Thursday, January 26, 2006

The Jig is just about up...

When the Nixon administration begins to look like a paragon of political virtue and constitutional propriety, you know the jig is about up.

Richard Nixon finally said “Uncle.” And even though this nation was bordering on a constitutional crisis that the president could have forced, we averted one because the system worked as it’s supposed to. We had assertive checks and balances. We had a Congress concerned about unrestrained executive power and courts concerned about the law. In the end, Nixon had no choice but to bow to the American Way.

Today, the checks and balances appear to have gone on holiday. George Bush isn’t acting like a power-hungry dictator only because deep down he is one. He’s acting like a power-hungry dictator for the same reason the dog pleasures himself – because he can. There’s no one with any power in Washington willing to stop him. Congressional Republicans kowtow like the Bush Youth Corps; the federal courts are packed with executive-adoring Reaganites and the like; the media are far more concerned with protecting profits; and the Democrats … well, yes, so much for the voiceless Democrats.

A straightforward reporting piece in this morning’s New York Times encapsulated the problem writ large, without writing largely:

The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response....

The White House’s stance on storm-related documents, along with slow or incomplete responses by other agencies, threatens to undermine efforts to identify what went wrong, Democrats on the committees said Tuesday....

In response to questions later from a reporter, the deputy White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, said the administration had declined requests to provide testimony by [White House officials]. Mr. Duffy said the administration had also declined to provide storm-related e-mail correspondence and other communications involving White House staff members....

“The White House and the administration are cooperating with both the House and Senate,” Mr. Duffy said....

Nevertheless, both [Republican Senator Susan] Collins and Representative Thomas M. Davis III, a Virginia Republican who is leading the House inquiry, said that despite some frustration with the administration’s response, they remained confident that the investigations would produce meaningful results.

The NYT piece wasn’t about Katrina, folks.

LINK

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