Editorial in the Washington Post: Mr. Ashcroft's Smear

[Bertha Venation]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25813-2004Apr19.html

"IN HIS TESTIMONY last week before the Sept. 11 commission, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft loosed a remarkable attack on Jamie S. Gorelick, a commission member who served as deputy attorney general during part of the Clinton administration. The "single greatest structural cause for the September 11th problem," Ashcroft said, "was the wall that segregated or separated criminal investigators and intelligence agents," and the "basic architecture for the wall . . . was contained in a classified memorandum" from 1995 -- which Mr. Ashcroft had conveniently declassified for the hearing. "Full disclosure," he said, "compels me to inform you that the author of this memorandum is a member of the commission" -- that is, Ms. Gorelick. Mr. Ashcroft's allegations, which triggered criticism and demands for her resignation from prominent Republicans, are grossly unfair."

~snip~

"Should (Jamie Gorelick) have done more? Neither the political climate nor the courts would have tolerated a dismantling of the wall, which was seen as an essential protection against the civil liberties abuses of the Watergate era. Even after Sept. 11 and the passage of the USA Patriot Act -- a central purpose of which was to facilitate the sharing of information -- the FISA court unanimously reaffirmed key restrictions. It took high-level action by all three branches of government, including an unprecedented appeal to a special review court that had never previously convened, to finally clarify that the wall was a kind of legal myth that never had quite the force that both the department and the lower FISA court had imagined. Pretending that such a deep-seated institutional problem was Ms. Gorelick's single-handed creation should have been beneath the attorney general."

This AG has demonstrated that NOTHING is beneath him, nothing at all. I wonder if the names Joe McCarthy and Fred Fisher mean anything to him.

[rkc3]

1. Hmmm

Does John Ashcroft know the document to which Ms. Gorelick is credited for writing is an amendment or an addition to an executive order issued by Ronald Reagan?

If Clinton is to blame for everything else, why can't we start with the real architect of this strategy?

[Bertha Venation]

2. my LTTE of the Post:

"Reading today's editorial "Mr. Ashcroft's Smear" < of 9/11 commissioner Jamie Gorelick >, I couldn't help but think of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, during another hearing on Capitol Hill more than fifty years ago, bringing up the name of a young lawyer named Fred Fisher.

"The two Republicans' smears aren't directly analogous. Still, we know there was little that Senator McCarthy wouldn't do to advance his agenda; one has to wonder if there is anything that is beneath this attorney general."