The Election Results Made Simple

A few weeks ago, I proposed that the election was really quite simple: Americans had the choice to either endorse or reject an administration which had brought us Abu Ghraib and then held no-one accountable.

A healthy number of people agreed with me on that. Quite a few others took great offense. One, to my eternal delight, raged at my "gin soaked raisin brain," a term of endearment I'll take with me wherever I go.

Today, it is being reported that Bush intends to nominate Alberto Gonzalez to be the new Attorney General.

As Mark Danner writes, Alberto Gonzalez had an important role in Abu Ghraib: "The delicate bureaucratic construction now holding the Abu Ghraib scandal firmly in check rests ultimately on President Bush's controversial decision, on February 7, 2002, to withhold protection of the Geneva Convention both from al-Qaeda and from Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. The decision rested on the argument, in the words of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez, that "the war against terrorism is a new kind of war," in fact, a "new paradigm [that] renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

Bush's decision to nominate Gonzalez for Attorney General as his first significant appointment since the election - if it in fact happens - can only suggest that Bush agreed that the election was about Abu Ghraib. But he draws different conclusions.

Nominating Gonzalez says to the world that Abu Ghraib is to be celebrated, not something of which to be ashamed. It says that America does not punish or hold accountable those responsible for Abu Ghraib's horrors... it rewards them. It says to the world: this is who we are... and we are proud of it. No apologies, no illusions, no excuses.

Enjoy your "mandate."

Vote for torture. Get torture. Not that complicated after all.

Comments

[kt]

We really are a screwed up nation.

[Donald Johnson]

Leahy is praising Gonzalez as a non-controversial choice.

It's great having an opposition party in this country.

[Norm in S. F.]

Be glad the Gonzales is going to A.G. rather than S.C.

He needs to be made to dance around on the got griddle for a while and then be confirmed by the narrowest margin possible.

The Democrats need to pick their battles carefully. The court nominations are far more crucial than are the executive ones.

[Diana]

Isn't Norm's comment the horrible truth? The reason we don't care about what the Bush admin does to Iraquis is because we're so scared about what they're going to do to us.

How pathetic can America get.

[Oscar]

Of course this nomination does not prove that this was an accurate assessment of the elections AS VIEWED BY THE VOTERS:
"Americans had the choice to either endorse or reject an administration which had brought us Abu Ghraib and then held no-one accountable."

[Doh]

No offense intended, but Norm's comment misses the point-- if Gonzalez can get confirmed as AG, it is highly unlikely that Dems could stop his confirmation as SC justice.

[A Tiny]

Diana,

I don't think you want to ask, "How pathetic can America get?" As bad as it may be now, we have not yet reached our full potential. So to speak.

[Jonathan Dresner]

I just want to say, by the way, that gin-soaked raisins are a very popular folk medicine in this country (something about Paul Harvey, I think?). I'm more of a rum-raisin guy myself (In Japan we used to buy a rum-raisin chocolate bar called a "Rummy"), but tastes vary.

Democrats couldn't attack the Administration on Abu Grhaib without seeming "anti-military" and raising the stronger association with Kerry's anti-war career. They should have anyway, I agree, but that's why the didn't.