Rats Leaving a Sinking Ship

Okay, so Johnny Ashcroft’s out. Hooray — let’s throw a party. But is nobody else just a bit alarmed that the guy Duh-bya wants to replace him with is the legal architect of the “Screw the Geneva Convention,” “Lawyers? They don’t need no stinking lawyers!” and “Torture’s just fine and dandy!” policies? At least the Post has the sense to draw some attention to it — but not a whole lot.

I’d say we’re in fine filibuster territory here, but it looks like the Democrats are just going to roll over and play dead. No, Gonzales isn’t as overtly fascistic as Ashcroft (who could be?), but it occurs to me that someone whose legal opinions led directly to the abuses at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib has no business being in charge of “justice” in America.

Of course, there’s a hidden agenda here, though it’s buried toward the end of the Post’s story on the topic: They’re tapping Gonzales to head the Justice department — thereby taking him out of the running for a Supreme Court nomination — so they can install a radical right-winger on the bench.

Yes, that battle is one that would be far more important to fight. But that doesn’t mean we ought to lose sight of the other battles in this war.

Oh, and I guess Don Evans is leaving too (and stories persist that Rumsfeld and Powell won’t be far behind). I think it’s a testament to how much Ashcroft was despised that when the story broke, virtually nobody had any idea who the hell Don Evans was. (Note that his story was buried on page A14 of the Post.)