Maybe There Is Hope After All
If the accounts in today's New York Times and Washington Post are accurate and reasonably complete, our country came very close to seeing a reprise of Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre.
It is reassuring to know that then Attorney General John Ashcroft, his chief of staff David Ayres, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and then Acting AG James Comey were willing to resign in principle over the attempt by President Bush, his former chief of staff Andrew Card, and the current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to circumvent the Constitutional rule of law in March 2004.
It takes courage and character to jeopardize one's own future by defending principles at any level of government. It takes a strong will for citizens and officials to stand tall knowing they will be viciously and repeatedly attacked by those who lust for power and abuse it willingly once they have it.
It must have stunned President Bush when Ashcroft, Ayres, Mueller, Comey and the others demonstrated their moral and professional courage and reminded him that the law of the land is based on the Constitution, not on the political expedience of a President, his slimeball chief of staff, and a scumbag attorney.
Maybe there is hope after all.
It is reassuring to know that then Attorney General John Ashcroft, his chief of staff David Ayres, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and then Acting AG James Comey were willing to resign in principle over the attempt by President Bush, his former chief of staff Andrew Card, and the current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to circumvent the Constitutional rule of law in March 2004.
It takes courage and character to jeopardize one's own future by defending principles at any level of government. It takes a strong will for citizens and officials to stand tall knowing they will be viciously and repeatedly attacked by those who lust for power and abuse it willingly once they have it.
It must have stunned President Bush when Ashcroft, Ayres, Mueller, Comey and the others demonstrated their moral and professional courage and reminded him that the law of the land is based on the Constitution, not on the political expedience of a President, his slimeball chief of staff, and a scumbag attorney.
Maybe there is hope after all.
posted by Bill McCrory | 7:28 AM
4 Comments:
It does my heart good to see this disastrous administration stopped at any level. It'll take years to undo what they've done. Too bad it's so costly and so slow to bring reality to the public. I'm watching the undercurrent for Internet control. Scary.
tumblewords,
Thank you for reading the post and commenting about it. It was gratifying for me to read that Ashcroft, Ayres, Mueller, Comey and some other appointees who weren't named had the integrity to stand up and support the Constitution when Bush, Card, and Gonzales were clearly looking for the expedient way out. There are many, many people at all levels of government who have that kind of courage and integrity but are rarely asked to deliver on it. There are others who are too timid, too concerned about their jobs, and end up either being promoted or indicted. The ones who stand for right deserve public credit, not political scorn, regardless of their political affiliation.
Anyone else get the impression that Bush is seriously disconnected? I'm not just echoing the default left-wing anger here. I really wonder who Bush is listening to because he's obviously not hearng the same things people out here are.
dang,
At the time he was apparently listening to Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith. After he recovered from the jolt of his own hospitalized AG and the acting AG reminding him he had been elected president, not emperor, and that he was bound to obey the law, he reached a resolution with the DoJ. But as today's New York Times editorial asks, what was he doing before the reconciliation with DoJ?
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