Cheney in 1994: Don't take Baghdad

The Administration's "Enzo the Baker" Moment

Sydney Blumenthal has another great analysis up on Salon about the Attorney General scandal, and the absolute need Bush has to protect Gonzales.

Omertà (or a code of silence) has become the final bond holding the Bush administration together. Honesty is dishonorable; silence is manly; penitence is weakness. Loyalty trumps law. Protecting higher-ups is patriotism. Stonewalling is idealism. Telling the truth is informing. Cooperation with investigators is cowardice; breaking the code is betrayal. Once the code is shattered, however, no one can be trusted and the entire edifice crumbles.

If you're wondering why Bush lets this scandal, which has sapped the entire Administration of its political capital -- and, I would say, even its plausibility as a government -- Blumenthal explains:

Bush cannot afford to have Gonzales resign or be removed. Gonzales' leaving would ratchet up the administration's political crisis to an intense level. Bush could not nominate a replacement without responding to the Senate Judiciary Committee's inevitable request for information on every matter that he has attempted to keep secret. On every unresolved and electrified issue the Senate would demand documents -- the entire cache on the development of policy since 2001 on torture, the gutting of the Civil Rights Division, the U.S. attorneys and much more. Only Gonzales' perpetuation in office holds back the deluge.

It's definitely worth the read.

Little Signs

Coming off the plane in Denver, I saw a welcome sight: a person who had set up a little site with a sign and fliers recommending that Cheney be impeached. As far as I know, DIA is a private space, so this speaks well of free speech in my city.

In contrast, on eastern Long Island in a small town along the north fork I saw a general store window which had lettered the window with the words: "Everything Hillary says is a lie."

Different places, same time.