Defining Gonzo Down

My reaction to the storm surrounding Gonzales is that it is amazing how far we've 'defined deviancy down' at this point. Pundits are speculating that if it wasn't the wiretap program that Gonzales was referring to, he must be hiding an even more nefarious spying program. I don't know. To me, the telling point is that the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the country has shown time and again that he has no respect for the laws that pertain to him. The position that Gonzales has taken is so disdainful of the rule of law that we risk missing the entire point of the executive branch's audacity.

Gonzo says that there was no dissension with regard to the illegal wiretapping program. Further, that even though they knew it was illegal, they feel that the laws do not pertain to them in this instance. Granted, at the time that he was attempting to persuade the incapacitated Ashcroft that this illegal program should be extended, he was serving as Bush's Tom Hagen, but now, as the AG, he continues to see no problem with the concept of flaunting the law of the land in defense of Bush's warped sense of executive rule.

He refuses to answer direct questions from the Senate Judiciary committee, and gives no reason. He told Schumer last week that he was not going to answer a direct question regarding who sent him to Ashcroft's sick bed, and did not cite any privelege, or any reason. That is contempt of Congress, plain and simple. It beggars belief that the attorney general would take such a position, but we've defined his deviancy down to the ground. As Josh Marshall says today:

The most telling part of the Sunday Show reaction to Alberto Gonzales yesterday was that it was treated as a given by pretty much everyone that Gonzales should resign or be fired. The only point really being debated now is whether he's guilty of perjury, a pretty proud standard for the top law enforcement official in the country.

That's really the point. The damage that this administration is doing to our republic goes far beyond the details of the latest outrage. It can only be likened to the nefarious effects on broader society that these same right-wingers blame rap music and the rap culture for. They claim that by listening to rap music, a generation of black youth is being systematically degraded, and that society will never be the same. How is this different than this administration's effect on our republic? We concede that Gonzo is being intentionally evasive of the committee, we concede that he is hiding behind slick legalistic distinctions, and we allow that he has decided to simply ignore or claim amnesia when it comes to direct questions from Senators. And then we attempt to parse his obfuscation for evidence of perjury. Whether he perjured himself or not is not the issue, because a conviction for Libby or for Gonzo is a temporary salve, the wounds that they've caused our country will take much longer to heal.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald takes apart the NYT for their lead story on the "other" intelligence program here.