The Weasel and the Damage Done

dr. elsewhere here

We have achieved scandal saturation; I defy anyone to be able to keep up with them all. And we’ve long passed the point where it feels icky to think about it, like wandering into the addiction scene, replete with dealers and victims and pimps and hookers and guns and money (oh my!). Weasels everywhere killing and destroying lives, their own and those of everyone they touch. It’s all about the drug. In this case, though, the drug is power, and the weasels in power are running ruining our government in their desperate clutch to get away with it.

And the wickedest weasel du jour is, of course, Gonzo, our AG, AG. This ex-WH counsel and DOJ un-lawman has achieved what may prove to be the biggest heckuva disaster yet to emerge from this crew, even with Rummy and Condi and Cheney (oh my!) in such stiff competition.

Bravo to our new Democratic Congress for reminding the country -- including the weasels running (or ruining) our government -- what their job of oversight means. And let’s hope they can get to the bottom of this before the slimy devils pull another fast one and somehow draw a get out of jail free card.

But what strikes me as a very crucial factor in this whole US attorney fiasco we cannot forget:

The damage is done.

We may, at some point, be able to stanch the oozing wound, but without some very serious and aggressive intervention, we may never reverse the damage done.

Like the typical addict, these folks believe it’s far better to apologize than ask permission; this is just how they operate. They do what they want, try to keep it as secret as possible, and when the cat’s out of the bag, they instantly externalize the blame and vow it will never happen again.

Meanwhile, they got what they wanted, they got their fix for that immediate moment, and they just lay low and continue doing what they want in secret till they get caught again. Ultimately, though, their agenda is to wear down the will and wherewithal of everyone around them in order to use and abuse with impunity, and stash enough little fixes in every nook and cranny to keep them safe and high “for the foreseeable future.” The DOJ therefore is currently completely and thoroughly corrupted, from the top down, not just the USAttys, but all other career staff who have never required Senate confirmation. Gonzalez saw to this phase of the “process” (doncha just love how he loves that word?) when he handed down the edict that Sampson and Monica would theretofore do all the firing and hiring across the entire DOJ. Recall, importantly, that Monica’s role was as liaison with the WH.

And so it goes. Meanwhile, the damage is done.

This purge of attorneys was not really a purge; it was just a good ol’ fashioned garden variety weeding. The cultivated and nurtured crop of “loyal Bushies” was left untouched, with few exceptions, the most glaring being Fitz who serves now like a rose in the cornfield. (Make that feed corn.) Not that the powers that be appreciated the beauty of his skills; the only reason they did not fire him too was they amazingly realized they would never get away with it. They must still be reeling from the shock that Fitz and Iglesias and McKay and the others who actually take their jobs seriously, actually place their country and their oath to the Constitution before loyalty to the party and to Bush, despite the fact that they’re all Republicans.

Josh Marshall and Joe Biden have both noted that this scandal exposes more in terms of who did not get axed than who did, a point that is predictably but disturbingly ignored by our bought&sold media. Nor does this point ever really get explored in the “why” part that so eludes the pundits because of course AG, head weasel, avoids responding to anything that even glances in that direction. Instead, we’re expected to believe this was all some grand Family Circus “not me I dunno somebody else did it” goof-up, like Iraq or Katrina or Abu Ghraib or Gitmo. About the only real media exploration of these aspects of the scandal has been from the indefatigable Greg Palast, who of course reports for the BBC, not stateside media. In an interview on DemocracyNow!, he gets into some of the drastic implications of the damage done. He also shares the fascinating fact that he is actually in possession of over 500 of emails to and from Karl Rove, many of them addressing the attorney firings.

But the damage done runs so much deeper than these sexy, top level, and - as Gonzo the weasel would have us believe - nearly irrelevant firings of nearly irrelevant US Attorneys. Elizabeth de la Vega, whose 21 year experience as a federal prosecutor brings gravity and history to the picture, articulates for us some of the frontline truths about what the shifts in DOJ operations under Bush mean. Not only have routine procedures become so cumbersome and draconian as to cripple any lawyer, but the entire process has become increasingly centralized, to the point that hardly a brief gets filed that central Justice is unaware. The results of all this unnecessary bureaucracy come right out of Brazil:

Even if the intrepid career prosecutor completes the case initiation paperwork, a US attorney who is either fearful of - or beholden to - the Bush administration, rather than to the laws and Constitution of the United States, can simply fail, for no particular reason, to sign off on the form. Without leaving a single shred of evidence, in other words, the US attorney can stop a controversial investigation before it has even begun. At almost any stage, the ways to stymie or even completely kill off a prosecution are unlimited.

(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)

And the consequences are beyond chilling:

It is not just public corruption cases that are negatively impacted by the Bush administration's promotion of loyalty to the president and to individual US attorneys as the highest values in the Department of Justice at the expense of integrity and the prudent exercise of independent judgment on the part of its lawyers. This distorted ethos affects all of the cases, because what happens to career prosecutors under such circumstances? They leave.

Indeed, that is precisely what happened in the Northern District of California.

There, the US attorney, Kevin Ryan, was decidedly a "company man" who, like those in the inner circle of the Bush administration's Department of Justice, equated dissent with disloyalty. During Ryan's four-year tenure, 50 of the office's 100 lawyers - including myself - left, taking with them a total of approximately 500 years of experience. In the end, because of the intervention of the district's chief judge, Ryan himself was asked to resign, but the office will take a very long time to recover.

This, folks, is just how serious it is. This is how much damage has already been done.

As horrifying and demanding of the public's awareness as all this is, what seems to me to need more attention than what has happened is the question of what are we going to do now? What can we do now that they have so completely destroyed the system that it can no longer function in compliance with our Constitution, but instead acts consciously as an arm of the WH and the Republican party? What can we do now that Gonzo the weasel's little "process" has gone through their field of US attorneys and kept the Bushie loyalists, while replacing what they likely referred to as the wild and unruly ones, ones who’d ruin their entire plan of power mongering if they could not be kept under control. You know; those annoying folks who dared to do their jobs and put Bush’s dangerous agenda and illicit policies on display instead of out in the back forty?

What our Justice Department now boasts in the perfectly trimmed and straight furrows of Bushies is a force field for both protecting the Bush criminals and attacking their enemies. Almost everywhere, in every district, they have seeded their hybrids of Regency-bred lawyers and bootlicking hit men to at least a critical mass. What will Congress do now that this damage is done? How will they protect our democracy from the intentions Bush and AG (and Cheney and Rove) had for placing them there in the first place? Saying they can’t do that anymore is not enough; the damage is done. We will see the fruits of their labors in the coming months, especially with what does not happen with the Wilkes case, now that Carol Lam is gone.

An indication that after all the damage has been done with the newer and more loyal Bushies now in place is to be seen in Bush’s signal that he will not oppose any legislation that reverses that nasty little nugget in the USAPATRIOT Act revision that allowed all this to happen in the first place and has now been reversed in the Senate. Oh sure, sorry about that; it will never happen again. Wink wink. No problem, though, since targeted result is already achieved; the damage is done.

But let’s consider what damage has been done.

First, if we’re now to accept apologies and mea culpas and move on, with the damage done – as AGAG would have us do as he blames first Sampson then McNulty just as they resign – we’re also expected to believe that these major changes in major US attorney slots around the country to install “loyal Bushies” occurred without either the AG or the President involved or informed or signing off? That in itself is cause for more than serious alarm. The chorus of loyal Bushies keeps crying these attorneys “serve at the pleasure of the President,” but out the other side of their mouths they insist he had nothing to do with it! Once again, they’re trying to have it both ways. Responsibility for disaster getting too close to home? Blame it on an underling. No underling? Hell, as The Decider/Commander –in-Chief need only appoint a blamee-in-waiting as war czar, provided of course he can find such a patsy (and when he can’t, hell, just appoint someone still under command!). Who, after all, is driving this tractor? Or is all the power given over to the field hands in a “consensus” decision? Funny how having power comes with responsibilities, but these guys will have none of that; suddenly power disappears into rank and file.

But the field hands are clueless; reading over Sampson’s testimony, I find it beyond astonishing how little he knew about particular cases and activities undertaken in the offices of these targeted US Attorneys: nothing about investigations of GOP governors in MO and NV, nothing about Iglesias’ refusal to prosecute Dems in NM, nothing about McKay’s refusal to prosecute “voter fraud” in WA, and nothing about Lam’s search warrants to Foggo (this last despite the fact that his email about having to get rid of her occurred the day after Lam informed the DOJ of her intentions). Not just astonishing but insulting – especially for these attorneys – for him to say that the process was “unscientific” and that he has destroyed all the documents leading up to the final list. “All in ‘good faith’ of course.” Geez. And yet this is the guy who was tasked – by head weasel AGAG – with determining not only the individual fates of these attorneys, but the fates of their respective offices and the cases on their desks. Again, is anyone on this tractor, or are all the decisions being made by the field hands? They would have us believe, actually, that the gophers did it. Yet the weasel is far worse! Here he is, the guy supposedly in charge, and he is more clueless than his gopher! In fact, notice that right after Sampson testified, AGAG lay the responsibility for the “project” (Which Gonzo stands by, incidentally) at his feet. And now that McNulty has resigned (for more money, it seems), guess who’s to blame? The bizarre thing is that Gonzo thinks he’s “weathered the storm,” winning this game of whack-a-weasel.

But let’s look back at Sampson’s testified reason for apologizing and resigning: He regrets that he did not anticipate the “perception” of political reasons behind these firings, and did not thus properly prep the players before they appeared before Congress weeks ago, making a dirty little mess of his carefully plotted coup. What he is saying is that they did not anticipate the public response to these firings. What he is saying is that he – and his bosses – did not even consider the “perception” of unethical conduct. What he is saying is that it was nothing more than a PR error, their only concern in any matter that comes down the pike. This administration has yet to be faced with a problem a PR campaign cannot solve. Sick Karen Hughes on it, a big smile, and new talking points (along with the huge price tag for the taxpayers), and the problem will magically disappear. Keep those rows straight and the product big and shiny, but to hell with any real food value.

This is how thoroughly they have dispensed with our Constitution and presumed for themselves full dictatorial powers; because the President’s men want it and do it, it’s legal. They don’t even see the perception of illegal, let alone the illegal. They don’t even slow down for the red lights, forget about the yellows. The very fact that head weasel AGAG has done such a miserable job of obfuscating and dodging and avoiding and misrepresenting and just outright lying, even after prepping so diligently for weeks for his “performances,” with Tim Flannigan of all people as his coach, should tell us how impossible it is for him simply to be honest and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Here’s a thought: they never counted on Republicans actually acting on principle. They actually believed all the fired hands would just roll over and beg for recommendation letters for a quiet new job in the private sector.

If we consider the ‘why’ of all this weeding, it is at least parallel to, and likely more insidious than, the long-term plans to stack the judiciary. The only difference is that the stacking was done overtly; this weeding has been as surreptitious and seedy as Johnny Appleseed’s evil twin. And why would these power mongers want control over the DOJ in addition to the judiciary? For starters, not only will judges start ruling in their favor and against their enemies (us US citizens?), the DOJ will not even prosecute their own for crimes, and will prosecute everyone else for non-crimes. And in order to finally galvanize their stranglehold on power, they’ll be able to manipulate whatever legal activities might surround this coming election (and of course, any in the future) by ignoring election fraud and prosecuting voter fraud. Given how close Bush came to losing in 2004, I suspect Rove got pretty spooked about the prospects of what was coming and initiated this grand scheme then, rather than waiting for 2006 to roll around. In this context, it’s not just a little juicy to imagine how shocked and shaken Rove must have been with the 11/7 results when he worked so hard to manage it (especially considering how close to a sling his sorry fat ass was in with the Libby case about that time). Think of what the real vote numbers must have been with Democrats winning so big, despite all Rove’s manipulations; ya gotta know Rove did.

In all the bizarre disconnects in logical thinking we have seen coming out of this WH, the vote manipulation really takes the cake, doesn’t it? I mean, on the one hand, this is the equivalent of the Iraq miscalculation: it never occurred to them they might be despised as invaders and occupiers, they only believed what they wanted to, all the flowers and chocolates and singing in the streets. And it never occurred to them that they could lose the PR game here when the media deck is so thoroughly stacked in their favor, so they keep believing more corruption and more PR to distract from the corruption will solve the problem. Just keep digging and tap-dancing, that’s their motto; if we put on a good show, no one will notice all the damage we're doing.

But on the other hand, the very fact that they feel the need to go through all these illegal and corrupt machinations exposes a deep-seated belief – a strange unconscious awareness, if you will – that they are unable to win honestly, with all their cards on the table and their agendas truthfully revealed. And it’s even deeper and more insidious than all that, if you consider the patronizing insult implied in this attitude, that the masses cannot possibly know what’s best for themselves so we must presume to do their thinking and their deciding and their voting for them. It’s all justified because of course father knows best. The very tone of these notions oozes disdain for democratic principles, principles they took an oath to uphold. But then, that tone flies in the face of oaths and principles in general, as well. What is left but the monstrously corrupt epidemic we have, this seemingly unstoppable addiction to power that is blinding almost everyone in any public office, blinding them with either greed or fear, to the point that few will stand up for truth or integrity.

Now comes Comey, along with some of the fired US attorneys, to stand with courage to expose yet more of the relentless corruption. Once again, we are given a peek at the horrifying depravity – from Paul O’Neill and Richard Clarke and Larry Wilkerson and even Dilulio and Kuo, and Michael Brown, for chrissake – and the media cannot shift our attention away from Paris or Britney long enough for the disturbing truth. Comey gives us our John Dean moment and exposes the cancer on this presidency (ironically in a hospital room), a cancer that is far more hideous and criminal than Nixon’s petty paranoia, and two of the three major networks just cannot be bothered to report it. The incriminating testimony reveals at least three crimes (Michael Collins has elaborated on this, via Joseph). One, the attempt to obstruct justice by coercing a signature from someone not fully cognizant. Two, the certification of the wiretapping program without DOJ backing, in other words, without legal clearance. Three, the weasel lies from weasel AGAG that the program was legal and cleared as such, and that there was no internal controversy regarding its legality. Impeachable offenses, each of these. Perhaps we should consider making the first such proceedings be against Gonzalez?

What we have needed all along has been for one of the insiders to come forward to point out the cancer on this Presidency, like Dean did with Nixon. Remember, though, that Dean’s role in Nixon’s WH was equivalent to Harriet Mier’s as Counsel to the President, like Gonzalez before her. Comey may be the closest we can get to a WH insider with such integrity, Bush has so thoroughly surrounded himself with corrupt weasels there’s just no chance any of them would even know how to think with conscience like Dean or Comey did, much less act on that.

The tumor on this WH, though, has so many malignant tendrils, tendrils that seem to have invaded every nook and cranny or our government, we may never be able to successfully cure ourselves of it, at least not without a serious revolution. Thus the cancer metaphor loses its gravity when applied here, because this is not a disease of invasion but of choice, and not just of our leadership but of our entire citizenry. No, our national disease is far more like a resistant addiction, this addiction to power and the seductive comfort zone provided directly and indirectly by it, both in terms of the “security” language and the subtle little consumer greeds and satisfactions that maintain the life to which we have so thoroughly become accustomed, our piece in the bargain. Would that Alberto were the only weasel we have to eradicate, with all this dreadful damage done.

Soon: Deeper – and deadlier – damage done.