Why This Scandal Matters (with Lanterneer commentary)

First of all, every Bush scandal matters.

Everyone one of them matters deeply.

The Justice Department scandal is extremely important on its own merits, but it is also important because it the only scandal that hasn't been successfully swept under the national rug by the GOP-controlled Congress for the last 6 years.

Seems we are not allowed to discuss the scandals (read: crimes) that have gone before, without being told that we are insane, petty, naive, etc. and that we need to move on.

Some times, we are told these things by the Times.

Why This Scandal Matters
NYT Editorial

As Monica Goodling, a key player in the United States attorney scandal, prepares to testify before Congress on Wednesday, the administration’s strategy is clear. It has offered up implausible excuses, hidden the most damaging evidence and feigned memory lapses, while hoping that the public’s attention moves on. But this scandal is too important for the public or Congress to move on. This story should not end until Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is gone, and the serious damage that has been done to the Justice Department is repaired.

People with Alzhiemer's should not be allowed to serve as Attorney General - PERIOD.

This scandal should not end with the firing or resignation of Gonzo, either. It should not end until this president is impeached and/or held accountable, to the fullest extent of the law- PERIOD.

The Justice Department is no ordinary agency. Its 93 United States attorney offices, scattered across the country, prosecute federal crimes ranging from public corruption to terrorism. These prosecutors have enormous power: they can wiretap people’s homes, seize property and put people in jail for life. They can destroy businesses, and affect the outcomes of elections. It has always been understood that although they are appointed by a president, usually from his own party, once in office they must operate in a nonpartisan way, and be insulated from outside pressures.

Observe the red letters. That's what really has The NYT in a dither.

Nothing in this White House has ever been non-partisan. How can they accomplish one party-rule and have an ounce of non-partisanship in their bones? Get Real.

This understanding has badly broken down. It is now clear that United States attorneys were pressured to act in the interests of the Republican Party, and lost their job if they failed to do so. The firing offenses of the nine prosecutors who were purged last year were that they would not indict Democrats, they investigated important Republicans, or they would not try to suppress the votes of Democratic-leaning groups with baseless election fraud cases.

Finally, the press gets it! It's Democracy Stealing, Stupid!

We have been telling you this for years. Where the hell were you people in 2000? 2002? 2004? 2006? (We won't ask about 2003. You all had your heads quite a way up your butts, or Judy Miller's, back then.)

The degree of partisanship in the department is shocking. A study by two professors, Donald Shields of the University of Missouri at St. Louis and John Cragan of Illinois State University, found that the Bush Justice Department has investigated Democratic officeholders and office seekers about four times as often as Republican ones.

While I agree that the partisanship at the DOJ is shocking (or would be in any other administration), what is more shocking is the infiltration of the DOJ by dim-witted, brain-washed crusading-crackpots, who have no experience at practicing law, let alone prosecuting federal cases, and no qualifications for their jobs, other than being brain-washed graduates of one or the other "christian" madrassas around the country and therefore, easily manipulated by the the authoritarians in this administration.

These people serve no higher purpose, it is apparent, than infiltrating government to the point of either codifying their twisted theolgy, or acting as if it has already been codified and putting the federal legal screws to all whom they deem dangerous, and al Qaeda isn't even a quarter of whom they consider dangerous. As a matter of fact, it seeems to me they are far more concerned with "libruls," Democrats and all things secular. (I think Episcopalians might be high on their list of anti-Christ forces, as well.)

It is hard not to see the fingerprints of Karl Rove. A disproportionate number of the prosecutors pushed out, or considered for dismissal, were in swing states. The main reason for the purge — apart from hobbling a California investigation that has already put one Republican congressman in jail — appears to have been an attempt to tip states like Missouri and Washington to Republican candidates for House, Senate, governor and president.

What odd phraseology, I observe here. "It is hard not to see the fingerprints of Karl Roive," you say?

Why would anyone try not to see them? My God, Rover's fingerprints are on everything from the stolen election of 2000 to the Iraq-lie-a-thon and cover-up, which involved your own Judy Miller, to the 2004 election, as well as every mid-term election in-between.

Is this your way of saying that Rover's corruption now stinks so horrifically than even the NYT editorial board can no longer venture out without a gas mask?

Justice Department headquarters has become deeply partisan. Young operatives like Ms. Goodling were apparently allowed to hire and promote based on party membership. Political appointees cleared the way for laws designed to disenfranchise minority voters, and brought litigation to remove Democratic-leaning voters from the rolls.

Lets not get too over-focussed on political appointees getting fired, although, in this care, we know that the firings were exceedingly political, if not criminal. It is equally important to look at the career people who have been hired by the Bush administration and who will be serving in their jobs long after the Bush administration has left office and their political appointees, along with them, are gone.

Those career people, who have been hired because of such qualifications as George Bush worship, being anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-muslim, anti-liberal, anti-democracy, pro-death penalty, pro-wars of aggression, pro-torture, pro-Gitmo, etc. will not be so easy to get rid of as political appointees will be.


The department’s integrity lies in tatters. As a result of the purge, Tim Griffin, a Republican operative and Karl Rove protégé, was installed as the top federal prosecutor in eastern Arkansas. Rachel Paulose, a 33-year-old Republican activist with thin prosecutorial experience, was assigned to Minnesota. If either indicted a prominent Democrat tomorrow, everyone would believe it was a political hit.

The nation's integrity lies in tatters!

Tim Griffin was Rover's man in charge of "vote caging" in 2004. We received copies of the e-mails, just hours before many of us left to work the election, that were mistakinly sent to the wrong address, were promptly forwarded to Greg Palast, who posted them all on the Internet. Yep, that would be the same Tim Griffin who sought to disenfranchize minorities who happned to be serving in Iraq. They were soldiers,. marines, sailors and the like.

Rachael Poluse? Oh yes, isn't she the one who yelled, rudely at people, when not quoting Bible verses as guidance for prosecutions, causing a mass exodus of AUSAs from the Minnesota office?

Congress has to save the Justice Department, something President Bush shows no interest in doing. It should pass a resolution of “no confidence” in Mr. Gonzales, and push for his removal. But it also needs to insist on new leadership that will restore the department’s traditions of professionalism and impartiality, and re-establish that in the United States, the legal system does not work to advance the interests of a political party.

Yes, Gonzo needs to go. So does everyone who has been appointed during his tenure.

As a matter of fact, the whole damned administration needs to go, to prison.

I'm afraid there will never again be much confidence in anything until there is accountability for those in high places, without exception and no deals, this time!

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free