More Comey
I think this Comey thing might finally be the one that makes me blow my top. Hopefully, it’ll make the American people wake up a bit as well.
I was listening to Open Source this afternoon - Greenwald and three other constitutional scholars, including one in the Reagan administration, were on the show discussing the Comey matter. All four of them were unified that these were impeachable offenses, and not the only ones purpetrated by the administration. Some key points, I thought, though again, the whole piece is worth a listen:
- The Democrats are holding back for political, not legal reasons. There seem to be two schools of thought on this: 1) they are under the impression that the American people want them to focus on domestic issues instead of constitutional issues and 2) that Democrats see it in their best interests to allow Bush to run rampant to protect their chances in 2008 (we’ll get back to that in a minute)
- That Comey, Ashcroft, etc. shouldn’t be regarded as heroes because the program they eventually signed off on is illegal (and has been judged unconstitutional by a circuit court, now under appeal).
- That the Bush administraiton finally blinked over the program because of election year (2004) fear of mass resignations and the impact they would have on Bush’s reelection. Someone else suggested that they were so intent to get Ashcroft to sign off for fear that Kerry would win and indict them all.
- Still more questions about what was changed that persuaded Ashcroft and Comey that the program was legal. All of these guys on the program were tripping over their tongues in their attempts to explain its vast illegality.
Here’s a point that I’ve been thinking about, which I don’t think has been raised (if it has, please point me in the right direction). On March 10, when Gonzales and Card go to the hospital, Ashcroft has already put Comey in charge. Everyone involved must know this fact - there is no way that the WH Chief of Staff and WH Counsel could possibly be unaware of this. And yet they go to the hospital anyway.
Everyone has pointed out that this was an “end run” around the DOJ, but I think a more significant question is what were they going to do with Ashcroft’s signature? Given that his signature had no standing at that point, one has to assume that they planned to either bury the document or backdate it. Knowing that Comey objected, and would possibly object publicly to the plan, what else could their intentions have been? What was their plan when Ashcroft got out of the hospital? He, too, would obviously have objected to the legality of his signature on the document.
I don’t want to sound too conspiracy-ish, but the only way for their plan to work that night is for them to backdate the document and then for Ashcroft to die. In every other scenario either Comey or Ashcroft can blow the lid off the whole thing. (Of course, I’m not suggesting in any way that they planned on killing Ashcroft, but rather that the man was very ill and that his death would be convenient.) If he lives, the WH has to go back and negotiate with DOJ, if he dies with the document signed, the program goes on. With a seemingly valid document, it would just be Comey screaming into the wind against the entire administration.
I can’t think of another reason to go to the hospital that night, knowing as they must have that Ashcroft had delegated his AG powers to Comey. What does that say about the kind of people we have running our government?
Which brings us back to the Democrats. Put 2008 out of your minds and do this now. There is another year and a half of this. The rate at which this unabashed lawlessness on the part of the Bush administration is coming out, there may not be an election in 2008. This is the kind of thing that brings empires down. This isn’t Nixon’s psychotic, paranoid nonsense and it isn’t Clinton’s pathetic boorishness and inept lying - this is the cornerstones of the constitution and democracy being systematically pried up by people who value power at the expense of all else. We can’t afford to have the Democrats value their own power over the American people as well. It’s Pelosi’s duty as Speaker to put the American people before the presumed interests of the Democratic party.
Again: Special Prosecutor. Now. And put impeachment back on the table.
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