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January 01, 2006

"I'm not a crook"

Carla pointed me to this post over at Daily Kos on why the right will eventually rue demanding that the DOJ open an investigation into who leaked the NSA domestic spying program.

It's a good post and I recommend that you swing over to DKos and read it.

When I read it I immediately pondered the open question as to why the DOJ is investigating the whistleblower instead of investigating why Bush flouted the express will of Congress that he not be granted any war powers domestically after 9/11 as well as the FISA act in 1977 which also demonstrated the constitutionally binding will of Congress.

I would be surprised if there weren't actually a good many career employees in the DOJ who wanted to investigate the NSA spying program's legality but were over-ruled by GOP political appointees. As we now know, the DOJ civil rights section unanimously viewed Tom DeLay's redistricting scheme in Texas as illegal. But they were over-ruled by a GOP political appointee in a clear case of political manipulation. Why would they change their tactics now?

What's interesting to me about all of this is both the similarities and the differences between the Bush administration and the Nixon administration.

Like Nixon, Bush is obsessed with stopping or preventing whistleblowers from within his own administration informing the public about activities that he would have preferred not see the light of day. Like Nixon, Bush has ordered domestic spying upon American citizens.

A key difference thus far is with their respective Attorney Generals. The 1973 AG, Elliot Richardson, refused to play politics on Nixon's behalf and instead resigned. So far the current AG, Alberto Gonzales, appears perfectly willing to do Bush's political dirty work. Whether then AG John Ashcroft willingly played ball when Bush first started the domestic spying is unknown.

What we do know is that Ashcroft's deputy AG, James B. Comey, refused to authorize the domestic spying program when he was acting AG while Ashcroft was in the hospital getting his gall bladder removed.

As for the current DOJ criminal investigation into who leaked the NSA spying story is... there is a difference between felons and whistleblowers, as Sen. Schumer says. The difference hinges on the legality of Bush's spying program. So the only way to fulfill the DOJ investigation is to investigate the legality of Bush's actions.

Posted by Kevin at January 1, 2006 07:15 PM