Gonzales' counsel Monica Goodling's attorneys, John M. Dowd and Jeffrey King, said yesterday that such allegations "are unfortunately reminiscent of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who infamously labeled those who asserted their constitutional right to remain silent before his committee 'Fifth Amendment Communists.'" Let me tell you something about McCarthyism, Ms. Goodling.
Gonzales' counsel Monica Goodling's attorneys, John M. Dowd and Jeffrey King, said yesterday that such allegations "are unfortunately reminiscent of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who infamously labeled those who asserted their constitutional right to remain silent before his committee 'Fifth Amendment Communists.'" Let me teel you something about McCarthyism, Ms. Goodling.
McCarthyism isn't about giving you the right to testify and you incorrectly invoking the Fifth Amendment. A little Law School 101: The Fifth Amendment is designed to protect you from implicating yourself regarding past conduct, not because you think that your very act of testilying will be a crime. It's funny how Bush et al. are so quick to invoke their own constitutional rights when they've infringed and/or jettisoned everyone else's!
And as for McCarthyism, the best example is this Administration's behavior during the past six years. It has rounded up hundreds of Arab and Muslim men based on racial and ethnic profiling and bogus material witness warrants; kept 500+ people in the legal black hole otherwise known a Guantanamo bay; held people, including American citizens, without charge, conviction or judicial review; reversed the usual presumption into a bastardized "guilty until proven innocent" standard; denied due process under the inaply-named Patriot Act; conducted secret trials; tortured; eavesdropped on American's phone calls; wiretapped citizens without warrant; put anti-war protesters and political dissidents on terrorist watch lists; resurrected long-interred relics of the McCarthy era like denying entry to aliens for pure speech; and gone on witch-hunts and missions of personal destruction that make Joseph McCarthy look like Floyd Abrams. Terrorism is the new Communism.
For me this has included the government forcing me from the Justice Department, branding me a "traitor" and "turncoat" in public newspapers, getting me fired from my next job, placing me under criminal investigation, blacklisting me in the legal communty, referring me to the state bars in which I'm licensed as an attorney, and putting me on the "No-Fly" list.
BREAKING NEWS: John Walker Lindh's parents are renewing their request for clemency. I would remiss if I did not comment here about it as I'm being asked for comment on public radio. Here is my take: Three men did the same thing and got three drastically different punishments.
John Walker Lindh-serving 20 years in jail.
David Hicks-will serve 9 months (does not include 5+ years in Gitmo)
Yaser Hamdi-set free to Saudia Arabia
THESE THREE GUYS WERE CAUGHT AT THE SAME TIME, IN THE SAME PLACE, DOING THE SAME THING.
If the point of punishment is supposed to be proportionality, the world can see why this is so problematic.