(This was written on the morning of July 19th...before any of us...uh...knew the name, so to speak, of Bush's nominee.)
This is a protest diary
President Bush wants us to forget about what we've just learned about Karl Rove; he wants us for ignore that his top political advisor was, counter to what we've been told for two years, involved in leaking Valerie Plame's identity. The President wants tonight's news to wash out last week's scandal and, with it, yesterday's hypocritical and cynical Presidential goal post move.
We need to combat that. We need a strategy that Democrats can use regarding how we talk about this President, his nominations, his policies and the ongoing investigation into the Rove affair. We need a strategy that doesn't let Bush get away with his tired tactic of distract and dismiss.
We need to link it.
Our link needs to be simple, cogent, clear and to the point. Our link needs to focus on the one thread that runs through everything having to do with BushCo. And in making this link, we need to stay clear and on message so that everyone in this nation knows exactly what we mean:
We question the judgment of the President of the United States.
The President yesterday declared that his new standard for continued employment in his White House is whether someone "committed a crime."
Today he comes before our nation with a Supreme Court nominee.
I question his judgment.
You see, despite the cabal of right-wingers who want to simply dismiss and distract our attention from the consequences of Bush's poor judgment...it doesn't work that way.
We hold President Bush accountable for the leaking of Valerie Plame's name and the scandal surrounding that abuse of power. This is his White House. They are his employees. And when Scott McClellan lied to us about the involvement of two senior Bush officials, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby...a lie that was maintained for two years until evidence emerged in the press that contradicted it...when Scott McClellan lied to us he was lying under the direct orders of President Bush. He was speaking in George Bush's name.
And now the President want us to accept his nominee to the Supreme Court as if none of this has happened?
Can one help but question George Bush's honesty and conduct in this entire process, regardless of whom he nominates? You can't admit that you lied to the American public one day...and brook the possibility that your close advisors have broken the law...and then the very next day ask us to accept your nominee for the highest arbiter of the law of the land, someone who might be soon called upon to decide a case relating to the Plame leak, in a "business as usual" manner. But that is exactly what George Bush is doing.
You see, the buck has to stop somewhere. And it never stops at George Bush.
- the "16 words" in his 2003 State of the Union Address
- his statement, upon the discovery of the mobile weather balloon trucks, that "we have found the weapons of mass destruction."
- his trumpeting of "Mission Accomplished"
- his taunting use of "bring 'em on."
- and, of course, the mounting evidence, from the Downing Street Memo and elsewhere, that George W. Bush manufactured and trumped up a false rationale for a war in Iraq that has cost 1700 American and countless Iraqi citizens their lives
There are two moments that isolate the gravity and responsibility that come with the job of President of the United States: One is making the commitment of sending our troops into battle. The second is making a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. In each case, we trust that the judgment of the chief executive of our nation be sound.
Politics does not happen in a vacuum. The abuse of power has consequences.
- if you lied to us in the run up to the war...
- if your staff committed a crime in order to attack a whistle blower who pointed out that you lied to us...
- if you then lied to us for two years about the involvement of your staff in this crime...you cannot expect us to accept your judgment today in any matter as if none of this has happenend.
These things are linked. And the link is to be found in the person and judgment of the President of the United States.
I question our President. I question the timing and intent of his nomination. I question his honesty and forthrightness with the American public. And I am convinced we Democrats need to keep our pressure and focus on one man, the person ultimately responsible for living up to the trust and standards of the American people.
That man is George W. Bush. The buck must stop somewhere. The time is now.
We need to link it.