BUSH, FOR FIRST TIME, LINKED DIRECTLY TO JUSTICE DEPT. SCANDAL -- HOW COME THERE'S NEVER A COP WHEN YOU NEED ONE?

DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman

Many of us who were around as Nixon slowly sank, one fact at a time, toward his political demise, considered it, if truth be told, a rewarding experience to see that lying, criminal bastard flailing about, his misdeeds pulling him inexorably toward justice's reward.
Now we’re seeing a repeat, with Bush as the new criminal, but it’s not rewarding -- not even a little bit. The problem here is, while the dummy twists slowly, slowly in the wind (yes, I'm mixing metaphors), people are dying in his vile, wholly impossible attempt to be vindicated by the blood of others.

My friend Tom Dowretzky, a former news desk colleague, sent me this link: http://www.abqjournal.com/news/special/554986nm04-15-07.htm. Tom pointed out that the lead is buried, because beneath the first paragraph we learn Domenici took his campaign to fire the U.S. Attorney who was tormenting him directly to Bush, and the man, David Iglesias, was subsequently fired. It leaves lots of questions. Did Bush take some kind of direct action in Domenici’s behalf after the phone call? Common sense tells us he did. Bush certainly didn’t do anything to call off the dogs. Since he had sworn an oath to the Constitution, it was his duty to admonish Domenici and report his behavior. No evidence of that, either. Circumstantial evidence tells us he ordered Iglesias fired. The investigation rolls on -- torpidly.

By January 2009, when Bush is scheduled to step down, odds are the Democratically-controlled Congress will have uncovered an enormous tonnage of impeachable offenses. But in the meantime in Iraq, three U.S. troops die every day, on average, and many more are permanently disabled.

Bush, avidly persuing his place in hell, said over the weekend that the Democrats in Congress must listen to the generals and continue funding his despicable war. But the generals told him long ago to seek a political solution and get out. So he kept replacing generals until he found some who would go along. Meanwhile, clearly planning to make Iraq a colony into perpetuity, he builds an enormous network of U.S. military bases there euphemistically called "enduring" bases. Congress in 2002 gave him the right to dig out the phantom WMDs. Everything else he did and continues to do there is the work of a despot.

Yet there’s no serious impeachment attempt in Congress. And Bush has even admitted violating the law – revoking habeas corpus and reading mail, intercepting phone calls, etc., without a warrant.

IRAQ BILLS WEAK

The two Iraq funding bills that supposedly stand up to Bush are weak. Military Families Speak out calls them totally unacceptable. The House has a withdrawal deadline of August 31, 2008. That, points out MFSO, “would mean the deaths of over 1,000 more US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi children, women, and men.” The Senate version suggests withdrawal by March 2008. Both bills are loaded with language allowing Bush to ignore them.

As justice for this tyrant moves at the speed of a glacier, more troops head for Iraq on 15-month deployments . . .