Blog For Arizona

Supreme Court Takes Cheney Energy Task Force Case

The Supreme Court accepted cert on the Cheney Energy Task Force case. Cheney maintains that essentially he is above the law by his assertion that because of separation of powers, no court has the power to compell him. This Administration really has no shame. They claim the courts cannot enforce the law against the Executive Branch. If ever there was a precedent for anarchy, this is it.

The argument that the executive is immune from judicial process is also a shameless double standard following the 1997 finding that discovery (which certainly entails judicial orders) could proceed against a sitting President-- Bill Clinton. The case was of course Jones v. Clinton, in which depositional testimony of the President led to his impeachment based on a possible lie in a civil proceeding completely unrelated to his duties as President.

Of course, everybody knows that Bush has lied many, many times, even to Congress; yet he is not impeached because his own Party controls Congress. Now Cheney is claiming that the principle under which Clinton was compelled to testify in Paula Jones' harrassment case is unconstitutional. The gall and outright inconsistency of these people's arguments is simply stunning, isn't it?

I got a comment a few posts back on the blog entry regarding the Bush Administration's lies about how Saddam was caught. The comment in response to my observation that this constituted yet another bald-faced lie by the Administration was essentially, "Who cares?" Let a Democrat make a single misstatement, no matter how trivial or immaterial, and he is a liar who can never be trusted and doesn't deserve to hold public office. When GOPer lies blatantly about critical matters of public policy and the historical record, the response is a yawn.

Many Republican's actually seem to feel like their people's lies are justified and that those of Democrats are evil. Where does this double standard come from and how is it tolerated by otherwise ethically-minded folks? Why does the charge that their President is a slimy liar roll off their backs, but any Democrat's lie nettles them like a burr under the saddle?

posted by Michael Bryan @ 12/23/2003 09:07:00 PM