Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Just How Much is the White House Hiding?   The White House has said that they've looked over John Roberts' writings from the Solicitor General’s office during the President's father's administration.  The White House saw nothing in those documents of possible interest to the Senate.  And they are so confident that the documents are thoroughly harmless and unenlightening, that they insist that the Senate be prevented from seeing them as if life itself depended upon it. Curiouser and curiouser.  I had thought that Roberts probably was the slam dunk candidate that everyone has so far supposed.  Then I learned he lied about belonging to the Federalist Society.  And now I know the White House is desperate to prevent the Senate from getting access to the information they have a Constitutional obligation to present to the United States Senate, because, as we know, consent offered in ignorance is not consent at all.  The question is not what the White House is hiding; obviously, it's hiding opinions which would reflect disgrace and discredit on their Supreme Court candidate.  The question only is how many times the candidate wrote things that might prevent him from being confirmed...and the answer is, clearly, at least often enough they dare not even offer excerpts from his deliberations as Deputy Solicitor General.  He so regularly said things that would be damaging they have difficulty coming up with a representative sample that doesn't make him look bad. Again, I had thought that Roberts was probably not that bad...or at least not demonstrably that bad.  But now I know there are horrors sufficient to defeat his candidacy in his past.  It's only a question of whether they can be found in the time allowed, despite the White House's typical--and seemingly criminal--obstruction of a required Senate investigation. But White House officials breaking the law appears to be de riguer these days. 5:56:16 PM    comment []

The Stupidest Hearings EVER   There is finally going to be a Senate hearing related to the Plame leak investigation.  But are they going to examine the extent of the White House cover-up?  Are they going to see if the White House engaged in the destruction of documents in pursuit of that goal?  Are they going to try to find out which White House personnel were involved in damaging national security? They are not.  Republican Senator Pat Roberts is going to hold hearings into whether or not the CIA classifies too many agents as covert.  Because it's been our experience that what really lets intelligence operations hum is letting everyone know what they're doing.  It makes me wonder if Senator Roberts is...well...not too bright. But this is the Republican defense:  blame the victim.  National security and the prevention of WMD proliferation is just not important, at least not compared to the vast importance of the chief Republican priority of keeping two traitors, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, out of prison.  They increased the chance of another 9/11 because they didn't like Joseph Wilson.  And now they say it's the CIA's fault.  Sure, that makes sense.  After all, if the CIA wasn't trying to protect national security, then Rove and Libby would have had to work much harder to damage it. They still might have pulled it off, mind you, but it would have been much harder. 12:18:03 PM    comment []

The Stealth Candidacy   The President has decided it wants to risk its Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in order to withhold documents.  They offer up ancient Reagan administration files that are unlikely to contain legal opinions.  They withhold other ancient Bush Sr. administration files because, as Deputy Solicitor General, they would surely contain legal opinions.  These documents are over a decade-old, and relate to legal internal deliberations over Bush Sr. legal policy, which is well-established and surely settled.  There is no meaningful assertion of privilege to be made there.  If former President George Herbert Walker Bush felt that he might somehow be damaged by the legal opinions of his old administration, he is still perfectly capable of speech. The claim of Presidential privilege is false, even absurd.  The present Bush administration is refusing to release the documents because they know what's there.  They already looked.  And they don't want the Senate to see them because it might give Senators a correct opinion of John Roger's legal beliefs.  The White House wouldn't want the Senate to be able to fulfill its constitutional obligation to advise and consent on the basis of accurate information. 11:04:15 AM    comment []

Quote for the Day, 7/26/2005   "Is William...a man of his word?" "Is he selling you anything?" "No." "Then you may depend on him."   -George Bernard Shaw, The Devil's Disciple 8:31:11 AM    comment []