how serious... people should talk about Presidential law-breaking

[babylonsister]

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/

For the last four years, the Bush administration has deliberately violated multiple laws because it has adopted radical theories which vest law-breaking powers in the President. It also happens to be well on its way to obtaining the power to criminally prosecute journalists for articles they publish about the administration's conduct. And while all of that has been happening, the Washington Post Editorial Board has said virtually nothing about any of it, sitting idly by while the President vests himself with what George Will calls "monarchical" powers that (at least) rival terrorism as a threat to our country, and while Attorney General Alberto Gonzales casually speculates about putting Jim Risen and New York Times editors (and perhaps even the Post's own Dana Priest) into a federal prison, just as his most prominent supporters have been urging.

But at long last, the Post Editorial Board has finally found something to be outraged about -- the fact that the judicial opinion issued by Judge Anna Diggs Taylor yesterday isn't scholarly and "complex" enough for the intellectual tastes of Fred Hiatt. What really matters, says the Post in its unbelievably petty editorial, is not the profound constitutional crisis we face by virtue of a President who believes he has the power to act outside of the law and has been exercising that power aggressively and enthusiastically in numerous ways over five years. No, that is merely a fascinating intellectual puzzle, something for super-smart experts to resolve with great civility and high-minded, complex discussions as they ponder what the Post calls the "complicated, difficult issues" raised by the administration's lawlessness.

To the Post, what really matters here is how impressed law professors are with the complexity and nuance in Judge Taylor's written decision. Condescendingly scoffing at the judicial quality of her opinion is of infinitely greater importance than objecting to the growing extremism and lawlessness to which our country has been subjected.

Complaints of that nature are the province of the lowly, emotional masses -- those whom Jonathan Chait the other day snidely labelled "partisan hysterics" (meaning those who found it objectionable that his magazine defended the vile authoritarian Ann Coulter), in contrast to the open-minded intellectual giants like Chait who so enjoy the high-minded sport of debating all views for fun, including the "clever, interesting, very well-executed" defense of an extremist hate-monger with a following that numbers in the millions. As Chait put it, only "partisan hysterics" care more about "the destination than the journey ."

more...

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I read that piece of work in the Post this morning...I was shocked that

a paper of such 'intellect' could write and print something like that.

[MasonJar]

2. I think that the editorial in the NYT might have been the exact

opposite. It seemed quite pleased with the judge's ruling. The WP has embarrassed itself.