Letters to the Editor
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White House Thesaurus (con't)
justice--...(crickets)...
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Give Us Barabbas!
"It may indeed have been predictable. But it still feels like a 2x4 upside the head, and a death knell."
I share Blue Meme's reaction and views. Thanks, and thanks to Glenn for nailing still another unassailable thesis on the Black Iron Fortress door.
It is all the more depressing and infuriating, as many here have observed, that this shameful, malign act will not inspire a tsunami of public outrage. That would require an enlightened, engaged, morally grounded body politic. And we ain't got one.
There have been nay-sayers all along the course of the Libby scandal, including the ancillary scandal of Plame's outing. Bob Somerby, the "Daily Howler", believes that the real story is (or was) in progressive circles mindlessly championing that shifty, self-serving (in Somerby's view) Joe Wilson and investing too much righteousness in the Wilson/Plame cause. [Somerby also dismisses as unmerited the opinion that President Unitard deliberately lied and misstated the case in the infamous 16-word phrase in the 2003 SOTU address, but that's another story.]
I don't know if Bob has offered an opinion on Libby's pardon, and don't mean to focus on him here. Somerby popped into my head as one of the gadflies who apparently found the issues which eventually resulted in Fitzgerald's indictment of Libby trivial, or at least over-inflated by Bush opponents. It just strikes me that all along there have been, well, non-Establishment voices unenthusiastic about the prospects of the ruling oligarchy being undermined by legal action. And who looked askance on Fitzgerald-- not as an overweening Inquisitor like Ken Starr, but as a diligent prosecutor determined to make the best of a meager and paltry bag of lemons.
Those who took a "So what?" approach to the Plame matter in the first place, or understood Libby's ordeal as a kind of lemonade "show trial", a formality enacted for political purposes, are disinclined to be scandalized by Libby being let off the hook.
All this to say that, complementing the actual smiles and cheers from Republic leaders and Unitard partisans, there has been an abiding knowing cynicism that responds to the news of Libby's quasi-pardon with more of a wink than a roar. And, given that I myself am a disaffected independent, never more so than in the wake of the post-election Democratic Congress deflating like a soufflé from oven to table-- I really wonder whether complaining to our elected putative representatives will accomplish much beyond venting and inspiring a ceremonial sympathetic response.
Yes, key Democrats may harrumph and deplore and perhaps eloquently denounce the Unitard's latest authoritarian stroke. And my e-mail in-box, still known to Democratic fund-raisers due to my misspent 2006 political contributions, will overflow with strident assessments and vague promises and exhortations to somehow right this egregious wrong-- by donating cash and ensuring that Their Guys and Gals get a sufficient foothold to REALLY challenge the bastards! For now... well, what can a bare majority do? You understand, of course.
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"There's an old saying in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says: 'Fool me once... shame on... [pause] Shame on you... [pause] If fooled, you can't get fooled again.'"
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I hope I'm proved wrong, and that I'm underestimating the public outcry. Perhaps it's only the criminal Executive Branch cabal, the complicit Congress and corporate media, and the 29% base of bedrock wingnuts, half-bright demagogues and thuggish thralls alike, now revelling that their prayer has been answered and Barabbas is free.
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CO: this is what should happen. It won't but it should..
The Leaders of the House and the Senate should order the immediate arrest of the Vice President (by the Capitol police) to be held for investigation of contempt of Congress and treason. Can they do this? Yes they can. Would they? Of course not, it would be polite. But they can. And I would urge Americans to forget about impeachment and encourage Congress to go for the jugular, clap these miscreants, starting with Cheney, behind bars.
Upshot? The Federal government would essentially collapse, or at least be frozen in place. Nobody could do anything, because nothing is done without Cheney's direct or indirect supervision. His many minions in Federal service cannot act on their own, they need to be "activated" as it were by his command. If he's in a truly secure, undisclosed location held incommunicado (oh, turnabout is such fair play), he can't do that.
Bush would be effectively isolated; it appears the Government has already been told not to follow his orders without Cheney's OK. Bush would still be nominally in charge, but Congress would actually hold the whip hand.
Downside? Possibly trigger a civil war. Cheney may be utterly loathed and loathesome, but anything that interferes substantially with the exercise of Republican (read: corporate/theocrat -- what a marriage made in Hell) Power is immediately denounced and rigorously fought throughout the entire American Palace Power Structure. Given that the Center of Power under this Palace regime is the Person of Cheney (apparently), taking him off the playing field could inspire violent uprisings by the (small, minority) horde of anti-American Republican armed "enforcers."
Whether Americans would defend themselves and the nation from such a civil revolt, quien sabe?. I don't know that Congress would hold firm. There are many unknowns.
But of course none of it will happen, because the Congressional leadership would never do such a discourteous thing to the Vice President as have him arrested. The very idea.
Americans could go on strike. A general strike has been proposed many times, and the idea is always laughed at and ridiculed, largely because so many of us are working so many jobs and we are one or two paychecks away from bankruptcy and if we were to actually carry off a general strike, we'd lose our jobs and the Messicans would come and take them, and then we'd have to say that Lou Dobbs was right as they were foreclosing on our houses and repossessing our cars. So, we can't do a general strike. Besides, isn't it an illegal restraint of trade? [Tremble, tremble.]
Never mind that governments all around the world have been routinely -- well, occasionally -- been brought down by such tactics, we can't do them here. This is America. We don't do those sorts of things. [You aren't gonna give my job to a Messican are you? For mentioning -- shhh -- General Strikes? Whew!]
Persistent public protest is another option (or an additional one.) We keep hearing that Americans aren't taking to the streets, so obviously they don't care, so we can forget about public protest. It doesn't work, and nobody wants to be called a Dirty Fucking Hippie.
Except that there have been huge -- unprecedentedly gye-normous -- protest marches all around the land, repeatedly (albeit at sparse intervals) that have been ignored. And there are smaller, persistent protests every week or month in hundreds of cities in this fair land. It is not true that Americans don't care -- supposedly proved by the fact that they haven't taken to the streets.
What hasn't happened -- and needs to -- is persistent (every week, every day) large-scale public pot banging protest that interferes with the comfort level of public officials. No threats to them, just loud and boistrous demands -- such as ending the war(s), upholding the constitution, that kind of thing that people actually want and our public officials aren't respecting.
Believe me, their cages would be more than rattled. And we might see some sideways movement on the part of our representatives. Then again, maybe not.
Someone posted about how the Republicans were brought to heel on the immigration thing by the concerted email and phone campaign of their base... and we should do the same thing.
Except for this: Congress only listens when the "right" people call and email. Millions of calls and emails from the "left" are routinely ignored on Capitol Hill. Why? Well, because the "left" is not the "right" kind of people. We may be the vast majority, but it doesn't matter a bit to Congress. And Congressional Democrats are notorious for denouncing, dismissing, and "distancing themselves" from their base. Basically, they will fight to the death any effort by the Democratic base to force them to act; on the other hand, they will (sometimes unconsciously) yield to pressure from the right wing base, in part because that's what they have been conditioned to do.