The Justice Department has a little thing called the Public Integrity Unit. They’re very busy investigating all the corruption that has been going on in Washington DC over the last six years. Of course, that doesn’t make them very popular with Republican politicians. I doubt they get along very well with their boss, Alberto Gonzales. I still can’t believe Congress confirmed the author of the torture memo to oversee our system of justice. Anyway…according to Roll Call, many Republicans are fuming mad that so many of their members are under investigation and that that information is leaking out just prior to an election. Wouldn’t you like to know if your congressperson is under investigation before you decide whether to vote for them? I think that is kind of vital information if we are going to have an informed electorate. Per usual, however, an informed electorate is the worst enemy of the GOP.
“While a Justice Department run by Republican appointees who were nominated by a conservative Republican president would normally get the benefit of the doubt from GOP lawmakers and staffers, some party insiders are privately wondering whether ‘rogue elements’ within the department — and more specifically the Public Integrity Unit, where corruption cases are handled — are trying to tip the election to Democrats by leaking news of these investigations so late in the cycle,” the article continues.
A top political operative for the GOP tells Roll Call that it appears as if “the Public Integrity Unit of the Justice Department is running wild,” and that they are “trying to have some effect” on the midterm elections.
There is something hilarious about complaining that the ‘Public Integrity Unit’ is running wild. It’s gives me a bit of a bellylaugh. And what does it say about the degree of corruption in the GOP Congress that a Justice Department staffed by Republicans would even consider throwing the election to the Democrats. I doubt it’s true, but what if it is? What does that say?
I remember the first 55 years of the CIA where they were kind of known as a right-wing outfit, mainly concerned with stomping the balls of anything with even the whiff of a leftist attitude. That changed in 2002 when their analysts were bullied, accused of cowardice, and forced to deal with an endless supply of bullshit informants, forgeries, and stupid pronouncements by Cheney, Bush, Rice, and Rumsfeld. It got much worse the next year when they were blamed for the no-WMD fiasco, one of their counter-proliferation officers was outed in a pure revenge move, and Negroponte took away their reporting responsibilities. Giving them Porter Goss as Director just solidified their general antipathy for monkey-boy and his quail hunting sidekick.
I have no doubt that the intelligence community is now more sympathetic to the Democrats. It’s no accident that several of their officers are running for Congress as Democrats. It’s also no accident that almost all the Iraq War vets running for Congress are doing so as Democrats. It shouldn’t surprise us too much that the people at the Justice Department that are responsible for investigating corruption have similarly soured on the GOP.
This truly has been the worst Congress ever.
