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Last night as I finally made my way back to the Sunshine State, I watched President Bush’s press conference in its entirety. At first I thought, “He doesn’t even care anymore.” The president was unusually feisty. But he was also charmless. I can’t remember any other time in his administration when he’s made a public appearance and been so utterly indifferent to looking and acting nice.
And then I thought, “Shrewd.”
The president understands that, political obsessives aside, no one really cares about this U.S. Attorney thing. Regardless of the reason for the firings, even if it was a low one like the president didn’t like who the terminees were or weren’t prosecuting, he was within his right to fire them. (Impeding a federal investigation is another matter, but even my rabid friends on the left haven’t accused him of that.) Just as my petulant cleaning lady who’s apparently allergic to dusting serves at my pleasure, they serve at his pleasure. Just like me, he may swing the axe any time he likes. In short, there’s no Constitutional crisis to see here – just move along.
But the president understands something about these Democrats who now sit on Capitol Hill. They were elected with a narrow agenda – Get Bush!!! And if you can’t get Bush, be damn sure to get Rove!
Partisan witch-hunts are to be the order of the day. The president also understands that the American public is predisposed to dislike Congress. What’s more, this Congress, once its true colors show, will be uniquely unpopular. Already, Gallup has Congress’ approval numbers sinking to the level the Republican Congress sat at before the November calamity.
SO WHY NOT PICK A FIGHT WITH CONGRESS? Drag the bloody affair out. Let the battle rage so long that it becomes apparent that the only thing this Congress cares about is partisan warfare. What’s best about this little plan is it involves a freak side show in which the performers are Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. It doesn’t involve matters of real consequence such as the war.
So how will it play out? I hate to say it, but Glenn Greenwald is right. The president’s invocation of executive privilege given this set of circumstances is weak. When the matter goes to court, the administration will likely lose. But big deal. The more protracted the affair is, the more apparent it will become that the Democrats’ entire agenda has been reduced to pursuing Karl Rove.
Let me be clear – while the Democrats have the right to subpoena Rove and Miers, that doesn’t mean they should, either ethically or morally. Theoretically, as congressmen, they have important things to do. Attempting to paralyze the government by conducting a craven fishing expedition shouldn’t be their top priority. But it is.
For my friend JG who loves my historical analogies, I’ll provide one that he’ll particularly enjoy. A certain portion of the Republican Party devoted an inordinate amount of energy to “getting” Bill Clinton in the 1990’s. At the time, I cheered these efforts. I remain an aficionado on obscure Whitewater trivia to this day. Ask me “Who is Webb Hubbell?” and I can refer you to several Wall Street Journal editorials on the matter.
But I was wrong then, and so was the Republican Party. Especially after seizing Congress in 1994, it would have been much better if we had focused on matters of high import rather than our feckless president and his wicked, wicked ways.
I make this confession not as an offering of atonement that will serve as a plea to the left to go easy on my president. Quite the contrary - let the Waxmans and Dingells and Conyers come out with all their guns blazing. What we did in the 90’s was dreadful politics, all of which accrued to Clinton’s advantage. And the course they’re embarking on now is dreadful politics.
They ran on a platform of changing Washington. Instead, they’re simply going to indulge their own hostility and hatred, while abandoning any pretense of having a constructive agenda. I plan on enjoying the spectacle.
Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com.
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