Tuesday, January 18, 2005

The consequences of "gotcha"-ism

This WaPo editorial on Alberto Gonzales points out the dysfunction of a Senatorial system that uses its "advise and consent" function to disqualify candidates for Attorney General for failing to pay taxes on their nannies, but tolerates candidates who provide legal cover for the use of torture, the permanent suspension of habeus corpus, and the evisceration of the Geneva Conventions.

More broadly, it seems that Americans have so resigned themselves to political gotchaism that individuals whose political judgments result in irreperable harm the country's moral standing are acceptable, while those who commit the smallest infractions of civil law can be disqualified from office (or impeached).

As the Republicans used to ask, "Where's the outrage?"

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