Rove in the Docket
By Mike Whitney
03/19/07 "ICH" -- --
Democratic leaders have consistently shown that they are no
match for their Republican counterparts. Whenever an opportunity
presents itself to swoop down for the kill; congressional
Democrats start preening for the cameras or bloviating on the
floor of the House.
That’s not how you get things done in Washington. If the
Democrats are serious about ruling, they ought to bring a
sledgehammer to work and start pounding away at the obstacles.
The firing of the “Gonzales 8” is a perfect opportunity to
zero-in on the Justice Department and start tossing bodies on
the burn pile. But it’ll take someone with enough brains to
figure out what’s really going on and big enough cahones to go
for the jugular. That’s how a predator brings down the live-game
and that’s what it’ll take to rout the mob bosses at the D.O.J.
Anyone who gets squeamish over a little political blood-letting
should probably get a job in retail--not government.
Gonzales is already on his last legs. He signed his own death
warrant by his ham-fisted treatment of the US Attorneys. The
firings have turned out to be big trouble for Team Bush.
Gonzales has hung a giant Bull’s Eye on the administration’s
back and then pushed them in front of the firing squad. All the
Democrats have to do is take aim and blast away.
But are they up to it?
The firing of the Attorney’s appears to be one of those careless
slip-ups that happen when men are blinded by hubris. Rove and
Gonzales knew that their actions would start a political
firestorm, but decided to go ahead anyway. Now they’re getting
pummeled from all sides and someone will have to be thrown to
the wolves. The question is: Who?
There’s no doubt now that the firings were politically
motivated. Whether the attorneys failed to investigate voter
fraud cases (which would have contested elections where
Democrats won) or whether they were just too eager in pursuing
corruption charges against Republicans; the cases all bear one
striking similarity—the attorneys’ resisted Washington’s
meddling and then ended up paying the price. They were all
canned. End of story.
The Dems need to find out who was behind the purge? Was it
Bush’s buddy Gonzales or the Houston schoolmarm, Harriet Miers?
The problem is that neither Miers nor Gonzales had a motive.
They didn't care how cases were prosecuted in San Diego or
Seattle. What difference did it make to them? And why would they
want to replace hard working, conservative attorneys with party
hacks? They had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
The only one who had a motive was Karl Rove. Rove’s job is to
build a permanent Republican majority and smash the Democratic
Party in the process. If that means replacing principled
conservatives in the US Attorneys Office with Bush loyalists;
then, so be it.
The question of “corrupting the justice system” probably never
entered Rove’s mind. The Military Commissions Act, the Patriot
Act, the repeal of habeas corpus, due process and the
presumption of innocence are all grim reminders of the
administration’s contempt for justice. They have equal disdain
for law enforcement; preferring 9-11-type round ups by federal
shock troops rather than the traditional methods of crime
prevention.
So why are the Democrats so surprised that the US Attorney’s
offices would be turned into a political beehive for Bush
loyalists?
Isn’t that the logical extension of the way the administration
conducts all of its business? Politics are of paramount
importance and everything else is secondary. Rove was just
assembling the levers of power so he could destroy his rivals
whenever he chose.
Wasn’t that the real objective?
Of the hundreds of articles which have appeared in the
mainstream press; only one reveals the real strategy behind
firings. Adam Liptak of the New York Times summed it up like
this:
“Whatever motivated the recent firings, they are of a piece
with the administration’s efforts to centralize power in
Washington….A crisis like the Sept. 11 attacks creates the
occasion for a monolithic model for law enforcement and national
security…..It creates a lot of pressure for a top-down model.
That includes even traditionally autonomous actors like U.S.
attorneys” (Adam Liptak, “For Federal Prosecutors, Politics
is Ever-Present” NY Times)
Bingo!
“Centralized power”, “top-down model”, “monolithic model of law
enforcement and national security”; these are the basic elements
of authoritarian, “one party” rule. In other
words--dictatorship.
Whose dream is that; Gonzales? Miers?
Nonsense.
The purge of the US Attorneys has Rove’s bloody fingerprints all
over it. Justice doesn’t matter. Law enforcement doesn’t matter.
All that matters is destroying one’s enemies, rewarding one’s
friends, and strengthening the one party system. That’s it. It’s
even better if the friends are crooks. That just makes them
easier to control.
The Democrats need to realize that the Bush administration’s
success relies heavily on key players who are indispensable to
the smooth operation of the political machine. Rove is the main
gear in the state apparatus. He is the brain-trust for Bush’s
oligarchy of racketeers.
Taking down Rove should be the Democrats’ top priority. Ousting
Miers or Gonzales achieves nothing. It is a waste of time. If
you’re gonna beat Bush, you gotta go after Rove.
That means issuing subpoenas, building a case, marching Rove to
the docket, and grilling him until he cracks.
Anything else is bound to fail.Click here
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