Contemptible

The House of Representatives voted yesterday to hold two high level Bush advisors in contempt for failing to cooperate with a Congressional inquiry into the purge of federal prosecutors in 2006-2007. White House chief of staff Josh Bolten is charged with failing to testify and former White House counsel Harriet Miers is charged with refusing to turn over documents related to the political motivations of the firings.

Republicans staged a walkout because they said the contempt orders were politically motivated. Of course the contempt orders carried a political subtext as did the walkout. But to assert that Congress is political is not an argument. The political posturing is what it is; it should obfuscate an analysis of the substance of the matter.

The republican walkout, however, is designed to avoid the substance of the matter. The democrats are trying to make as much hay as possible, but that is not a reason to ignore the seriousness of Executive branch staffers refusing to cooperate with the Constitutionally mandated oversight responsibility of Congress. The Congress represents We The People and must be vigilant in checking the power of executive branch officials. It is imperative to our judicial system that federal prosecutors serve the law. If the White House puts partisanship over the law it does serious damage to the rule of law. Republicans are failing Congress, the Judiciary, and the country. If Bolten, Meirs, and the White House did nothing unseemly then the move will backfire on the democrats. Open government, the rule of law, and Congressional oversight are far more important than the partisan concerns of the Bush Administration.

Sticky Rice

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared before Senate and House committees yesterday to answer questions about the Administration’s intentions in Iraq. After questions about the future of Iraq (and contradictory White House statements relating to Iraq), some Members of Congress brought up the recent study by the Center on Public Integrity that found Rice made at least 56 false statements about the national security threat posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001. The report asserts that Rice’s false statements were part of an orchestrated PR campaign designed to sway public opinion in favor of the invasion. The success of the PR campaign was essential to leading the nation to war. Rice, Cheney, Bush might’ve convinced themselves they were telling a Noble Lie in service of neoconservative dreams, but the fact is, Rice et al led the republic into an unnecessary war under decidedly false pretenses.

When confronted with findings of the report, Rice grew indignant and responded, “I did not at any time make a statement that I knew to be false or that I thought to be false.”

This is a shockingly low standard. The U.S. went to war because Rice wasn’t certain that WMD claims were false?! When a republic is considering war, its leaders should make every effort to find out what is wise and true. Presidential advisors should have higher standards than repeating information they “do not know to be false.” And it is downright despicable to knowingly deploy a glitzy marketing campaign on such dubious pretenses. This Administration has repeatedly dragged out the (incorrect) trope that because there is some doubt (about global warming, biology, smoking causing cancer), we should not act. To go to war with lower evidentiary standards than is required for public health policy verges on evil.

And why didn’t Rice say that her statements were true? Or, that she believed them to be true? Her clever and vigorous protestations are acknowledgments that she now knows her statements were untrue; that she should’ve known they were false at the time.

But she should be truthful, not merely avoid saying things she knows are false. She knows now, and she knew then, that she was not being truthful. “Know to be false”? She knew it wasn’t true, but she couldn’t prove it false. Rice is playing clever with her words. She is defensive because she knows she failed to do the right thing. Maybe she didn’t know it was false. It is logically impossible for Saddam Hussein to prove that he does not have WMD; therefore it is impossible for Rice to know with certainty that she was saying falsehoods. She merely misled and misrepresented. She avoided speaking truthfully and now gets indignant when she is held a little accountable.

Secretary Rice’s doth protest too much, methinks.