The latest scandal is the firing of federal prosecutors for political reasons. I haven't really been following it, because I wasn't sure it was going to go anywhere. Administrations dismiss federal prosecutors all the time. In fact, anyone who becomes a prosecutor and thinks, "I'm set for life," hasn't been paying attention. But the Bush administration lied when it let them go, saying that they were being dismissed for poor performance. In doing so, it put an undeserved blot on their records that stands a real good chance of screwing up their career track. The administration lied about the prosecutors' records in an attempt to cover up what they were doing.
And covering it up is where they got themselves into trouble. The prosecutors were investigating corruption, the targets were republican, and the elections were coming. The scandal reaches all the way to the White House.
TIME:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has characterized the controversial firing of eight U.S. attorneys as an "overblown personnel matter." If so, it is a personnel matter that appears to have involved the White House. A spokeswoman for the President revealed the White House's deep involvement in the decision to dismiss the prosecutors, a step that involved former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, Presidential adviser Karl Rove and, apparently, even Bush himself. Meanwhile, Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Gonzales and the official in charge of drawing up the list of fired prosecutors, has resigned amid continuing allegations that the eight — all Republicans — were ousted for political reasons, including their refusal to bring corruption charges against Democrats in the period leading up to last year's mid-term elections.
As the scandals pile up, as the administration's instinct toward dishonesty in all situations becomes more obvious, and as their concern for their own political fortunes overshadows their concern for the nation, it's easy to lose one scandal or another among the whole. There are so many that if I were to try to list them all here from memory, I'm pretty sure I'd fail. I'd forget the Dubai ports deal or censoring climate scientists. There are just too many lies and abuses and crimes. One person couldn't possibly keep track of them all.
But, no matter how bad things get, no matter what these people do or say, nothing can overshadow the monstrous crime at the center of this administration's history -- lying the nation into war with Iraq...
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