The Captain Sold his Soul

Captain's Quarters was often the spot on the dial to go if you wanted to listen to an independent, intelligent, conservative blogger.

The Captain declared his personal independence from that awesome position today, when he organized a group of fellow wing-nuts to telephone the White House and plead for more talking points on the case of Abu and the Fired Eight.  I don't fault the good Cap'n for failing to come up with his own justifications for the White House's absurd claim of executive privilege. There are none.

His abject need to support the Bush administration's every illegality clearly drove him to the point of giving up any claim to being anything but a mouthpiece.

After selling his soul, I'm sure that he hoped for something special in return. He didn't get it.  Instead he received the following:

A senior official called Congress' action an extraordinary act. Congress has never attempted a contempt citation against a president's staff in our history.

They did not advise the poor Captain of other things that have never happened in our history. No President has ever been arrested for attempted arson in the White House.  No First Lady has (yet) been  found guilty of being a child molester.  The fact is that no contempt citation was attempted, because every other administration in our history has submitted to subpoenas.   Clinton's White House counsel,  Beth Nolan, testified before Congress four times.  In fact since 1944, 74 Executive Branch employees have testified before Congress - including Bush appointees, like Condi Rice and Tom Ridge. 

This is not about executive privilege, as anyone who saw Abu Gonzalez refuse to answer questions asked by Senator Schumer. He cited no privilege, but simply refused to answer. In order to cite a privilege, the official must show up and request it. Miers did not even bother to do this.

And in the end all the talk of privilege is blather. Captain Ed  and his friends are well aware that the Bush Justice Department is the most politicized ever. In the Bush White House there have been 711 (seven hundred and eleven) White House officials  who have been "authorized to discuss pending criminal matters with the Justice Department)"  In the Clinton administration there were four (4) such officials. So if the good Captain really believes that all federal prosecutions should be based on politics, let him at least have the decency to say so. At least it would be honest.

(memeorandum)

Comments

[repsac3]

And even still, the captain sounds more sane than most, even after the call...

(I mean, what're they gonna do, ya'no? Everytime they get the reins of power, scandal & hypocracy grows like weeds... I almost feel bad for 'em... ...till I read one of those holier-than-thou, never wrong, nuts that's convinced everyone to his/her left is a nazicommie. That cures me quick.)

[repsac3]

I had it wrong... Apparently the word I was lookin' for earlier was Communazi

(In preview it looked like the hyperlink on "communazi" disappeared. Here it is the ol' fashioned way, just in case... http://thebluevoice.blogspot.com/2007/07/communazis-islamofascists-who-can-tell.html#links )