I'm starting Professional Responsibility on Tuesday. First assignment is Preamble: A lawyer's Responsibilities and ABA model rules 8.1-8.5.

Here's Rule 8.4 Misconduct

It is professional misconduct or a lawyer to:

(a) violate or attempt to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct...

...

(c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation;

(d) engage in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice;

(e) state or imply an ability to influence improperly a government agency or official or to achieve results by means that violate the Rules of Professional Conduct or other law...

...

It's really difficult to objectively read these rules without an inner dialog filled with disgust. The DOJ has been corrupted deeply by these jackals. I share your hope, but I'd sure like to see the profession take responsibility for it's part in the mess.

Liberal American (and proud of it!):

Some of you might argue that the mid-term 2006 election was a sea of change. I would argue not really. We are still in Iraq and the most optimistic view of when we will be out is near the 2008 presidential election. I would say the Democrats given a mandate by the American people have not delivered on their promise to get us out of Iraq as soon as possible. This could easily be done without resorting to politicizing the discussion and tying withdraw dates to funding the war. If the Dems want to go that route then they just should not fund the war.

Yes, the Democrats could simply stop funding the war. And I wish they just would. But the reason they don't is pretty clear, I think: It's Versailles. Above all, the media would crucify them for it. This is why the Dems, fighting on two fronts, have to take the media down considerably, before they can simply do what's needed to end the war. And that's why this week is so important--because it marks a real change in the Dems confrontation with the media.

The same is true of impeachment. The media would almost sooner die themselves than let impeachment get a fair hearing. So, if that's what they want... well, we may just have to get us a few more Imus-style retirements before things can proceed as they should.

I will say, if and when this country ever becomes a democracy, I will share in your euphoria!!

Turning the tide is not winning the battle. But if you can't get excited about turning the tide, you have little chance of winning the battle.

About that comment by the anonymous poster...

I had a similar exchange with our own Arne Langsetmo. I'm not sure exactly how it went but I was trying to suggest that the goal should be realignment of the GOP. It's way too far off the map on the extreme right. Arne said something to the effect that whatever snatched it's body, sucked the life out of it and distorted it so, it has to be crushed and buried once and for all. I'm inclined to agree with him. A political party takes on a life of it's own but it is still a collection of individuals and these individuals are very bad people. I'm not drawing a comparison between Arne and Anonymous. Arne knows what our angry anonymous might have forgotten. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. He did some controversial yet positive things that we still debate to this day. My favorite living Republican is Pete McCloskey, we can't jail him. He's a good guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_McCloskey

I know where Arne and anonymous are coming from. Call it whatever you want, authoritarianism, cryptofascism, theofascism, neoconservatism, or "movement conservatism" it infested the GOP and wormed its way into the highest levels of our government and damn near brought our country down. Not unlike all those commies that the Birchers and McCarthyites were convinced had infiltrated our government during the Cold War. Back then Hoover was convinced that the Mafia or organized crime did not exist. That was a myth, but commies were everywhere. (He should have known, most of them were on his payroll as informants). Today, you can look back and see that more "non-existent" mafia guys ended up behind bars than commie moles and infiltrators, but whatever it was that drove the Birchers mad and caused WFB, Jr. to break ranks with them back then, it appears that you can't just ignore them. They won't just go away. Like termites they'll come back and keep eating at the framework until they bring the house down. The price of liberty is eternal vigilence. Jefferson said that, too.

You may be right about an incipient sea change, but will we come to see a foreign policy that can create the conditions of a sustainable peace (i.e. an end to the occupations of Iraq and Palestinian land; a general settlement with some de-militarization of the Middle East; and reconstruction of Iraq--i.e. reparations); an environmental policy that can avert global cataclysm; and the abolition of torture and gulag, and the restoration of habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions and constitutional government?

Or will we see, as we did after Watergate, the restoration of Imperialism Lite?

We mustn't confuse the necessary with the possible, but neither should we be be too ready to take off our boots.

About Tenet, the phrase "War Profiteer" springs to my mind.

Two personals:

Greysky, what is this town of which you speak? I grew up upstate...

mboehm popped in again. Wherefore art thou mboehm? We share both first initial and last name...

but Mr. Ledeen and Cheney and the rest of them are just fascists. It's comforting in a way, because you know how they work: They stir up fear, they promote religious nationalism, and they promise to make us secure if we give them power. By the time they asked for the extra power they'd already taken it, of course, true to form. But you have to love how predictable they are. I've been depressed about this mess for a long time, but living abroad has given me some distance. They'll burn themselves out eventually; in fact they're doing it right now. It's only possible to run the rhetoric at fever-pitch for so long. Pretty soon it all starts to sound tinny and all they have left are the true believers: a scary crowd and a substantial minority, to be sure, but not a group capable of sinking us all by themselves. Right now it seems like there's a lot of them, but their extremism has been cultivated carefully for six years. With their leaders out of power, they'll atrophy soon enough.

The comforting thing about the Cheneys and the Ledeens and all the rest, is how much they've had to rely on smoke and mirrors. The real movers and shakers aren't the elected officials but their subordinates and advisors. The public votes for blanks--pawns without any discernible personal agenda or motivation--and in so doing passes control to the puppet masters. Bush can't fire anyone because they run him from the inside. Gonzales can't get through a simple hearing because his own conduct, ordered from on high, is beyond his understanding. They're all nobodies, phantoms, illusions; they're smooth faces behind which the really important people can hide their power grabs, constitutional tinkering, and ridiculous lies. And I think all this manipulation is a good sign, because it shows that Cheney and Ledeen know they can't win in the open. They know they haven't a leg to stand on when it comes to public opinion. Whenever they slip up and some small corner of their nastiness makes it into a newspaper, they look nervously over their shoulders and worry that even their closest followers might abandon them. They issue shallow talking points so the true believers will still have something to cling to.

DCLaw1's post almost made me cry. I feel the same way.