1 Boring Old Man

2 Former Aides to Bush Get Subpoenas
Miers, Taylor Had Roles in Firings Of U.S. Attorneys

The White House gave no indication that it intends to comply with the demands. "It’s clear that they’re trying to create some media drama," said spokesman Tony Snow, referring to Democratic lawmakers.

By targeting two former administration officials, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) are hoping that Miers and Taylor might decide to reach accords with the House and Senate committees, regardless of the administration’s interests, according to congressional aides.

A similar tactic resulted in damaging public testimony earlier this year from D. Kyle Sampson and Monica M. Goodling, two former senior aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who were at the center of the prosecutors’ dismissals.

Today’s article in the Washington Post describes the subpoenas as a "tactic" to induce these two women to testify regardless of what the Administration says. Tony Snow likewise sees these subpoenas as a strategy to create "media drama." Bush, as usual, dismisses it as "political" – a motive familiar to him. In our government, we do seem to describe most debated issues with these terms – terms that impy that the motive for what people say are hidden behind their words, and those motives are discounted as greedy or underhanded "political" motives.

I suppose it’s the nature of politics to do that – to attack hidden, unsavory motives rather than directly address the ‘straight’ message. It’s why we have courts, and laws. The legal system is, in essence, designed to deal with the self-serving nature of human logic. A suspected criminal tells their version of the story, the prosecution tells the other side, and a Judge or Jury decides where the relative truth is in this sea of selfish logic.

That’s what makes this particular crisis so critical. At it’s core, this is an assault of "the law" itself. We’ve heard from David Iglesias, John McKay, Todd Graves, Bud Cummins. They are all Republicans. They are all Republican appointees. We’ve seen Patrick Fitzgerald. He’s a Republican appointee. We’ve heard James Comey. He’s a Republican and a Republican appointee. I was impressed. While they didn’t say what I wanted them to say all the time, I believed them almost from the moment they started talking. I felt the same way about Valerie Plame [but I could certainly be accused of having other motives there]. But I sort of felt it, to my surprise, with Monica Goodling. There were times when the Congressmen attempted to get her to conclude things that she evaded – that seemed natural. But she had ‘stepped over the line’ and said it. She was being conned by Gonzales and said it. As opposed to what she did as I am [partisanize the DoJ], as a witness – I mostly believed her.

When Tony Snow says, "It’s clear that they’re trying to create some media drama," I don’t believe him. I think he’s attacking the congressional investigators as a way of trying to discount them, rather than face their allegations. When George W. Bush says anything, absolutely anything, I don’t believe him. I never have, and I doubt I ever will. When Dick Cheney speaks, I actually believe that he believes what he is saying, but that he has a paranoid illness that so clouds his judgement and logic that whatever he says is suspect – period.

It would be naive to decry politics – people making self-serving arguments to further their cause. It’s just the way things work in a Democracy. But it is completely right to decry this assault on our legal system. The Republican Administration of today is so cynical, that they don’t even believe in relative truth – the best we can do in the face of human narcissism. They think that politics is all there is, and that legal decisions that don’t go their way are always partisan. Therein lies the danger of this Administration. They are, themselves, deeply cynical people. They see only the dark side of human beings – and act accordingly. They ridicule and laugh off what’s decent in others out of hand. Unfortunately, what this means is clear. You can’t see in others what you don’t have inside yourself.

Watching the Hearings, I admit that Leahy and Schumer are more "political" than I would like, though they’re also pretty solid citizens. But Feinstein, Whitehouse, Conyers, and Waxman, are as credible a group as anyone could ask for. That’s why we need to hear from Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor [and ultimately, Karl Rove]. When it’s all said and done, we are the ultimate Jury in this country, and this one needs to come to trial in front of us. In spite of the assault on our legal system, we’re still out here intact – and this is a decision we need to make. We can no longer count on our usual method of dealing with things – a special prosecutor.

I’ve been saying that our salvation is in the Congress. But I now think that’s not totally true. We are our own salvation. The Congressional Hearings get the case into the court of public opinion. Ironically, it appears that we’re who the Administration is trying to hide from…