In order to have a properly functioning government, you must believe in the inherent underpinnings of liberty and justice and to work toward the greater goal of equal and even-handed application of the law.  Under the Bush Administration, the opposite has occured, time and time again — and that is no coincidence. For the Republicans place self-dealing power grabs and loyalty to party above everything else, including what is best for the nation as a whole.

From Walter Mondale today:

The corollary to Cheney’s zealous embrace of secrecy is his near total aversion to the notion of accountability. I’ve never seen a former member of the House of Representatives demonstrate such contempt for Congress — even when it was controlled by his own party. His insistence on invoking executive privilege to block virtually every congressional request for information has been stupefying — it’s almost as if he denies the legitimacy of an equal branch of government. Nor does he exhibit much respect for public opinion, which amounts to indifference toward being held accountable by the people who elected him.

Whatever authority a vice president has is derived from the president under whom he serves. There are no powers inherent in the office; they must be delegated by the president. Somehow, not only has Cheney been given vast authority by President Bush — including, apparently, the entire intelligence portfolio — but he also pursues his own agenda. The real question is why the president allows this to happen.

No respect for anything other than what they want when they want it.  Rules and laws need not apply. 

From Sen. Patrick Leahy: (H/T to reader Carolyn Urban for this superb link.)

The accumulated and essentially uncontroverted evidence is that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine U.S. attorneys last year. Testimony and documents show that the list was compiled based on input from the highest political ranks in the White House, that senior officials were apparently focused on the political impact of federal prosecutions, on whether federal prosecutors were doing enough to bring partisan voter fraud and corruption cases, and that the reasons given for these firings were contrived as part of a cover-up.

What the White House stonewalling is preventing is conclusive evidence of who made the decisions to fire these federal prosecutors. We know from the testimony that it was not the president….the evidence we have been able to collect points to Karl Rove and the political operatives at the White House. The stonewalling by the White House raises the question: What is it that the White House is so desperate to hide?

And it goes on and on. The above YouTube is from a Bill Moyers special on corruption — dealing with the Jack Abramoff Republican Party money laundering KStreet operation, Tom DeLay, and a whole host of still-to-be-answered questions. Questions which are supposedly being investigated by the Bush Department of Justice, but they appear to be moving awfully slowly, even with proffers of cooperation by Abramoff. (Go ask Alice why that is…)

There is also the matter of media manipulation and story plants (YouTube) — something we we saw through the WHIG, and which we are currently seeing again with the attempt to sell the surge.  And the corrupting influence of the neoconmen (YouTube) across the board, for domestic and foreign policies.   And the war profiteers. (YouTube)  And on and on and on…  (H/T to Rick Perlstein)

Republican government…a spectacle of corruption and failure.  Which makes this advice from Rove all the more laughable.  (H/T to Atrios.)  Jeebus, guess learning from one’s mistakes would be too much work.

Thank goodness we have oh so serious journalists like Glenn Beck on CNN to look into this sort of thing and tell us the facts straight up without turning down the long, winding lane toward WingNutville.  Oh…wait……  (H/T to Steve Benen.)

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