The Big Story

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. I'd just like to thank George Bush for sending our troops into a war of choice in a hostile region, with a culture and religion we don't understand and a language we don't speak, with inadequate equipment, horrible pre-war intelligence and grossly underestimated costs in human blood and tax dollars. I'd also like to thank the vast majority of the media for not showing the american people the reality of the war on the ground. It's been four years. Thanks a lot.

It'd be interesting to compare the frequency and sheer number of political scandals that this poor, bullied administration has had to go through over the last 6 years, to the number and frequency of scandals of administrations of the past. I didn't really get into politics until George II stole the White House in 2000... so I have to ask myself, "was it ALWAYS this bad?!??" I don't think there's been a day (since Cheney assumed absolute power of the government) thats passed in which some sort of gross incompetence or misconduct hasn't been uncovered by the press. The only thing this administration has proved to be competent at is twisting the facts and perpetuating an illusion of competence in the minds of the remaining 30% of american people that still actually support his policies. But maybe that's why they're so incompetent... they have to spend so much of their precious time covering up stupid decisions, that they have no time left to make informed ones.

The newest, biggest, shiniest scandal of the week is the firing of eight US attorneys by Alberto Gonzalez's office because they didn't prosecute "at the pleasure of the president", and weren't "loyal" enough to republicans in their indictments.

The firings were clearly political, but were technically legal thanks to a provision slipped into the Patriot Act by the Bush Administration, allowing the Justice Department to fire US attorneys in the middle of a presidential term and hire new ones without senate confirmation. (What that has anything to do with protecting us against terrorists, I have no idea) But there were at least 2 or 3 cases in which the administration undeniably stepped over the line. As the new issue of Newsweek points out:

In New Mexico the administration canned David Iglesias, a clean-cut former Navy lawyer who had been the model for the Tom Cruise character in the movie "A Few Good Men." Iglesias has told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was getting political pressure from lawmakers to indict Democrats in a local corruption case before the November elections.

(The department's internal evaluations had given Iglesias glowing marks.)

Yet another example of political retribution. Alberto claimed responsibility for the firings, but in the same sentence claimed that he had no knowledge of them and was "out of the loop". Yet another example of incompetence at every level.

But Clinton did the same thing!... you might be saying if you're an avid Fox News viewer. Yes it is typical for presidents to fire ALL of the old US attorneys at the beginning of a term and hire new ones. Gonzalez has defended his department's actions by stating that he believes the Attorney General not only legally, but ethically has the right to fire US attorneys for any reason at any time, even in the middle of a term. Funny, because Republicans were saying the exact opposite in 1993.

The difference here is that the Justice Department was clearly attempting to replace these specific attorneys without senate approval over purely political reasons, simply because they were either not prosecuting democrats enough over bogus evidence, or were too tough on Republicans. Then there's the tiny issue of them trying to cover it up and claim that these attorneys were in the "bottom tier" and just weren't good enough. Yet another lie.

Looks like Gonzalez is feeling the heat. He'll be the next to bite the dust. I don't know and I don't care enough to know about the boring details of this whole mess, but I decided to summarize it here only because I'm just totally disillusioned by how this cycle of scandals NEVER ENDS.