Soapbox

In their warm and fuzzy biography of the oh-so-photogenic John G. Roberts, Supreme Court nominee, the Columbus Dispatch neglected to mention several important statements and rulings by Roberts. Here are a few facts about his disturbingly sparse record that should be known.

Roberts argued against renewing the Voting Rights Act. He also found in favor of police handcuffing a 12 year old girl for eating one french fry on the subway, even though adults in similar situations were merely issued tickets. Roberts ruled against American POW’s from the first Gulf War who wanted to sue Sadaam Hussein for the abuse they suffered in his custody, saying they were not entitled to sue for damages from a large pool of frozen assets of Hussein.

In the year 2000 Roberts was an important part of the legal team that fought to allow George Bush to be improperly declared the winner of the election in the state of Florida.

While on the Court of Appeals Roberts ruled that the American people have no right to learn the truth about whatever unsavory details of his energy task force meetings Vice President Dick Cheney is so determined to keep secret.

As deputy solicitor general, Roberts argued that those whom President Bush labels “Enemy combatants” have no rights under the Geneva conventions, the Uniform Code of Military Justice or any other set of guidelines and are, in effect, non-persons. He further found that just the president’s word that these beings are enemies is all the proof needed to strip them of their rights. Roberts ruling was in direct contrast to Justice O’Connor who ruled that the president does not have a “blank check” to act without restraint even in war.
Interestingly, 4 days after Roberts found in favor of Bush and against the people of the world, he was rewarded with a nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States.

None of these facts means that John Roberts is not a bright, qualified jurist, or that he would not uphold the Constitution and the rights of American citizens if his nomination were confirmed. He is hardly the only poerson out there who meets those standards, however. Before this man is given the opportunity to affect the lives of every person in this nation by being on the Supreme Court for possibly the next 30 years, we should, if possible, look beyond the Breck girl good looks and the cute family the media shows us to what lies underneath.

Man, the bad stuff seems to be hitting the fan in Washington. As if the dismal poll numbers for the president and his war agenda aren’t bad enough, “Plame-gate”, the story that will not die, is back in the news.

You may recall that when Mark Felt was revealed as “Deep Throat” the Scream Team told the country that Felt was a traitor to the country. ( And Richard Nixon and and co. were what- misunderstood?) Remember the hideous excuses given to justify torture and abuse at Abu Graib prison? The same honesty and integrity they displayed then is in full flower today by “Team Treason”

The Bush team believes that the best defense is a good offense- and man, are they offensive! Their all too predictable strategy: blame the whistle blower, blame the victim, blame partisan attacks and if all else fails, and point and shout “Look- a flying monkey!’

And so the Republican rapid-response team has swung into action, making the rounds of all the right-wing talk shows to defend what is, according to the Constitution, treasonable behavior. They bluster and accuse, spouting the latest talking points and “yes but-s”, which bear absolutely no resemblance to reality. They just hope you don’t know what reality is.

Here are several incontrovertible facts that Sean Hannity, Bill Frist, Newt Gingrich and others hope you lose sigh of in among the smoke and mirrors:

~Joseph Wilson (a Republican who voted for George Bush senior, btw) was sent by the CIA to Africa to look into the WMD issue because he was highly qualified to do the job. It this fact is not changed by petty arguments about who suggested he go or for whom he voted in 2004.

~Joseph Wilson’s findings– that reports of Sadaam buying yellow cake in Niger were a forgery, and a poor one at that- have proven to be absolutely true. He reported this to the CIA, who in turn passed it on to the administration. His later claims that these findings were deliberately ignored seems to be backed up by the Downing Street Memos.

~ Wilson’s wife was at that time operating as an un-official (no government protection) CIA undercover agent trying to expose people bent on harming the United States. Her “outing” by a government, who claims their main focus is to keep us safe from terrorists, destroyed her ability to help the government prevent terrorist attacks. Don’t you feel safer now?

~Karl Rove called more than one reporter in an attempt to get someone to run the story that Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife who worked for the CIA. The fact that he claims he didn’t say her name is so irrelevant as to be ridiculous. He was talking to reporters, for goodness’ sake: anyone of them who didn’t already know the name of Joseph Wilson’s wife could find it out in 30 seconds. Her name was not the part that was secret! How Rove, who is a political operative only, had the “need to know” security clearance to see the names of undercover CIA agents doing highly sensitive work has yet to be revealed, but can hardly play out well for the Bush administration.

~Several months ago President Bush, when asked if he stood by his promise to fire anyone caught leaking info about this to the press, answered “Yes.” Rove’s lawyer has admitted that he talked with Cooper and Novak, yet today the president is curiously silent about whether this will be the latest in his string of broken promises to the American people.

Here is another fun fact to keep in mind when you hear the apologists on parade on Fox TV:

Around the time of the 2004 conventions the Bush administration made it known that they had been instrumental in capturing one Noor Kahn who possessed plans for a terror attack against the U.S. This was absolutely true. What they neglected to mention, in their crowing and strutting, is that Kahn was then “flipped” and was working with the CIA and MI-5 to provide information on others who were planning attacks.

Once Kahn was “outed” he was obviously not invited to join in any more reindeer games and could provide no more information. This infuriated the British, who felt he could have been an important source.

Put simply, the Bush administration was willing to sacrifice national security for the sake of a bump in the polls. Seen in this light, the charge that Karl Rove (the man who once planted a bug in his own offices and blamed it on the opponent) would take such dangerous and illegal action against Wilson for speaking up about his concerns seem entirely plausible.