Via Andrew Sullivan, Scott Horton:
What is at stake here? The issue is enormous. It is whether the criminal justice system will be turned into a partisan political tool...There is now clear evidence that Gonzales and Bush directed political prosecutions and attempted to deflect prosecutions of Republicans for political purposes. A state that criminalizes political adversaries and that cloaks the criminal conduct of its retainers is by definition a tyranny...
The evidence of what has happened and why is all about us. It is obvious. Yet Bush and Gonzales insist that we ignore what we have seen and read and accept instead their dishonest characterizations. America will survive as a democracy and its institutions will survive only if we remain conscious of the idea of our democracy. And only if we keep our eyes open and recognize what is right in front of our noses.
More from Carpetbagger:
I’ve been mulling over this scandal for several weeks now, but the question caught me slightly off-guard. What did make the Bush gang think they could a) politicize U.S. Attorneys’ offices; b) fire those who failed to play ball; and c) lie about it?
The only explanation I can think of is that the Bush gang has been getting away with it for six years and became so arrogant, they were no longer worried about getting caught.
And this from Politico:
Republicans are fretting, and Democrats are fantasizing, about what the debacle foretells for the next year and half.
“We’ve only had subpoena power for the last six weeks and every tree that we’ve barked up so far has had a cat in it,” said a senior Democrat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. “Imagine where we’ll be after six months.”
When the entire house of cards collapses, remember this: Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves. Madison and others designed our system of government on the assumption that Congress and the President would maintain an antagonistic relationship. Antagonism lies at the heart of checks and balances and the separation of powers. But the Republican led Congress forgot that. Rather than investigate "one of their own," they chose to look the other way, both allowing and encouraging the president to expand executive power in ways the Founders would have thought impossible. They could have stopped him at any time, but they chose not to.
UPDATE: Karl Rove is claiming that this is all just "a lot of politics." Well, yes, it is. That's the whole point, isn't it? They taken the rule of law and turned it into a political weapon. Given that Karl was instrumental in making that happen, I'm not really sure what he is complaining about here.
I'm just saying...
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