I don't normally publish "go read that" pieces, but two articles are floating around the infosphere that everyone ought to be aware of.
First is a piece by Judy Bachrach in Vanity Fair. "Washington Babylon" chronicles the shenanigans of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the Vietnam era Navy fighter ace who abused his position on the House defense appropriations committee to make himself rich and subsequently went to prison for it.
Second is a story in The New Yorker by Jane Mayer. Mayer has been tracking the efforts of all the President's lawyers to subvert the constitution for quite some time. This time, she goes into detail about the role of Dick Cheney aide David Addington in subverting division of power in a so-called republic unseen since the days of Julius Caesar.
Well, hard to say. It seems to me that Congress will have to take action to limit those powers prior to the next President being elected.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we know what that will take.
Hillary Clinton is president. The Democrats control congress. The executive branch keeps the Republican minority out of the loop, and makes aggressive arguments to expand its powers.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone think the Republicans would actually go along with that? That they would act "principled" ? Never. It's all politics.
Right now, what I think I'd like to see would be for the Dems to take back Congress this year and a principled Republican take the White House in '08.
ReplyDeleteThe question is, can a principled candidate win the GOP nomination?
Actually, that's pretty much what I would like to see Jeff. I don't think the Dems will have done enough work to have a solid foundation for long term electoral victory by 2008, so better to have Congress and let the Republicans try and make something of this Iraq mess. Just as long as we have divided government; that is key.
ReplyDeleteSadly I think principleness is largely relative. The only Repub I like is Chuck Hagel, but I doubt he is running.
I was thinking about Hagel myself, but as you say, I doubt he's running and even if he did, I doubt he'd get the nomination.
ReplyDeleteA lot depends on whether the GOP wants to come out and say "we've changed direction."
Go figure the odds of that happening.