Constitutional Hardball: Can the Democrats deliver the necessary chin music?

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Constitutional Hardball
Submitted by Digby on September 13, 2007 - 5:49pm.


The New York Times' editorial begins Thursday morning with this:


The Justice Department is a disaster zone. It should be the embodiment of America’s commitment to the rule of law, but it has been contaminated by partisan politics. The nation’s top lawyers may have broken the law, and even may have sent innocent people to jail, to advance the interests of the Republican Party. To replace Alberto Gonzales, President Bush must appoint an attorney general who is above politics, and the Senate should only confirm a nonpolitical lawyer of unquestioned integrity.


Isn't it pretty to think so? But there are very good reasons to assume that the Bush administration will not do it.


They are currently floating the name of Ted Olsen, one of the roughest partisan players in Washington, a man who made his bones in the Reagan administration by authoring a 1982 memo outlining a plan to "neuter the ability of Congress to enforce its oversight powers against the executive branch", — the same theory which is being used today to justify keeping the congress from enforcing a contempt proceeding against Harriet Miers and Karl Rove. (The 1982 plan was conceived by current white house counsel Fred Fielding and current Supreme Court chief Justice, John Roberts, incidentally. The movement zombies never die.)

Olsen would be a typical choice by this president, designed not only to install partisan operatives in jobs that normally require high standards of personal integrity and independence, but to infuriate many Democrats (despite what this article says.) This has the double effect of getting the person they want in the job while rendering the Democratic Congress publicly impotent before their base once again. It's all good.

But it's more than that. Having one of the most notorious Clinton character assassins running this Justice Department during the presidential election which will quite possibly feature Sen. Hillary Clinton would send a very strong signal that the partisan manipulation of the voting machinery will continue apace. Theodore Olsen, it cannot be forgotten, argued the case for the president in Bush vs Gore. Whether they actually game the system or not, it would seem that they are intent upon making it seem that they will. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/constitutional_hardball?tx=3