Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2008 > October > 01
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Early signs of enthusiasm for Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
According to Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office, black turnout in early voting has been disproportionately strong. Black Georgians make up 29 percent of our population and slightly less of our voter turnout, but so far they comprise almost 40 percent of those who have voted early or by absentee.
(As Jim Galloway explains at the Political Insider, Georgia is required by federal law to track voter turnout by race, as a consequence of its legacy of voter suppression).
That’s even more significant when you consider that in normal years, black voters have been less likely than their fellow Georgians to take advantage of early and absentee voting. If that turnout surge holds, it could play a significant role in the outcome of down-ticket races.
Of course, most of those black Georgians will probably be voting for Barack Obama, a fact that a few of our less thoughtful readers will try to depict as some sort of black racism. (Yes, they are actually that silly — see comments below). It takes a pretty perverse outlook to see things that way, but some people do manage the trick.
Permalink | Comments (194) | Post your comment |
With economic calamity, Bush seals title of worst president ever
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve been saying for a long time now that George W. Bush would go down as the worst president in American history. His record is abysmal. He started a war in Iraq that we didn’t need to fight, a decision that will probably prove to be oue single biggest foreign policy blunder ever. Then he fought that war incompetently. He took a budget surplus that was projected to last for years and turned it into a consistent deficit — in eight years’ time, he will have racked up almost as much debt as the previous 42 presidents combined. And his administration’s inept response to Hurricane Katrina epitomized a lax management style that infected the entire federal government.
Nonetheless, some people still tried to disagree, citing such losers as James Buchanan or Herbert Hoover to prove that Bush wasn’t the worst.
Well, with the economy now tumbling down around his ears as Bush prepares to leave office, I’d say the argument is pretty much settled. He is James Buchanan AND Herbert Hoover both, setting a standard for incompetence that should never be matched.
Unless Sarah Palin somehow becomes president…
UPDATE: We’re having server problems, which is why comments appear to be closed. Please bear with us, and I apologize.
UPDATE II: Problem solved, have at it.
Permalink | Comments (131) | Post your comment |
US attorney scandal rivals Watergate (and yes, Karl Rove is in the middle of it)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
.
In any other administration, at almost any other time in U.S. history, the report released this week by the Justice Department’s inspector general would constitute a major Page One scandal.
The abuse of power, the ethical nonchalance and the possible criminal behavior by top officials documented within the Bush Justice Department rivals that of the Nixon administration.
The investigation focused on the removal of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006, a step that the administration and its defenders at the time tried to dismiss as routine. This report proves it was anything but. To the contrary, the inspector general has recommended a special prosecutor to investigate criminal charges of wire fraud, obstruction of justice and perjury, among others. Based on the narrative in the report, possible targets include former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and perhaps even former White House aide Karl Rove.
Consider just one of the nine cases, that of David Iglesias, who was removed as U.S. attorney for New Mexico. The Bush administration tried to explain his ouster on grounds that Iglesias was a poor manager, a claim that the inspector general says was utterly groundless. The report says such claims “were disingenuous after-the-fact rationalizations that had nothing to do with the real reason for Iglesias’ removal.”
So what was the real reason? New Mexico Republicans had complained to Rove and others at the White House, including possibly President Bush, that Iglesias had not been aggressive enough in pressing alleged voter fraud and corruption cases against Democrats in the state.
“Based on these complaints alone,” the report said, Iglesias was fired.
In clear and convincing detail, it documents a case that New Mexico Republicans and their allies in the White House tried to use the awesome powers of the U.S. attorney’s office to persecute their political enemies and influence the outcome of elections.
“We believe Departmental leaders abdicated their responsibility to ensure that prosecutorial decisions would be based on the law, the evidence and Departmental policy, not political pressure,” the report concludes.
In addition, the report also lays out a pattern of stonewalling by top administration officials, made possible because the inspector general does not have the subpoena powers that a special prosecutor can employ.
“It is important to note that our investigation … was hampered, and is not complete, because key witnesses declined to cooperate with our investigation,” the report states. “In particular, former White House officials Harriet Miers and Karl Rove … refused our requests for an interview.” The White House also refused to release important documents requested by investigators.
Attorney General Mike Mukasey, who was brought in to clean up the Justice Department, has now appointed a special prosecutor as requested in the report.
“It is true, as the report acknowledges, that an administration is entitled to remove presidential appointees, including U.S. attorneys, for virtually any reason or no reason at all,” Mukasey said. “But the leaders of the department owed it to those who served the country in those capacities to treat their careers and reputations with appropriate care and dignity. And the leaders of the department owed it to the American people they served to conduct the public’s business in a deliberate and professional manner. The department failed on both scores.”
History’s verdict — and the verdicts of the criminal justice system — may be considerably harsher.
Services »
