E Pluribus Unum

by Mark Adams

About what a lying bunch of ball sacks the Republicans are, especially listening to Thom Hartmann on Air America today with his guest ... Bob Barr?

Yep, that Bob Barr, one of the House Managers for the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Thom and Bob were suprisingly chummy, and I didn't catch the whole interview. But Hartmann did ask the ITMFA question.

Barr converted from a GOP lackey and is now a Life Member of the Libertarian Party, a card carrying member of the ACLU and has been fighting the Patriot Act and illegal NSA wiretapping program. I didn't know that until I got home and checked up on him, finding out his conversion is complete -- he even is a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project**. You may have heard of them if you watched Stephen Colbert tonight -- they're pot-heads in suits. Gotta love 'em. I guess Barr found God ... or Jimmy Hendrix. Something.

Barr hesitated in answering whether he would have supported impeachment today, since he did such a fine job impeaching the last president. I decided to slow down instead of crash through a yellow light so I could give his answer my full attention (safety first!). While he didn't go as far as to say either Bush, Cheney or the topic de jure, Gonzo, should be impeached -- he did say he'd welcome an impeachment inquiry at the very least.

I looked at my radio in disbelief and said aloud, "you lying piece of shhhh..." and the light turned green. "Oh sure," I thought, now that Bahr is out of government and not under the thumb of his controllers in Wingnuttystan, he's all for taking down a bunch of crooks -- even if they're GOPers. But if he was still there in Congress, there's just no way he would have done anything but the White House's bidding -- just like 98% of the other neo-con-poop sycophants doing Karl Rove's bidding.

Thoughts of Barr returned tonight as I learned of Democrat Republican Arlen Specter's predictable boot-licking after getting a ride on Air Force One, despite his public disgust with the testimony perjury of Abu Gitmo this week. (There's some excellent analysis out there tonight on our highest law enforcement official's unique manner of fulfilling his duties.)

There's a theme out there, that the inept cover-up is covering up something even more pernicious. Avedon is also pointing to dots that need connected where there were no dots before.

This analysis of Gonzales' testimony by Spencer Ackerman and Paul Kiel suggests that something even more sinister than has been previously acknowledged is at the heart of the whole spy program issue. A few bloggers have wondered just what must have been going on - and how bad it must have been - that Ashcroft and Comey wouldn't sign off on it, but the corporate press so far as failed to ask that question. Ackerman and Kiel are raising the speculation to a higher level. I forget now who it (Somerby?) was who originally suggested that this has been about spying on Democrats, but we already know they have been spying on peace groups. (We also know that Republicans in Congress were essentially hacking Democratic members' e-mail.) It's not at all far-fetched to suggest that the administration has been using the program against political enemies, not just to anticipate their moves, but for blackmail. It would certainly explain a lot.

It would explain Specter's about-face. Somebody in the White House must have the goods on damn near everybody who matters -- and is making sure they don't rock the boat.
Why else would Phase II of the Senate Intelligence investigation still be gathering dust -- specifically what Doug Feith and his Special Plans operation were up to and (what we've wanted to know all along) and what our senior officials did with the intel versus what they said to us to mislead us into this fucking war? It makes you wonder what they have on a few select members of the Supreme Court that got us into this mess in the first place too.

It also explains why Bob Barr talks big now, but wouldn't be calling for the impeachment of anybody if he still had an office in the Capitol, but would just STFU and go along with his betters. Silly pot-head. They would have ruined him.

Based on just what we know from the Libby case, the way they value loyalty over competency, the cronyism, the bribery, the torture, the ridiculous secrecy, they've been running the government of the United States like a mafia fiefdom. Why would blackmail somehow be shocking. If they'll cover up a possible murder, they're capable of anything.

I've got more respect, grudgingly as it might be, for Bob Barr (who is now the ex-congressman I'd most like to do bongs with) than most of the Democratic Congressional leadership who took impeachment off the table and continue to fund our disaster in Mesopotania. Maha, whose gift for combining prose and outrage is better than mine, said it thus:

Long after the 2008 election is but a distant memory written about only in history textbooks, generations to come will ask not what strategies we used to achieve electoral victory in some House or Senate race somewhere, but rather what we did to stop these villains and hold them accountable for their crimes.

**(To be clear, I completely understand that the Marijuana Policy Project does not necessarily advocate the recreational use of dope, but lobbies for sensible medical use of marijuana. It is also obvious that Bob Barr does not necessarily smoke pot -- he's in no way paranoid enough to use it on a regular basis.)