As many times as we hear the story of Comey and Goldsmith standing up to the Administration, there always a few new twists and turns. Recall that we didn’t even know there was such a program until December 2005 when the New York Times reported it [having held the story for 13 months]. After the failed attempt to get Ashcroft to sign the renewal in the hospital, Bush et al were going to authorize it themselves based on a Yoo President-can-do-anything Memo. Comey, Goldsmith, and F.B.I. Director Mueller were preparing to resign. However, Rice intervened, and Bush called Comey and Mueller aside. In those meetings, they told Bush the gravity of their concerns and that they were resigning. Mueller challenged the Imperial Presidential power that Bush was about to exert:
Bush asked Comey and Mueller to meet and decide what would make the Program legal [we still don’t know the details]. When Comey communicated their conclusions to the President in a Memo, Gonzales replied with the incredible letter [in red]. I’ve read and reread it, and I think it says that the Department of Justice opinions are interesting, but what the President says is the Law. That’s pretty amazing! As it played out, the President did back down and change the Program, or so it is reported.
In one sense, we’ve read this story as a Profile in Courage – Jim Comey, Jack Goldsmith, and Robert Mueller standing up to the President and Vice President, defending the law of the land – doing their jobs. But I almost wish that they hadn’t engaged Condi to talk to the President – that they had resigned. Had James Comey, Jack Goldsmith, Robert Mueller, and maybe John Ashcroft resigned en masse, surely the reason would have come out. Meaning the whole John Yoo Memo debacle might have been known earlier, the NSA Unwarranted Domestic Spying Program might have been revealed, we might even have found out about the Torture Program. Recall that all of this came before the 2004 Presidential election, two weeks after Abu Ghraib was made public.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
t.s.eliot – burnt norton
Of course, Comey, Goldsmith, and Mueller are national heros – some of the few Republican loyalists who stood tall for our country’s principles. But oh the beauty of a mass DoJ, F.B.I. resignation, Abu Ghraib, exposure of the secret OLC Memos, the unwarranted spying, the torture program – all before the 2004 ballot was cast. Maybe the house of cards might have fallen. The possibilities were endless…
I can’t fathom an interpretation of Gonzales’ red memo any different than yours. And doesn’t it express perfectly the general attitude of King George and Baron Dick? The greatest threat to individual liberty in human populations is contained somewhere in the relationship between the sychophant and the sychophanted….in my humble opinion.
It is so tantalizing to rewind the tape and change history — if only we could.
The thought that, if only they had resigned, dubya might not have been re-elected in 2004 makes me ache for the possibility.
On the other hand, we wouldn’t have Obama as president now, because John Kerry would be in his second term. Nothing wrong with that, and we certainly wouldn’t be in such a mess and so in debt, but we may wind up ahead of the game on some issue BECAUSE it got so bad.
But we undoubtedly wouldn’t owe so much money to China.