Rove's latest dirty trick: The Patriot Act prosecutor switch

Just when you may have thought there might be nothing more to know about the extraordinary malfeasance by the Bush administration, come more sickening details. A little-known provision of the "Patriot" Act apparently was designed for no other purpose than to allow Karl Rove to create more Republican pseudo prosecutors to run for Congress. The plan, as described in a N.Y. Times Op-ed, kills two birds with one stone. It lets Bush axe some particularly effective prosecutors of corrupt Republicans and replace them with inexperienced novices who will then use their new title of U.S. Attorney as a tough-on-crime credential to win a seat in the 2008 election. Diabolical. The change in the Patriot Act allows the newbies to serve indefinitely as interim U.S. Attorneys without ever having to face the embarrassment of rejection by the Senate.

As with so many of these political dirty tricks and abuses of power, Democrats will not have enough guile to use them if they get the White House back, so there is very little downside for the Republicans. Public outcry (and maybe some sense of the integrity that is critical to public trust in the inherent power of the U.S. Attorney post) probably will motivate Democrats to close this wormhole if they get the chance to overhaul the Patriot Act. But who knows? The bar has been set so low it may never get raised back to where it was before Bush came to town. (See followup story.)

George and Dick imagined as "Thelma and Louise"

See Thelma and Louise Imperialism: Over the Cliff with George and Dick? by Tom Engelhardt. (imdb link)

Script idea: "Thank You for Spitting"

News accounts of the life of a Georgia Congressman who died today from lung and liver cancer seem too over the top to be real, perhaps a case of life imitating art in the manner of Robert Duval’s spoof of a dying southern conservative in Thank You for Smoking. But he was real, and his life and political career explain a lot about the mess the country is in today with the war, climate change and eroded civil liberties.

According to the Associated Press, tobacco-chewing dentist Charles Norwood, Jr. was first elected to Congress during the Republican Revolution of 1994 and was famous for his infrequent use of diplomatic language. One of his proudest accomplishments was cutting a swath through red tape so that a constituent could bring home a stuffed polar bear killed in a hunt in Canada. Last year, Norwood was one of only 33 House members who voted against renewing the Voting Rights Act. A life-long gun rights advocate, as a teenager he shot and killed a close friend at a private boarding school during a quick-draw contest with what they believed were empty guns. If voters are going to continue to re-elect men like this, the least someone could do is make a comedy about it. Otherwise, our future would seem too bleak.