My knowledge of the law is less than zero, but all day, I’ve been thinking about my embryonic understanding of how the law views motive in meting out justice. I think taking a few days off from reading the shameful news out of Washington allowed me to come back to it with renewed outrage. There’s a definite distinction between a premeditated crime, a crime committed in the heat of passion, and an inadvertent crime – first degree murder, second degree murder, and manslaughter come to mind. This kind of distinction is playing a heavy role in Plamegate – did they "know" they were outing a secret agent? Sure. But there’s more.
How about the whole thing? It’s inconceivable that they didn’t know that the Niger Uranium story or the trumped up business about the aluminum tubes was a flawed, probably wrong Intelligence. It’s impossible to believe they didn’t know that having the N.S.A. eavesdrop on U.S. citizens was illegal. It’s beyond consideration that they thought that spying on the U.N. Security Council was allowed by any avenue of American law. The list goes on and on. They knew what they were doing, and knew there were prohibitions to their doing it over and over. In retrospect, in every case, they give some rationale or another for the specific act in question, but there is a much simpler explanation. They did what they wanted to do at the limits of what they thought they could get away with [which was almost anything]. Every piece in this puzzle of scandals is a premeditated, conscious abuse of power.
The arrogance behind such a widespread pattern of bending the law is apparent in every move. In the Bush Administration, the rules by which we are governed are just something to go around, like John Bolton’s appointment during a Congressional recess even though there were clear signs that he was unwanted choice for U.N. Ambassador. The systematic and conscious dismantling of our fundamental system of government is staggering, and yet it continues. And it’s premeditated. They know what they’re doing.
I’m in my mid-60s and I’ve seen a bunch of movies where the government was taken over by fascists or some other devious group. I’ve read my share of summer action novels with similar plots. But, like most of us, I never thought of it as something that might really happen. I guess we all have assumed that any group of people who makes it to such levels would at least have the welfare of our system in mind. Even crazy Nixon limited his craziness to paranoid campaign struggles. Philandering Bill Clinton kept his lying confined to his sexcapades. These people we have now see no boundries. Their agenda is American Dominion over the World, Republican Dominion over America, and their own Dominion over the Republicans. They start an unnecessary, completely made-up war, then justify breaking any number of laws by saying it’s part of their war power. How circular is that argument? And it’s premeditated.
The long and short of it is that they don’t believe in America. They don’t think our Democracy works or that Checks and Balances matter. They trashed the United Nations, the Geneva Conventions, our own C.I.A., our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Separation of Church and State, the Balance of Powers, and our traditions of human decency. Tom Clancy couldn’t have dreamed up this scenerio if he’d tried. And it’s premeditated.
So what I’d suggest in case you have a case of scandal fatigue or find yourself just too tired of it all to think about it, take a few days off. Go out of town. Eat in some good restaurants. Visit your kids. After a few days, come back and catch up on your blogs. I guarantee that it’ll put the fire back in your belly…
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