Sunday’s Update

Sorry for the dely in updating, I’ll try to do better in the future.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that Alberto Gonzales’ days as Attorney General are limited. Thursday saw Kyle Sampson telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that Alberto Gonzales’ statements that he was not involved in the firing of U.S. Attorneys were not accurate. While it was apparent that Mr. Sampson was not looking to sell Mr. Gonzales out, what with his repeated insistance that there was nothing improper about the firings, the reluctance of his testimony made it all the more damning. Between Mr. Sampson’s testimony and Mr. Gonzales’ eroding support on Capitol Hill, it’s hard to see how much longer he can hold on.

One more point on the Attorney General scandal. After watching Sampson testify on Thursday, I could not help but feel a little sorry for him. While Sampson clearly played a pivotal role in firing the U.S. Attorneys, it seemed clear to me, at least, that Sampson was merely implementing his bosses’ decision. This makes me wonder what happens to disgraced former chiefs of staff in Washington, is it a Hollywoodesque “you’ll never work in this town again” situation, or will Sampson land on his feet as a K Street lobbyist? Not sure how I want this one to work out, ideally Sampson would discover religion and spend the rest of his life ministering to the destitute, but I suppose that I would settle for anything that does not reward Sampson for his role in this scandal.

Iran continues to release video of the British sailors and marines who were captured more than a week ago. It seems apparent that this crisis will not be resolved soon and I’m still at a loss to understand what the Iranian government hopes to accomplish by releasing these videos. I can’t help but feel that these statements are coerced and that the Iranians are actually undermining their position by releasing these videos, but that’s just me.

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Senate Hearings, Iran, and the Final Four

Well, tomorrow promises to be a big news day with Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales’ former chief scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. While it’s not clear exactly what Mr. Sampson will say, at least one source has opined that he will have to choose between “I was out of control” and “My boss is untruthful.” Hard to see how either option helps Gonzales or the Bush administration.

The confrontation between Great Britain and Iran appears to be heating up with the British Foreign Secretary announcing that Great Britain will suspend all bilateral talks with Iran except for those aimed at gaining the release of the detained sailors and marines and the Iranian government releasing a videotaped statement/confession from one of the British sailors apparently intended to show that the British military personnel were in Iranian waters when they were captured. Am I the only one who views these presumably coerced statements as further proof that the British servicemembers were captured in Iraqi waters? If I am, can anyone explain why statements such as this should be given credence?

Finally, the Final Four will take place this weekend, an event that fills me with apathy. Part of it is that I’m not a basketball fan (call me a heretic, but most of the time when I watch basketball all I see is a bunch of really tall guys running back and forth unable to stop the other team from scoring) but mostly I have serious qualms about the commercialization of college athletics. I won’t deny anyone’s right to root for their alma mater (though I will posit that when it’s been more than ten years since you graduated that diehard support (think facepaint, jerseys and all out parties on gameday) for your college or university’s athletic teams is somewhat pathetic; if you want to support your alma mater at that point, give cash) but it seems to me that NCAA Division I athletics is all about the money these days. Between the prospects looking to be drafted into the pros, the rich alums donating large sums to ensure that the best recruits wind up in the “right” program, the TV contracts, and merchandising efforts, it’s hard for me to believe that the “student-athletes” who will be playing in the Final Four this weekend will be doing so solely for school pride.

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A New Beginning

Pardon the Star Wars reference, but if the shoe fits, you might as well wear it. This past week I was on vacation and, even though I had more free time on my hands than ususal, it seems that I was no more successful in keeping my blog up to date than I was in doing any of the productive things I intended to do during my week off. On the plus side, I can recommend a biography of Horatio Nelson, for whatever that’s worth.

On to, or back to, if you prefer, the events of the day. It was a bad weekend for the Bush adminisration, with three Republican Senators (Chuck Hagel, Arlen Specter, and Lindsay Graham) publically questioning Gonzales’ account of his role in the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys (any suggestions as to a viable shorthand for “the eight U.S. Attorneys” are welcome. TEUSA, while playing on the government’s penchant for acronyms, seems a little unwieldly; I’m hoping for something along the lines of the “Keating Five,” but the “Gonzales Eight” doesn’t seem to fit). Seems that every time the Justice Department releases additional documents about the firing of the U.S. Attorneys the documents undermine what Attorney General Gonzales and/or his spokespeople have said about his role in firing the eight U.S. Attorneys. I will be the first to confess that I have zero experience in covering up governmental malfeasance, but were I put in charge of such an effort, rule number one would be to look at the paper trail before talking to the press. In spite of the newly damning documents, and increasing opposition to Attorney General Gonzales in his own part, President Bush remains supportive of his Attorney General. I’m not trying to be overly cynical, but when the statements that your own Attorney General has made are contradicted by internal documents and the liason between the Attorney General and the White House is refusing to testify to the Senate on Fifth Amendment grounds, it seems to me that President Bush’s confidence in Attorney General Gonzales is misplaced.

The first trial to be conducted by the military tribunals at Guantanamo resulted in a guilty plea today. Although some may view David Hicks’ guily plea as a vindication of the military tribunals set up by the Bush administration to try “enemy combatants,” the story leading up to Mr. Hicks’ guilty plea, including the fact that the presiding officer ordered Hicks’ two civilian attorneys to leave the hearing, leads me to conclude that these hearings are nothing more than kangaroo courts where the deck is stacked heavily in the favor of the prosecution. In light of the fact that the Common Law system of justice has always placed the burden of proof on the government, and provided safeguards to criminal defendants, I cannot view Mr. Hicks’ guilty plea as anything close to legitimate.

On a less depressing note, it was announced today that the major Protestant and Catholic parties in Northern Ireland have reached a power sharing agreement which will allow an Irish government to govern Northern Ireland instead of the British government. Let’s all hope that this agreement paves the way for a reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Is a future reuniting of Ireland in the future? Only time will tell.

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Slow News Day

Well, I’ve figured out the Achilles’ heel of a current events blog and it is a slow news day. When your local paper leads with an article about highway construction that won’t begin until next month, it’s hard to believe that you will find much to blog about in the day’s news, so I may be touching on a couple of items today that are a day or two old.

The Palestinian parliament recently approved a new government, albeit a government that refuses to renounce violence or recognize the right of Israel to exist. While the fact that the Palestinians seem to have overcome their internal differences to form a new government might be seen as encouraging, the overall situation does not seem improved by the approval of a new Palestinian government. Most western governments, including the EU (yes, technically not a government, but still a member of the “Quartet” charged with crafting a lasting peace in the Middle East) and the U.S., refuse to give aid to the Palestinian government until the Palestinian government renounces violence and recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist. While some, including the EU, have recently indicated that there may be some flexibility with regard to these conditions, even if the new Palestinian government is accepted by the rest of the world and receives foreign aid, a continued refusal to recognize the right of the State of Israel seems to me to be a complete deal breaker regardless of whatever else happens. I’m neither a diehard Zionist, nor a member of the Intifadah, but I am at a loss to understand why Israel should negotiate with an entity that denies its right to exist, or why the Palestinians would want to negotiate with an invalid entity (if I have just effectively explained why there has been no lasting peace in the Middle East to date, I won’t be shy about accepting credit). Bottom line, I don’t think there can be a meaningful peace in the Middle East unless the Palestinians (and to a lesser degree, the rest of the Arab world) accepts that Israel has a right to exist.

At the end of a slow news day, signs of a future post bonanza! Apparently, while President Bush will allow White House aides, including Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to “testify” (those are deeply sarcastic quotation marks, for those keeping score at home) about the firing of U.S. Attorneys he will allow then to do so only “in private, ‘without the need for an oath’ and without a transcript.” Forgive my cynicism, but what good are private, unsworn, and untranscribed statements? While the AP article I’m commenting upon indicates that those giving statements to Congress would be obligated to tell the truth even if they are not under oath, it seems to me that this obligation is meaningless if there is no permanent record of what Rove, et al. said. In the end, this article raises two questions for me: 1) presuming that the White House has the authority to dictate the circumstances under which White House aides can testify to Congress (Count me as a skeptic; can a party to a lawsuit dictate the terms under which a witness called to testify in court will testify? No, and for good reason, allowing a party to dictate the conditions under which a witness will testify undermines the fundamental purpose of a trial, which is to discover the truth about what happened. While I have to acknowledge that Congressional testimony is not the same as courtroom testimony, I belive that the end is the same and that the President (not just George W.) should not be able to deny the American people the truth by trotting out a hackneyed separation of powers argument.), does that authority to dictate the circumstances under which former White House aides (i.e. Miers) can testify; and 2) is there no limit to George W. Bush’s hubris?

Sorry if the structure is was a little awkward this evening, I’ll aim for more clarity tomorrow.

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Catching Up

My apologies for the two day delay in updating my blog, but whatever bug was making its way through my kids the past week kicked my butt for most of the past 48 hours. In order to make up for lost time, I’ll be running through the recent headlines, as opposed to commenting in depth on particular stories.

Let’s see, what has happened in the world since I last shared my thoughts with the world at large?

On Friday, Valerie Plame was on Capital Hill, testifying about the leaking of her identity to the press. From what I have read about her testimony, it’s not clear that her testimony added anything to what is already known about how and why her name was leaked to the press, but it seems clear that while Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation is over, the Congressional investigation into this matter has just begun.

Speaking of Congressional investigations, the brouhaha over the firing of seven U.S. Attorneys shows no signs of abating. Not only has the White House changed its story about Harriet Miers’ role in the firings, but at least three GOP lawmakers have now publically called for Attorney General Gonzales to resign, including Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, who called for the appointment of an Attorney General with “more professional focus rather than personal loyalty” to President Bush. With such public criticism of Gonzales from Republicans, it’s easy to suppose that Gonzales will be domino number two to Scooter Libby, but only time will tell. One sure bet is that with Senator Patrick Leahy telling NBC that any White House officials called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committe will have to do so under oath, the remaining years of the George W. Bush presidency will be long ones for Karl Rove, et. al.

Three New York City Police Department detectives were indicted for their roles in the shooting death of Sean Bell. I will confess that, in no small part because I don’t live in New York City, I have not been following this story closely, but it seems to me that presenting this case to the grand jury was probably the best way for the District Attorney deal with the public outrage that followed the shooting. If the D.A. had declined to press charges, some segments of the population would no doubt have seen that decision as part of a cover up intended to protect New York City police officers who shot an unarmed black man. By presenting the case to the a grand jury made up of the public, the D.A. effectively put that decision in the hands of the public, which makes the charging process more transparent. At the same time, the old saw about a prosecutor being able to convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, has some truth (inasmuch as only the prosecutor presents evidence to the grand jury), so I don’t think that there will be any resolution to this matter until the trial(s) are over, and I believe that trial(s) are forthcoming because I don’t see any of the indicted officers entering into a plea agreements.

This coming Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and, as expected, this past weekend saw public demonstrations in opposition to, and in support of, the war. I’ll stay off of my soapbox this evening but there were a couple of interesting articles in Slate today about the Iraq war. Christopher Hitchens’ article defends our actions, but only by viewing the events that lead up to the invasion from through a “what we knew then” lens. While it may be possible to justify the decision to invade Iraq using that lens, the evident lack of planning for how to govern or manage a post-invasion Iraq, the issue that sticks in my craw more than anything else at this point, can’t be explained away by saying that civil war was not predictable.

For those who are wondering whether reality has reached the upper levels of our government, the answer is apparently no. In spite of this, I was pleased, and genuinely touched, to read an AP story today about how Secretary of Defense Robert Gates makes a point of adding three or four handwritten lines to the letters that are sent to the families of our servicemembers who have died in the line of duty.

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AG Troubles

Before I get to my main issue of the day, and to complete (more or less) my commentary on the news events that lead me to start this blog, I wanted to take a moment to address the ongoing scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. As public support for our military involvement in Iraq has dropped, I have heard any number of times that while people may disagree with the war in Iraq, that people are supporting our troops. Because of this, I was not surprised that the substandard care that our wounded were receiving at Water Reed (and at some VA facilities as well) generated a great deal of furor. In fact, I would argue that if we are not providing our wounded soldiers with the absolute best medical care that our nation can provide that we should not be placing our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in harm’s way, but I cannot help but wonder why the response to this scandal was so different than the response to the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghreb.

If I recall correctly, while a number of enlisted personnel were court martialed for mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghreb, the accountability did not make it very far up the chain of command, even if you include the Army Reserve (National Guard? I confess I can’t remember at this point.) general who was forced to resign. By contrast, within a week of the press reporting on the conditions at Walter Reed, generals were sacked, the Army’s Surgeon General resigned under pressure, and the Secretary of the Army was forced out. So what is the difference between these two scandals?

I won’t insult either our wounded soldiers or the Iraqi detainees by claiming that the actions of our military was worse in one case than the other. For purposes of this commentary, I will posit that providing substandard care to our wounded troops is at least as bad as allowing our unwounded troops to abuse and degrade Iraqi detainees. Is the reason why the Water Reed scandal claimed the civilian head of the Army because Donald Rumsfeld is no longer Secretary of Defense? Has Robert Gates been able to institute a culture of accountability in the Pentagon so soon after taking office? Or is it that President Bush leaned on the Pentagon for quick results so that his administration would not get bogged down in the sort of investigatory hearings that Congress would undoubtedly undertake after such a scandal was uncovered, especially now that Democrats are in charge? Or, most disturbingly of all, is it that what happened to Iraqi detainees doesn’t matter nearly so much as what happens to our own troops?

On to Alberto Gonzales! By my reckoning, the office of every cabinet member should come equipped with a sculpture (think the ten commandments, but shorter and less religious) intended to remind the cabinet member that it’s the cover up that will bring down the administration, not the actual misdeed. To put the current kerfuffle in Nixonian terms, a third rate personnel decision (to fire certain U.S. Attorneys) is threatening to lead to the sort of hearings that made Sam Ervin a household name in the 1970’s. Then, as now, the issue is quickly becoming much less what was done than what was said about what was done.

No one seems to question that U.S. Attorneys serve at the President’s pleasure and can be dismissed or asked to resign whenever the President chooses. So far, so good. If President Bush wants to make one of Karl Rove’s proteges the U.S. Attorney for Arkansas and that means that the current U.S. Attorney has to dust off his resume, so be it. Where the problems appear to have started is when the Department of Justice began telling the press that the U.S. Attorneys who had been fired had been fired for performance issues, even though most, if not all, of the U.S. Attorneys in question had received positive evaluations shortly before being shown the door. As you might imagine, this lead some of the outgoing U.S. Attorneys to speak up about the conditions under which they left their employment with the federal government and now, before the Senate Judiciary Committe has gotten around to issuing the subpoenas they authorized today, Attorney General Gonzales’ chief of staff has resigned, the Patriot Act language allowing the Attorney General to appoint “interim” U.S. Attorneys without Congressional or Judicial approval imput is on its way out, and Attorney General Gonzales has told the press that he wants to remain in office so that he can explain to Congress why he was less than completely truthful when he testified about why the U.S. Attorneys were fired. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out in the days and weeks to come!

For an interesting (and somewhat cynical) take on the apparent role of a chief of staff in Washington today, see John Dickerson’s article in Slate.

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