"Massacre?"

ThreeSources should collect the most overwrought statements about the US Attorney firings. I wonder if I am up to the task.

Honorable mention goes to Senator Leahy (Devil Incarnate -- VT) who wondered aloud in a Press Conference "what a witness was hiding" when that witness chose to exercise Fifth Amendment rights. This man is head of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and he equates 5th Amendment rights with guilt.

Elections matter.

But his eyebrowness was eclipsed by the Editors of The New Republic. An editorial today, Bush bends the law beyond recognition, compares the attorney firings with Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre.

In the historical race to the bottom that is Nixon v. Bush, the late trickster would seem to have the edge: He was an unimpeachable lawbreaker--actually, an impeachable one--a claim that doesn't quite stick to Bush. But, in the last month, Bush has been closing fast. While he may not have any second-rate burglaries under his belt, his record now includes his very own version of the Saturday Night Massacre, thanks to the purging of eight U.S. attorneys.

So, firing a prosecutor who is prosecuting you carries no weight with the boys at TNR. Just the same as what President Bush did. Months of emails and memos and document sifting by the Democrats have turned up no evidence of malfeasance. But -- hang on, this is the best part -- that's what makes Bush so bad, he hasn't broken any laws. Damn, what a clever cover:

It's true that his behavior in this episode may not runup the score in compulsory categories like obstruction of justice or lying under oath. But the fact that he has inflicted massive damage on the American system without apparently breaking many laws should earn Bush major style points.

I smell Rove here. What a fiendish plot, not breaking laws.

Politics Posted by jk at March 30, 2007 3:16 PM