Greenwald on Bush’s Magical Shield
Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!
Ahem. Greenwald spake thusly: Bush’s magical shield from criminal prosecution.
This latest assertion of power — to literally block U.S. Attorneys from prosecuting executive branch employees — is but another reflection of the lawlessness prevailing in our country, not a new revelation. We know the administration breaks laws with impunity and believes it can. That is no longer in question. The only real question is what, if anything, we are willing to do about that.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:31 am
Link doesn’t seem to work — I get a page with the boilerplate, but no content.
I wanted to go back and read this because this crisis is becoming more and more apparent (to me at least). The President has now explicitly decided to ignore the responsibilities and duties of the executive branch where it threatens his own interests and agenda. Explicitly! Nobody in the executive branch will be prosecuted for contempt if they refused to answer questions, the executive branch will simply not enforce laws with which it disagrees, and the executive branch will block all oversight of its activities.
Until recently, I was on Pelosi’s side: impeachment was a waste of effort that would distract from useful work a Democratic congress could otherwise achieve. While it will still be a distraction from useful work, I now believe that it is an unfortunate necessity that they spend that time on impeachment. The situation we are in today is precisely the situation the founding fathers envisioned that would require impeachment as the ultimate check. I honestly believe this is an even more clear cut, and important, case than Watergate. Bush cannot be allowed to assert the primacy of the executive branch, and neither Obama, nor Clinton, nor Romney should enjoy such primacy after Bush leaves office.