Letters to the Editor
Jim White
Published Letters: 1447 Editor's Choice: 16
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Longer Schumer and, egad, the C-word!
[Read the article: The Democrats' responsibility in the wake of Gonzales' resignation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]AP is running a piece with a number of quotes in response to the Gonzales resignation. They carry a longer version of Schumer:
It has been a long and difficult struggle but at last, the attorney general has done the right thing and stepped down. ...We Democrats implore you (Bush) to work with us. Don't choose the path of confrontation and throw down the gauntlet we are willing to meet you in the middle of the road. All we ask is that you choose somebody who puts the rule of law first. we're not looking for confrontation here.
This version, although poorly edited in the story version from which I pasted it, sounds less like capitulation than some here have suggested. There seems to be ample warning that a poor choice will get nowhere.
Probably the most refreshing point is that going to the page for the story (http://tinyurl.com/27xzk7) and searching on "Constitution" without matching the whole word results in four hits. These come from Ted Kennedy, David Iglesias, Hilary Clinton and Christopher Dodd.
Clinton's quote:
He demonstrated that his loyalties lie with the president and his political agenda, not the American people or the evenhanded and impartial enforcement of our laws. ... My hope is that the president will select a new attorney general who will respect the rule of law and abandon partisanship, who will serve the American people and not the president's political ideology, and who will answer to the Constitution and not political operatives.
That is encouraging, but Dodd's statement is the clearest and most concise:
I will only vote to confirm a nominee for attorney general who is truly independent and who will guarantee reforms that restore and uphold the Constitution.
Believe it or not, as we approach Constitution week, respect for the Constitution is trickling into the M$M.
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Is the Overton window shifting?
[Read the article: The Democrats' responsibility in the wake of Gonzales' resignation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Earlier today, I noted the number of references to the Constitution in published responses to Gonzales' resignation. This trend continues very strongly in tomorrow's editorial which has already been posted at the NYTimes. This editorial pulls no punches in citing the utter contempt for the law that Gonzales demonstrated. For example, regarding the Constitution:
There was a more basic problem with Mr. Gonzales’ tenure: he did not stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law, as an attorney general must. This administration has illegally spied on Americans, detained suspects indefinitely as “enemy combatants,” run roughshod over the Geneva Conventions, violated the Hatch Act prohibitions on injecting politics into government and defied Congressional subpoenas. In each case, Mr. Gonzales gave every indication of being on the side of the lawbreakers, not the law.
Further, rather than parroting the "common wisdom" that Americans are "sick of investigations", the editorial board has this to say:
Congress — in particular, Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont; Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York; and Representative John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan — deserve credit for keeping the pressure on, even when critics were saying there was nothing to the scandals. But many questions remain to be answered. High on the list: what role politics played in dubious prosecutions, like those of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and Georgia Thompson, a Wisconsin civil servant.
That's right, not only have the investigations to date been a good thing, but they also should continue in a thorough manner.
I await the spin from the punditocracy.
Link:http://tinyurl.com/2p2mt6