Life imitates melodrama, especially in the Trump era
Life imitates melodrama, especially in the Trump era
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/life-immitates-melodrama-especially-in-the-trump-era/2018/11/26/e4c6e9f0-f1bb-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.7cbdf45589cf&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
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The Justice Department is a case in point. The attorney general and the director of the FBI report to the president. But this does not mean the president can order investigations to start and stop for corrupt reasons. Federal law enforcement officials have public duties. They do not owe personal fealty.
How is this principle enforced? The integrity of our political system has always depended on principled public servants willing to say “no” to great power. During the Watergate scandal, Judge John J. Sirica did it. When Nixon fired the special prosecutor, Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and his deputy William D. Ruckelshaus resigned. By one count, five senior officials in the Watergate-era FBI — for a variety of motives — leaked material damaging to the Nixon administration. Ultimately, the health of our republic depends not only on political systems but also on flawed people who reach the limit of accommodation.
There are many reasons for pessimism about our fractured politics — including the general cowardice of elected Republicans in the face of presidential corruption and abuse of power. But will special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — who spent a decade building the reputation and independence of the FBI — really be silenced or outwitted by the clownish caricature of Nixon who occupies the Oval Office and issues a fusillade of smoking guns? Not likely. Rosenstein has managed to give Mueller the time to put down on paper the strongest case against a president without ethics or honor. And it is beyond Trump’s power to erase.