David Broder has officially gone there--stated that
he is happy with the impeachment of a President for a consensual blow job, but unhappy with the prospect that Dick Cheney will be held accountable for the torture he ordered up.http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/09/03/david-broder-gives-cheney-a-big-blow-job/ First, let me stipulate that I agree on the importance of accountability for illegal acts and for serious breaches of trust by government officials -- even at the highest levels. I had no problem with the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, and I called for Bill Clinton to resign when he lied to his Cabinet colleagues and to the country during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
He bases his opposition on the horror he would experience seeing Cheney standing in the dock. Looming beyond the publicized cases of these relatively low-level operatives is the fundamental accountability question: What about those who approved of their actions? If accountability is the standard, then it should apply to the policymakers and not just to the underlings. Ultimately, do we want to see Cheney, who backed these actions and still does, standing in the dock?
...............................
But
the neatest part of Broder's blow job to Cheney is where he congratulates himself on his "courageous" call for Ford to pardon Nixon. When President Ford pardoned Nixon in 1974, I wrote one of the few columns endorsing his decision, which was made on the basis that it was more important for America to focus on the task of changing the way it would be governed and addressing the current problems. It took a full generation for the decision to be recognized by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and others as the act of courage that it had been.
I hope we can avoid another such lapse. The wheels are turning, but they can still be halted before irreparable damage is done.
VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne5J-ZRLIEA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Femptywheel.firedoglake.com%2F2009%2F09%2F03%2Fdavid-broder-gives-cheney-a-big-blow-job%2F&feature=player_embedded
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