GLENN GREENWALD DISCUSSES PROSECUTORIAL INDEPENDENCE AND THE STATE OF BEING A REPUBLICAN SHILL
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I ran into my old friend Seymour this weekend at a Dangerous Muse concert. Seymour, a lifelong Democrat, accused me of having a philosophy that says all Democrats are good and all Republicans are bad. He's half right. I explained to him about Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer, Max Baucus and other members of the Money Party masquerading as Democrats. But he wasn't letting me off the hook with my matter of fact agreement with the second part of his characterization. "OK," said I. "Name me one good one; just one. Name one decent Republican member of Congress, one man or woman with a voting record that isn't absolutely horrendous, and I'll buy you a bottle of wine." (He's a lush and a cheapskate.) We then got into an endless argument as to whether or not Jacob Javits counted.Javits hasn't been in government since 1980 and he died in 1986. Even Seymour had to admit that he couldn't name a decent Republican in government-- not one-- since then. This morning Glenn Greenwald's Salon column goes a long way towards explaining why: hypocrisy reigns as strongly on the ideological right as it always has. And, unlike in Jacob Javits' day, the GOP is nothing but the ideological right-- the very manifestation of hypocrisy. Gleenwald tackles it in terms of how GOP apologists try to justify the firing of the U.S. attorneys by the Bush Regime. Let Glenn take you through the tortured minds of Republican propagandists as they attempt to justify the politicization of the American justice system.
Originally I was going to use Glenn's column as an update to last night's post about how and why Gozales and Rove targeted Carol Lam. But after realizing that Glenn's assertions go far beyond the case of the U.S. attorneys and into the very heart of right-wing governance and their control of the mass media, I decided to offer it as a stand-along piece and urge all DWT readers to give it a read.
Labels: Gonzales, Karl Rove, media, Purge-Gate, Republican hypocrisy, U.S.-attorney purge
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 8:24 AM
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Here's an answer for your friend. Connie Morella, a former republican congresswoman from Maryland's 8th district, was (and still is) a decent, intelligent, and caring republican. Elected in 1986, she supported gay rights, the environment, and gun control; was pro-choice and supported government funding for contraceptives and for needle exchange programs for addicts. She was a friend to labor and immigrants. Her work to improve health issues for women was unmatched in congress. She supported programs to combat domestic violence and to increase knowledge of battered women syndrome in the justice system. She opposed Clinton's impeachment, did not support the Contract with America, and was the only republican to vote against the use of military force in Iraq in both 1991 and 2002.
She was very popular, and the dems suspected that they would never be able to defeat her, so they gerrymandered her seat out from under her after the 2000 census. (Of all the accusations of "the dems do it too" that the repugs throw around, only the gerrymandering charge has any credence with me.) Morella was defeated in 2002 by Chris Van Hollen. She was an excellent representative. The Blue Dog dems can't hold a candle to her.
Bush appointed her to be the permanent US representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2003, where she still serves.
I wish I could think of a decent republican currently serving in congress, but I got nothin'. Still, it's nice to know that there was a good republican in congress for a short period of the 21st century.
Good points all. But I couldn't help thinking about the only Republican I ever voted for: Tom Campbell, when he ran against Dianne Feinstein for Senate. He's a lot more conservative than I am, but I felt I could count on this: any position he took was well thought out and examined in reference to some set of principles. Feinstein merely represents the ruling class, of whom she is one, just wearing a Democratic name tag.
And let's have a tip of the hat to Pete McCloskey. He represented San Mateo county in Congress as a principled moderate Republican, retiring in 1983. Nothing so special there. But not everyone outside our area knows the recent part of the story, and they should. Last year, disgusted by what had become of the GOP, he came out of retirement, moved into Dick Pombo's district, and opposed him in the primary, running an outspoken campaign of restoring ethics and honesty. After Pombo took the primary, McCloskey continued campaigning hard, for Jerry McNerney. Here's a guy who knows when to put principle ahead of party.
Howie, I know I am only mentioning Republicans who are out of office, thus proving your point. I guess you just made me a little nostalgic.
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