the future, and i'm not talking decades into the future...

The above hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist at March 28, 2007 6:25 PM

The following hissed in response by: Big D

To paraphrase Shakspere "Never fear citizens of Rome! Brutus and company are on the job! Once the tyrant is dead, all will be well!"

Yeah, so how'd that work out for the Roman senators?

Next up for congress: figure out who fathered Anna Nichol's baby. But only if they think Bush might have done it. Wait, what am I saying? Of course he did it! We just have to prove it. With investigations. And if we can't prove it, that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Where there is smoke, there is fire. And maybe we'll get lucky, and be able to indict Bush on perjury, or obstruction of justice. Maybe we can flip some low level flunky to tells us about the real crimes of the Bush administration. Then it'll all unravel like a broken zipper on a tight black dress!!

The above hissed in response by: Big D at March 29, 2007 8:03 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Big D: