One of the memes that we used to hear ad nauseum was that loyalty counted for everything in the Bush Administration. George Bush's loyalty, it was often said, was the reason why guys like Brownie and Bremer and Rummy got or kept their jobs, despite clear demonstrations of incompetence. Bush's loyalty was also trotted out to explain why a certain thoroughly unqualified White House counsel was once nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court.
As with most politicians on the defensive, though, it turns out that loyalty for George Bush is an ice cube: Turn up the heat, and watch it vanish.
With the Occupant-in-Chief safely out of the country, guess who's being groomed as scapegoat -- back in Washington -- for the burgeoning scandal concerning all those fired U.S. Attorneys.
Hint:
With Mr. Bush traveling in Mexico, the White House insisted that the president's role had been minimal and laid the blame primarily on Harriet E. Miers, who was White House counsel when the prosecutors lost their jobs …
[…]
… the White House scrambled to explain the matter by releasing a stream of e-mail messages detailing how Ms. Miers had corresponded with D. Kyle Sampson, the top aide to [Attorney-General Alberto] Gonzales who drafted the list of those to be dismissed.
Mr. Sampson resigned Monday. On Tuesday afternoon, at a news conference in an ornate chamber adjacent to his office, Mr. Gonzales promised to "find out what went wrong here," even as he insisted he had had no direct knowledge of how his staff had decided on the dismissals.
He said he had rejected an earlier idea, which the White House attributed to Ms. Miers, to replace all 93 United States attorneys, the top federal prosecutors in their regions.
Nice. Blame it all on Harriet Miers, who has been gone since 31 January of this year. Bonus points for floating the unsubstantiated idea that it could have been far worse ("we only fired seven out of the 93!"), a tactic familiar from this Administration. Think about the way they spin the budget deficits, for example.
In case Miers's shoulders are too narrow to bear all the blame, it's clear who's the fall guy on deck:
The White House took the unusual step of having [new White House counsel Dan] Bartlett conduct a hurried briefing with reporters in Mérida, Mexico. He said the president had "all the confidence in the world" in Mr. Gonzales …
Being assigned to the spotlight of a press conference to push a weak stopgap position while a spokesperson in another location simultaneously says that your boss has "all the confidence in the world" in you is usually the kiss of death in politics. Call him Gone-zales.
The wholesale firing of the U.S. Attorneys is a serious matter and deserves thorough Congressional investigation. In the meantime, though, I can't help but cackle. It's fun to watch the rats turn on each other.
Update
Just noticed this other article in the Times. More on the loyalty meme.
3 comments:
His people are too loyal, if they gave a crap about their lives and freedom, they'd turn on that weasly drunk Bush in a heartbeat and out Cheney as the guy behind every criminal act in the past six years within the walls of the White House.
Don't cry for Ms. Miers, who was nothing and nowhere before W. I figure she comes out ahead in this deal.
Now Katherine Harris has more right to complain. After handing her boss the Presidency, you'd think she could at least get support for her bid for succeeding Jeb Bush. I guess being an angry mean-spirited woman just doesn't get you as far with W as being an angry mean-spirited man. Talk about a glass ceiling!
Let's not forget the Enabler-in-Chief. Without Colin Powell this war would never have been started. His talk of "working from within" is disingenuous and self-serving. Whereas Robert Reich had the integrity to resign when he realized that his beliefs were no longer compatible with the direction his boss was taking, Colin Powell seems to have snuck away from the table now that the meal is over and the check has arrived.
Time will tell whether Scooter Libby's trust in his bosses will be better repaid. If I were him, I wouldn't hold my breath.
I disagree on two points.
First, Colin Powell has paid dearly, at least in the coin of the realm of politics, for his choices in the early years of the Bush Administration. He once seemed to have no upper limit for political office. Now, he's unequivocably done for. The Dems hate him for participating in the charade that sold the war, and the Reps view him as a traitor.
Second, I'm pretty sure that Libby will be pardoned by Bush, probably after the Nov 2008 elections. I think he has enough clout with a threat of cooperation with Fitzgerald to have ensured a deal. I suspect he proposed (or agreed) to go through appeals process with his mouth shut, with a guarantee that if the appeal doesn't work, he gets the pardon during the final brush-clearing photo op. The reporting after the verdict came in suggested that the appeal process would likely not be finished until after the election. "How conveeeeeenient," as we used to say.
I suppose Libby does have the minor worry of the Administration getting in so much trouble for other crimes that his leverage could vanish, but given the spinelessness of the Democrats, I don't expect much real investigation. Gonzales will be tossed overboard, and that will be that.
Meantime, it's clear that Libby is not paying any of his legal bills -- even the above-board "contributions to his defense" are running well in the black. And, of course, he's not sitting in jail waiting on the appeal. You know, like a common criminal.
Finally, I was going to argue that Katherine Harris's pariah status had less to do with her being angry and mean-spirited than it did with her being completely out of touch with reality, but then I thought of the obvious male counterexample (and how Photoshopped is that smile?).
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