Attention Harold Ford: Losing is NOT accountability.

I just had the fortune of attending the lunch discussion between Congressman Harold Ford of the DLC and our own Markos Moulitsas.

While it was generally a good discussion with several common points of interest between the two, I was absolutely floored by what I heard from Ford at the end of the discussion.

As the last question (and apologies to those who were in line after me), I asked Congressman Ford about how he felt about the current political timidity to engage in any accountability measures for the current administration--such as inherent contempt of Congress for Karl Rove--and why our Congress isn't doing anything to let the country know that, simply put, this just isn't how it's supposed to be.

His answer:

Well, I think the election results in 2006 were accountability enough.

Simply astounding.  More below the fold.

I have a question for Harold Ford: Have you seen what these people did to Governor Don Siegelman?

I'll tell you what: a several-year-long political hit job that concluded in a malevolotent, politically motivated conviction on trumped up charges that were fabricated by Karl Rove, and where the District Attorneys were spouses or otherwise closely connected to Karl Rove and his cronies.  There is existing testimony that the hit job against Don Siegelman had been planned for a long time to get rid of him using the Department of Justice, because they couldn't get rid of him at the ballot box.

They wanted to give him 30 years in prison, when a Republican governor in the same state convicted of the real crime that Don Siegelman was convicted of was only given probation.  They took him away pretty much immediately to a maximum security prison in Atlanta even though he weas not declared to be a flight risk, which usually guarantees a 45-day period to put your things in order.

When Don Siegelman was released, they gave him travel restrictions normally reserved for suspected terrorists and mafia bosses.  And when 60 minutes did an expose of his case, the television in the state just happened to black out.

It was, in short, a criminal conspiracy the likes of which should only happen in third-world countries.

And apparently, Harold Ford thinks that getting beaten at the ballot box should be Karl Rove's only comeuppance.

That's like saying that if I go rob a bank and go on a killing spree, it's perfectly okay if I just lose my job with no further punishment.

And that's just on the Don Siegelman issue, which would be enough to have brought down any other administration.  Add to that the host of crimes on Iraq, the politicization of the OMB and the Department of Justice, the leadup to the Iraq War, the repeated and public violations of our Constitution, and every single other corrupt thing that this misAdministration has done.

And yet, Harold Ford thinks that it's just good enough for these people to lose their jobs.

Oftentimes, we tend to frame the difference between our netroots community and the DLC and similar organizations exclusively in terms of issues.  But it's like kos said: The Democratic Party is a big tent party, and we're willing to include those who disagree with us on issues.

But there are certain things that should not be issues.  Violating the Constitution is not an issue.  Punishment for malicious prosecution is not an issue.  Intentionally misrepresenting intelligence to take us into a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged is not an issue.

They're not issues.  They're crimes.  Specifically, they're high crimes and misdemeanors.

The main difference between us and the DLC is because the DLC thinks it's perfectly okay not to stand up for the United States being a nation of laws if it might not be perfectly politically expedient.  We in the netroots believe that both in the short run and the long run, standing up for the rule of law will always be expedient.

Whatever else you want to say about issues, it comes down to this:

You either think that a corrupt monarchy is okay, or you don't.

I don't.  That's why I go to Netroots Nation and not the DLC Convention.