Riding With The Decider

Careening down the road with a wicked left turn ahead, the guardrail is shattered, the driver has his eyes closed and the wheels are coming off the bus. Honestly, these guys really are clueless. Nixon had his tapes, Reagan tried to shred his stuff and the current Bush administration used email. Stupidly. What person in their right mind would put in writing incriminating gems like these?

“I’m still a little skittish about Bogden,” Mr. McNulty wrote to D. Kyle Sampson, then Mr. Gonzales’s chief of staff, noting that Mr. Bogden had never worked outside of government and was counting on a longer tenure.

“I’ll admit have not looked at his district’s performance,” Mr. McNulty added.

Won't be long before he falls on his sword.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney in Chicago who recently led the successful prosecution of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was on a list of prosecutors whose performance was ranked as “not distinguished” on a list Mr. Sampson sent to the White House in March 2005, Justice Department officials say.

I wonder, do they consider him distinguished now? And it isn't as if they didn't realize that there might be problems with their methods.

Mr. Sampson responded: “I don’t think so,” explaining that he could be asked all kinds of questions, including: “Did you resign voluntarily?” and “Were you told why you were being asked to resign?”

Mr. Sampson also said it could be troublesome if Mr. Cummins were asked about his knowledge of his successor. “Did you ever talk to Tim Griffin about his becoming U.S. Attorney?” was one possible question he mentioned, as well as whether Mr. Griffin had talked about getting the job by avoiding Senate confirmation.

Well, did he? I'm sorry that I didn't have more faith. I should have known that since I, and quite a few others, considered the crew without a clue to be inept, incompetent and arrogant, that it would be just a matter of time before events became too much for them to juggle. Previously, the Decider's one trick pony policy was working Then the press (with a little help from some friends) woke up.

From Brown to Miers to Gonzales, the bar was set ridiculously low. And they still tripped over it. You get what you pay for, which is one of the reasons why cronyism always backfires. From the debacle that is Iraq, to the rubble of what was New Orleans to the moldy halls of Walter Reed, these guys have shown a complete lack of respect for the country, her people and the values that once made her great. Politics before competence, cronies before qualified candidates.

Did I mention that the brakes were out?