The good soldier

Awestruck by the steady stream of reports coming out of the White House that serve to underscore both the Administration’s incompetence and its outright arrogance, I guess I’ve just been too overwhelmed of late to post recently. I mean where to start?

Scooter Libby? Let’s face it, this was a tempest in a teapot that only Beltway insiders cared about. Libby played the good soldier and threw himself on the grenade to protect the people in the regime who really matter in the party machinery. Otherwise, all the trial did was give expose the cynical game the Washington establishment and the media play with each other. Libby goes to jail and the American public is supposed to feel justice was done. No doubt Libby will be given a presidential pardon by December 31, 2008, and will have a cushy job waiting for him at Halliburton—assuming, of course, he and his family are willing to move to Dubai.

A recent cover story in Time magazine recently asked, “How the Right Went Wrong.” The answer to that, my friends, is as old as time itself (no pun intended): Hubris. Pure hubris (which incidentally, is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Why do those Christian talibanists often fail to remember that one mortal sin?)

Well, having spun the Wheel of Woes, I have decided to weigh in on the controversy over the firing of U.S. attorneys that appears to be leading into the White House.

Like the Libby case, it looks like the “cover up” may be worse than the actual “crime,” with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales poised to be the next scapegoat who’ll be taking take one for the team, as the Justice Department scrambles to come up with a consistent story about the firings.

This latest controversy brings to mind the infamous 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre,” when then-President Richard Nixon—at the height of the Watergate scandal—ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the independent special prosecutor assigned to the case, Archibald Cox. Refusing to compromise the integrity of his personal reputation as well as that of the Justice Department, Richardson resigned. As did the Deputy Attorney General, William Ruckelshaus, when he was given the same order. (Solicitor General Robert Bork was subsequently named acting head of the Justice Department, who then fired Cox.)

While a dark time in American history, the episode was a unique moment when the Constitution, personal and institutional integrity, and the federal government’s checks and balances were tested to their limits and, perhaps in a rather torturous manner, affirmed.

Clearly, Mr. Gonzales does not seem to recognize his responsibilities as the highest law enforcement official of the nation. Instead, he feels being subservient and beholden to political patronage is more important than upholding the integrity of the Justice Department’s reputation and integrity. And that without having the trust of Congress or the nation, it will be impossible to for him to fulfill his responsibilities as Attorney General.

Who would have thought it possible that a presidential administration could come along that could make one pine for the moral certitude of the Nixon era?