The White Man Claims He Can Fly

Carrie Johnson of The Washington Post held an online discussion today on the e-mails and transcripts the House Judiciary Committee released yesterday that firmly implicate Karl Rove and Harriett Miers having a deep involvement in the firing U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico. Why? All because Iglesias was deemed insufficiently political and partisan in his treatment of Democrats in the state. I think it's clear these two were playing point for this effort to purge other attorneys that wouldn't kiss Republican ass. Clearly illegal....

One questioner/commenter put this to WaPo's Johnson, who writes about Justice Dept. issues:

Silver Spring, MD: I remember the days after the election when there was talk of investigations and trials about the Bush administration. My neighbor, who is even more liberal than me, was thirsting for retribution against Rove, Cheney, Bush, et al. I told him "no." It is simply not in the nature of Americans to do that; we are always wanting to "move on" to the next thing.

For all of the anger and denials around Rove and the firing of the prosecutors a few years ago, I think most Americans today would shrug and say:

"Sure, Rove and the administration wanted to boot the appointed prosecutors who were not supporting their agenda. We don't have a tape of him saying that directly, but everyone knew it. So what? It's 2009 and we have a lot of important things going on NOW."

America, always moving forward.

Carrie Johnson: Thanks for your comments. You've hit on a real, ongoing point of debate here.

Not in the nature of Americans? To obey the law? I think we're all taught and encouraged from birth to death to follow the law in America. So no, I don't want "move on," look ahead and forget the past and feel American about it. You're letting the crooks get the best of you. This is a two-tiered legal system you're supporting. And you ain't on the good one. But apologize and grovel in the name of your superiors. They see nothing wrong with it....

And Carrie Johnson's answer was a disappointment also. She was just happy thinking this makes a case for "middle of the road" conventional approaches to this, but everyone here knows that they should (but won't) be prosecuted for tampering here.

You want to know what this comes down to? David Kurtz at TPM sums it up quite aptly with his simultaneously delightful and depressing Harriett Miers personality test. Kurtz:

If you were White House counsel and someone from the White House political shop approached you, just before the midterm elections, about intervening with the Justice Department to help out a congressman from your party under criminal investigation, you would:

(a) Fire his ass on the spot.
(b) Drop kick him from the West Wing to a closet-sized office in the EEOB, never to be heard from again.
(c) Send a memo to everyone in the political office warning against any contacts with DOJ officials regarding any ongoing investigations.
(d) Get the deputy attorney general on the phone and see whether you could get him to publicly exonerate the congressman, then dutifully email back the political operative to report on how the call went.

If you answered (d), you're qualified to be nominated to the Supreme Court.

That was the definitive Harriett Miers as she tried to bailout then-Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Corrupt) on his ultimately losing election day. She took orders from the bloodsuckers in the White House's charged political side, led by chief hit-man Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove, to intimidate the Department of Justice, or at least try to see how far being a top-notch President Bush-crony got ya.

MC Rove knows where it gets ya.



Next Day Update: AP's Matt Apuzzo breaks it down to almost elementary proportions. But that's what's needed at a time where the bar is continually raised in what our officials have to do to be punished.