I cannot forbear to share part of a comment I made to an article a few weeks ago yearning for a "Truth & Reconciliation Commission" in lieu of actual impeachment, criminal investigation, etc. of our senior war criminals and kleptocrats. I think it's germane to a discussion about our persistent national myth that Elite Wise Men (and no one seems much bothered by "Men") can step up in troubled times and rescue our beleagured polity from iniquitous excess:

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Is there a more worn-out and lame dodge to whitewash scandal, high crimes, and malfeasance than the “(truth) commission”?

Amerika has the equivalent of a Senior Tour for such burlesques; an elite bipartisan boatload of Esteemed Wise Persons deemed by their almost-peers (for they are themselves peerless) and the corporate media shills to have Impeccable Credentials and Sterling Reputations. They are venerated for being High-Minded and Highly-Principled; they are reputedly persons of Keen Insight and Unimpeachable Integrity.

Who would it be this time around? George Mitchell? John Danforth? Henry Kissinger? Madeleine Albright? Lee Hamilton? Warren Rudman? Sandra Day O’Connor, perhaps, even Robert Bork? James A. Baker? Bob Kerrey, maybe, moving up from the minors?

No doubt such charlatans will put on a good show, with appropriate Mega-hyped Earnest Media Coverage. And Amerika may rest easy once again.

•Pedinska: http://www.urantiansojourn.com/2008/09/why-treasurys-paulson-wants-absolute-power/

Bingo! Great catch! This validates the cliché that a picture is worth 700 billion words.

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• RMP: [...] All Paulson could answer was trust me I need 700 billion for this to work. [...]

Look, Paulson would love to do the picture! He wants to do the picture! But, dammit, he needs the 700 billion! There's just no way in hell he can greenlight production with a measly 150 billion, dammit! The man has crunched the numbers, and it just can't happen.

And he needs the no-auditors, no-oversight, no-penalties for going over budget.

The question ya gotta ask yourself is this: do you want a blockbuster, or do you not want a blockbuster?

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• Regarding Update II: I'm not much bothered by this report. I'm happy to wait until Tom Friedman strikes up a spontaneous chat with a betel nut vendor in Greater Noida who'll put it all into perspective.

Thanks, Glenn.

In these troubled times, we all could use a little hilarity.

Even from my political fetal position, I can assure you that Balz is just channeling "Dean" Broder here-- or buying into the spurious corporate media gestalt, Beltway style, so fully realized by the Dean.

I don't have cable, and I don't watch much rabbit-ears teevee news, except for network, typically local news samples, and "Democracy Now".

But if Balz were asked about this on any of several programs-- The Lehrer News Hour, Cuckoo-Tweety Land Hour, maybe even "Washington Week in Review"-- I can easily envision his blowing it off, much as Brian Ross would do, or perhaps has already done, to Glenn's entirely justified tut-tutting at Ross' claim of reporting an "exclusive" story.

The infotainwhores have a standard shtick, which may arise from conscious disingenuousness and mendacity, or profound cognitive or psychological deficiencies-- "blind spots"-- created by cognitive dissonance, ego overwhelming self-awareness, or simple ignorance and stupidity.

Or, most likely, an amalgamation of all of the above. So the shtick revolves around the infotainwhore not quite getting the problem or criticism when first presented.

The infotainwhore may listen with a slight frown or quizzical expression, and then respond with either a good-natured rebuttal refuting the criticism, or annoyance in the form of an ad hominem dismissal-- e.g. that this sort of argument is only important to a few odd self-important bloggers.

Oh, a few years from now he may revisit the question in his book and allow during the book tour that with hindsight and reflection, he does see how the hysteria of the time harmed his and his colleagues' work. In retrospect, maybe we were overly concerned with being even-handed above all, and we didn't pick up that we were losing something in the effort.

It brings the bile right up my umbilicus.

as much as i admire your writing, so often you get too caught up in the righteous vision of idealism and miss the reality that pragmatism can accomplish.

-- metropolitannyc

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OK, upon consideration I decided that "wbrooksjr" was satire; I'm hoping this is too. It's either an impeccable parody of totally wrongheaded Supercilious Received Wisdom or actual totally wrongheaded Supercilious Received Wisdom.

If it is the latter, I will only counter that it's absurd to claim that Glenn has missed "the reality that pragmatism can accomplish"-- on the contrary, that's what he's on about. President Unitard's moribund maladministration is nothing but "the reality that pragmatism can accomplish".

Now that the initial ecstasy and frenzy of Happy Horseshit over Obama's election has temporarily subsided, I feel able to pry up the rock I've been hiding under and cautiously see if my fever of alienation has broken.

Oscar is still a bit shaky on the old pins, but I cannot forbear to decry the pernicious technocratic piety, invariably presented in a pseudo-thoughtful, "savvy" tone, that a "reform" president has a "mandate" to rescue the nation from pressing economic and foreign policy crises and debacles, and dismisses, trivializes, or outright rejects the necessity of rigorous investigation and prosecution to restore the rule of law.

Lip service and purple prose brimming with vague generalities about Man and God and Law are all the anti-rage these days, but only the idiotically credulous or enthralled mistake soaring oratory for appropriate action.

I'm pleased to find that Glenn hasn't budged from his clear and correct belief that the rule of law needs to be spit out of the belly of the leviathan of political pragmatism that has already ravaged the nation.

Sigh.

And if loose talk about Truth Commissions and other dodges keeps up, you're going to force me to go into my comments archives and dredge up all of my past fulminations on such foolishness.