The US Attorney Scandal

I have for the past few years become a bore by harping on the scandalous behaviour of the Bush regime. It seems to see as legitimate pretty much anything I see as corrupt. Two different points of view I suppose. It is one thing to disagree with someone on purely political grounds, that is after all the essence of democracy. But it is quite another to be so totally arrogant in the exercise of power that you become able to break with impunity all the traditional values and rules that helped define that democratic process.

The Republican party has become so infested with ideas that allow, or encourage, corruption that it is beyond scary. This latest scandal – the wholesale firing of District Attorneys who were either slow or refused to attack Demotratic politicians during the last election cycle is so disgusting that words are insufficient. The legal system is not a vehicle for political gain. Or rather it is not supposed to be. It is supposed to be a bulwark of decency and impartiality, not a cesspool of privilege and sinecure. Yet somehow the White House and our lamentable Attorney General don’t see it that way. They pushed through, undebated and with the help of Senator Specter, a new article in the Patriot Act, that allowed them to fire and hire US Attorneys without reference to Congress. That’s about as blatant as it gets. Furthermore: apparently the White House attorney, the equally lamentable Harriet Miers, drew up a ‘hit list’ of attorneys who were not doing their bit for the Republican election campaign. They all got the chop. And Gonzalez tells us that it was all routine and has been vastly misunderstood.

Yes. Right. And pigs fly.

The good news is that the Republicans lost the election and the Democrats can now hold hearings and impeach the law-breakers. It is time to take back our democracy from these thugs. Let’s hope Congress has the courage to re-assert its jurisdiction. And let’s hope that America can emerge realtively uncscathed from the dark days of the Bush regime.