Republicans in Disneyland (by Bill Boyarsky for Truthdig)

Republicans in Disneyland


Posted on May 9, 2007
By Bill Boyarsky

So far, ugly reality has not pierced the fanciful world of Republican presidential candidates. It’s as if there is no unwinnable war, no George Bush, no Alberto Gonzales and no 2006 election that thoroughly repudiated the party.

There was no better proof of this than on Thursday, May 3. That night, the candidates had sort of a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in the solidly Republican Simi Valley in Southern California. But earlier that day in Washington, something much more important occurred: reality, coming from a former top official in the Bush administration’s Justice Department.

James B. Comey was department second in command from 2003 through most of 2005. He testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee looking into the case of the eight U.S. attorneys who were fired by the White House and the Justice Department.

Comey was a straight-arrow prosecutor who, Vanessa Blum noted in Legal Times, upset the White House by refusing to play politics when he hired attorneys for the Justice Department.

His most famous hire was Patrick Fitzgerald, a U.S. attorney whom he appointed special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case. The unrelenting Fitzgerald pursued the case into the highest levels of the Bush administration, finishing with the conviction of “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aide. When the president, as expected, did not appoint Comey A.G. after John Ashcroft left, Comey moved on and is now general counsel for Lockheed Martin.

Just a few hours before the Simi Valley debate began, Comey praised six of the fired eight, including David Iglesias of New Mexico and John McKay of Washington state. The Bush administration fired both men because they refused to bend to local Republican politicians who demanded they prosecute phony voter registration fraud cases.

...(snip)...

As I watched the candidates talking about Reagan, I was reminded of the talking Abraham Lincoln replica I used to watch at Disneyland. It was Lincoln as Disney wanted him to be, with his words shaped to reflect Walt’s right-wing politics. The Republican candidates were like Disney, creating a Reagan in their own image, a caricature conservative, hard right on social issues and on relations with the rest of the world.

That was evident when the candidates talked about federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, something strongly supported by a prominent member of the debate audience, Nancy Reagan. Most were opposed. Only Sen. John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani supported such funding. On abortion, only Giuliani was supportive. “I hate abortion,” he said. But he added, “you have to respect a woman’s right to make that choice differently than my conscience.”

Reagan views were practical, and he flip-flopped depending on the situation. As governor of socially liberal California, Reagan signed a bill permitting abortions. As president he advocated a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited all abortions. But he always declined to appear at the annual pro-life rally in Washington, speaking instead by phone. “While I do not doubt Reagan’s sincerity in advocating an anti-abortion amendment, he invested few political resources toward obtaining this goal and it was not a high priority of those close to him,” wrote Reagan biographer Lou Cannon. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070509_republicans_in_disneyland/