Face the Nation this morning was to me, an eye opening experience. I believe that Defense Secretary Robert Gates, unless he accidently shoots somebody in the face, will be remembered as a bit of fresh air in a putrid administration. When he chose not to answer Bob Schieffer’s question about the remark from General Peter Pace about gays being “immoral” he flat out told Bob Schieffer he wouldn’t answer the question instead of skipping around it or by giving a long drawn out explanation of something not even connected to the original question as most Washington politicians would do.
I was surprised to hear that Gates writes each soldiers family that gets killed in Iraq. It won’t bring that soldier back, but at least somebody in Washington is acknowledging that soldiers are being killed. When Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense, it wasn’t “politically correct” to mention fatalities in the war for oil. At least Gates admits that we have casualties.
Dianne Feinstein was a guest. She sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She made it very clear that giving the executive branch the authority to remove Federal Attorneys without notifying the Senate, a right given up under the Patriot Act, should be reinstated and that Karl Rove and possibly others in the administration could be issued a supenoa in upcoming hearings.
What I have a problem with is why, after it’s come to the point where more than half a dozen Federal Attorney get fired for political reasons, the Democrats now want parts of the Patriot Act overturned? I’m nor arguing by any means, if it were up to me, I would throw the entire Patriot Act out. What I want to know is; why did The Senate and The House rush to give up their rights to the executive branch? Isn’t that what the Patriot Act is all about anyway? In times of fear and confusion, we just give up and put our collective security over to the White House? It seems that in doing so, we gave incredible powers to a man that instills less trust in most Americans than Richard M. Nixon. Bush seems to have surrounded himself with scoundrels, from the Vice-President on down. Gates will probably show his true colors, but for now I’ll go ahead and give him the benefit of the doubt, as far a Senator Feinstein, maybe next time she could try to talk to her fellow legislators into keeping the checks and balances in place instead of handing them over to the executive branch. It will take years to fix the harm the last 6 years of a Republican majority have done to us.
I can't help but think that there might be a bigger picture behind all of this. I wonder if the Democrats are decrying the fact that the Attorney's were fired for political reasons, or because it looks good to attack the Republicans once in a while just to show that they aren't marching in lockstep with each other. That is just a thought, but one I can't quite get out of my head.
