Paul Krugman writes today that a bigger potential scandal lurks in the ouster of U.S. attorneys over who WASN’T fired — attorneys who’ve already used their Justice Department positions as political cudgels. Could Karl Rove have planned still more of the same, and installed such trusted political hitmen as Tim Griffin, for any other purpose? Knowing Karl Rove’s evil history, what do you think? Dispel the odor, Tim. Hang it up.
Krugman surmises that the rot goes deeper than the Justice Department.
Before the midterm election, I wrote that what the election was really about could be summed up in two words: subpoena power. Well, the Democrats now have that power, and the hearings on the prosecutor purge look like the shape of things to come.
In the months ahead, we’ll hear a lot about what’s really been going on these past six years. And I predict that we’ll learn about abuses of power that would have made Richard Nixon green with envy.
Today’s big news, of course, is that the Bush FBI has broadly abused powers granted it under the Patriot Act to snoop without warrants into the private affairs of American citizens. Corrupt, incompetent and arrogant. The Bush legacy.