In reversing one of its last principled positions—that American courts are sufficiently nimble, fair, and transparent to try Mohammed and his confederates—the administration surrendered to the bullying, fear-mongering, and demagoguery of those seeking to create two separate kinds of American law. This isn’t just about the administration allowing itself to be bullied out of its commitment to the rule of law. It’s about the president and his Justice Department conceding that the system of justice in the United States will have multiple tiers—first-class law for some and junk law for others. – Dahlia Lithwick
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“You cannot say that a man is ‘evil’ and ‘anti-American’ in effect and then adopt his policies.” – Joe Scarborough
WASHINGTON — After a rousing discussion, Joe Scarborough agreed with the decision to keep the trial of KSM at Gitmo. His main concern was that candidate Obama had pronounced these policies of Bush-Cheney “evil” and “un-American.” Meanwhile, Mika Brzezinski and John Heilemann made the ludicrous argument that Obama’s moral compass remains on course while taking issue with Scarborough over whether Obama ever said anything close to what Joe was claiming. Evidently it’s not enough to adopt the very Bush-Cheney policies you railed against and said you’d change.
Being as aware as anymore who covered the ’08 election cycle, including the “Game Change” author(s) John Heilemann, there is no doubt that candidate Obama implied that Bush-Cheney policies on Gitmo were in fact “evil” and “un-American.” It was the wink and nod between Obama and his die hard fans, as well as skeptical progressives who voted for him, including myself, as Obama pledged that he’d have a different type of presidency.
Mika then turned the subject away from Obama’s responsibility to do better by asking whether Obama would have opened Gitmo in the first place. It reveals the bankruptcy of his apologists on KSM’s trial, because this has absolutely nothing to do with the cowardice of the Obama administration to rubber stamp Bush-Cheney policies where the rule of law is concerned.
Of course, Joe Scarborough has no problem in theory with these same policies, mind you, he just wants Obama supporters to eat it and admit what Obama channeling Bush means looking backward.
There you have it, folks. In a nutshell, this is why we don’t do the brave thing, the right thing, the moral thing and stand up for what this country represents. But we sure are good at paying lip service to American principles when we don’t have anything to lose, like when a candidate for president runs for office. Just don’t let the test of the meaning of American values come inside your own neighborhood.
We are only as strong as our most fearful link. That link was exposed on “Morning Joe” today, but they have a lot of company.
A.G. Eric Holder whined that Congress made him cancel civilian trial plans for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
The Obama administration says they had no choice, when in fact Pres. Obama simply wouldn’t make the case and take on Congress, with the President’s loyalists sticking up for him.
The New York Times whines about Senators Chuck Schumer and Joe Lieberman, also saying “the final blow came from Mayor Michael Bloomberg” on why the public trial of KSM had to finally be moved.
America is now a pass the buck society.
It’s always the fault of someone else when we choose to do the un-American thing.
We don’t have anyone willing to stand up and do what’s right regardless of how uncomfortable it makes us or the expense of doing it.
That is not a leading quality of the American spirit, but it has become our driving force.
Taylor Marsh is a political analyst, writer and commentator on national politics, foreign policy, and women in power. A veteran national politics writer, Taylor’s been writing on the web since 1996. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her blog.