Preface - Yesterday we took our eyes off the ball.
The way that DU works so well is that we engage a wide range of political and strategic issues. Some of them have merit and some of them attract more attention. We argue, we pursue the facts. And we recommend and draw more attention. Then we get behind a point and it gains currency.
The rape kit controversy proves this point. Last week somebody published a thread about it. Frankly I found it too far out to be believed. But the wisdom of the DU crowd and the Daily Kos crowd fleshed it out. It became an issue and for reasons that we can never fully understand, of all of the issues CNN found it interesting and headlined it. DU 1 McCain 0.
Yesterday we got diverted by trying to measure the tea leaves to see exactly how enthusiastic WJC is about this or that. We need to keep our eyes on the ball.
On 60 Minutes John McCain makes a full frontal attack on the constitution
Here is his statement
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002956941
PELLEY: You have called for the firing of the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal government organization that oversees the markets.
MCCAIN: Yes. You know -- and by the way, that technically he can’t be, quote, “fired.” But I’ll tell you, when I’m president, if I want somebody to resign, they resign. Unbelievably we now have a candidate running for President who has made it clear that he intends to use intimidation to further expand the executive power of the Presidency. We can call it the Tony Soprano philosophy of management. Or the George Bush, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin philosophy of using executive power as an extension of personal power.
I) Violation of the Basic Understanding of the Constitution and the Laws of the United States While the office of the President of the United States is the most powerful position in the world it gains a high degree of its power from its limitations. The reason that we know that Putin is not a true democratic leader is that unlike George Washington he didn't just walk away.
It is in the walking away of absolute power that the office of the President has gained its prestige, its admiration and its weight in public opinion around the world. A key component to that limitation is that certain offices are appointed by the President and serve at his/her pleasure and others are insulated from political influence after appointment.
"If I want somebody to resign, they resign".
Really? Would that include the head of the FBI? The head of the CIA? Does it include Judges and Supreme Court Judges. Does it include the head of the Federal Reserves? The head of the Joint Chiefs? The head of NASA?
The clear intention of Senator McCain is that he will not respect the constitutional spirit of our government but that he intends to rule by fiat or that he simply intends to be overly dramatic in a crises and talk like Tony Soprano. Its hard to tell.
II) We have seen these lack of executive restraint before. It is Nixon and it is Bush/Cheney. All you have to do is look at how Bush/Cheney tried to politicalize the justice department and fire Federal Prosecuting Attorneys to see what this kind of President looks like.
But there is a much more philosophical point here.
It is based on the world view of that mythical angry white guy that if we just stopped with the bullshit and kicked a few asses that everything will turn out right. In this sense McCain is now channelling the mythical leader of the
ultimate angry white man guy - Vice President Cheney. This is what Cheney did when the product of the CIA did not conform to his personal opinion, he kicked some ass and got the CIA to say what he knew they should be saying. This is how you get unnecessary wars and hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed, by getting angry and kicking ass and firing people in the government who have protected offices but who you disagree with.
And this brings us to the Plame affair. The question Pelly should have asked is "How Senator, how would you pressure someone to resign when they legally they should be free from political interference?" Would you leak the fact that their spouse is a covert CIA agent? Would you send intimidating people to follow them around?
When he said that we should have all immediately stopped and said, "Exactly how, Senator McCain do you intend to use the office of the President to intimidate and coerce legally appointed people to fold to your personal view?" Intimidate their families? Spread lies about them as you are now doing with Senator Obama? What lengths will you go to exert the executive power of the United States? If your willing to attack your long time ally Christopher Cox in extra constitutional bullying what will you do to the rest of the country?
III) There is something eerily familiar about this, it goes to Republican anti-intellectualism - fire that scientist. What does this sound like? It sounds alot like a Governor in an obscure state using state power to fire independent officials for false pretenses because of personal motives. This is the issue that Troopergate is centered on.
It goes to the core of the Palin administrative style of bashing people who are not personally loyal to you. It means that if you have a personal attachment to the executive then you will be trusted and you will get power.
This is what "attaboy Brownie your doing a heckuva job". We lost the heart of an American city on this abuse.
There is something inherent about the current nature of conservative philosophy that has embraced all of these crazy notions into an elaborate cult of executive power. It is related to the anti intellectual tangent of the Republican party. Don't like what a scientist is writing then 'fire' his/her ideas by editing their work.
There is a direct line between people who believe that humans walked with dinasours and people who think you should fire constitutionally protected independent offices. "I believe, I follow God, I am right, I am not going to take this shit anymore, I will find a way to fire them."
Bush - John Shalikashvili Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Cheney - CIA opinions he doesn't like
Palin - Monegan
Tony Soprano - Big Pussy Bonpensiero
McCain doesn't have any executive experience but it is clear that he will be drawing on the Bush/Cheney/Palin/Tony Soprano experience that has worked out so well for the country.
IV) Senator McCain is unfit to be President. American democracy was formed by the Boston Massacre. It revealed that we were too far away from the United Kingdom to be ruled by it. Power that is too far removed becomes callous and ultimately tyranny.
We proved that we were better than the occupiers because we took Captain Preston and the soldiers and we gave them a fair trial.
At this little moment in history American achieved greatness
A desperate request was sent to John Adams from Preston, pleading for his work on the case. Adams, who was already a leading Patriot and who was contemplating a run for public office, nevertheless agreed to help, in the interest of ensuring a fair trial. Adams, Josiah Quincy II, and Robert Auchmuty acted as the defense attorneys, with Sampson Salter Blowers helping by investigating the jury pool.<12> It is not known whether Paul Revere was present at the Massacre, though he drew a detailed map of the bodies to be used in the trial of the British soldiers held responsible.<13> Massachusetts Solicitor General Samuel Quincy and private attorney Robert Treat Paine, hired by the town of Boston, handled the prosecution. To let passions settle, the trial was delayed for months, unusual in that period, and the jurymen were all chosen from towns outside Boston. Tried on his own, Preston was acquitted after the jury was not convinced that he had ordered the troops to fire. His trial lasted from October 24, 1770 to October 30, 1770.
We didn't act like angy white guys and throw them into the dungeon.
We worked on principal and fact.
It is why America was ready for Democracy and the people of Iraq are not. A leading Sh'ia is not willing to serve as a defense attorney for a leading Sunnai. All of the surging and all of our money is not going to change that.
And it is this reason that George Will now describes in brutal detail why John McCain should not be President:
"It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?"
The answer to that question is, obviously no.
V) Please do what you do. Raise hell. Do not let John McCain get away with attacking the constitutional precepts of the Presidency:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002956941PELLEY: You have called for the firing of the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal government organization that oversees the markets.
MCCAIN: Yes. You know -- and by the way, that technically he can’t be, quote, “fired.” But I’ll tell you, when I’m president, if I want somebody to resign, they resign. 
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