Dispatches from the Culture Wars: More Misplaced Outrage:
And while we're at it, can we end, once and for all, this silly hagiography of Bobby Kennedy as a combination of Ghandi and Jesus Christ? Bobby Kennedy was the man who unleashed J. Edgar Hoover on the world, the man who personally signed off, as Attorney General, on the illegal warrantless wiretapping and spying on Martin Luther King and a wide range of other legitimate civil rights organizations.
That led directly to the blackmailing and undermining of individuals doing nothing more than seeking to make this country fulfill its promises of liberty and equality. This man was the highest law enforcement officer in the land and he was using the constitution as toilet paper every bit as badly as anything George W. Bush has done. I don't give a damn how charismatic he was, his actions were indefensible and his reign in office was a stain upon the country.
This is the REAL reason why I'm nervous no matter who the Democrats choose for their candidate. Democrats have just as quickly as Republicans thrown away Constitutional safeguards when its in their power interests to do so. No, it hasn't been so systematic (or legally calculated to maximize the catch-22 effect) as the current administration, but its still happened, and often.
NEITHER of them have in any way at all actually openly said they would restore the Constitutional safeguards the current administration has thrown away. The basic rights of Habeas Corpus and freedom from illegal search and seizure, the Constitutional doctrines of of judicial review and Congressional oversight, the elimination of signing statements and the upholding of the oath to carry out the law as written and let the Courts decide its validity? Neither Clinton nor Obama have openly declared any intention to restore them. And we know DAMN well McCain has no intention of doing that.
So for all the damage that's been done to this country's founding principles and avoidance of a unary KING of executive power, nobody really seems intent on fixing it.
And no, Barr doesn't stand a chance, so I'm not going to waste my time on it. Besides, he's about-faced (i.e., Flip-Flopped, but one is only allowed to accuse Democrats of that, apparently) on so many issues recently that just like McCain, its hard to tell who's the real Barr - the Barr of 8 years ago or the Barr of today.
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