Lies, Lies, Lies
Oh, the intellectual dishonesty of the right. It never fails to amaze me. Two new tidbits:
First, a newly uncovered British document shows that, as Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill have claimed, the Administration and the British government had already reached a secret agreement to go war in Iraq. A couple of notable points from the document: First, there is no mention of spreading democracy to Iraq as the reason for invading. Oh no, my brother. Rather, according to a secret briefing from this July 2002 meeting, Britain and America had to "create" conditions to justify a war. Particularly since British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the case for war was "thin" as "Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran."
In the document, a British official "reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
Rep. John Conyers has written a letter to the Administration about this troubling development. I'm sure he'll get some answers to clear things up.
Second, since it looks like right-wing extremist Fifth Circuit nominee Pricilla Owen could be the test case for the nuclear option, right-wingers, both on the air and in the blog-o-sphere, are trying to defend her record. The main problem: a extremely damning statement made by a fellow Texas Supreme Court justice in an abortion case in 2000, accusing Owen of engaging in "an unconscionable act of judicial activism." Making matters worse, that statement was written by current attorney general Alberto Gonzales. So, right-wingers have engaged in an unbelievable amount of intellectual dishonesty to try to show that Gonzales wasn't really talking about Owen in that opinion, but was actually referring to the other dissent. (The ultimate team player, as shown at Abu Ghraib, Gonzales himself took the unbelievable step of claiming, at his attorney general confirmation hearing, that his statement actually referred to himself, and not Owen!)
But those defenders have ignored, since they are just following Republican talking points, the numerous other occassions that Gonzales attacked Owen as a judicial activist:
As the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way has documented in the span of less than two years then-Justice Gonzales singled out Owen's dissents 11 times, accusing her of ignoring the legislative intent of laws and instead struggling to manufacture an outcome. "We're going to let Alberto Gonzales be our best witness," says Ralph Neas, president and CEO of the advocacy group.
In several decisions concerning Texas' Parental Notification Act, the
Gonzales-led majority rejected the views of Owen and the other dissenters who
regularly tried to make it harder for pregnant girls to obtain what's known in
Texas as a "judicial bypass," meaning they didn't have to inform their parents
before having an abortion. The majority scolded Owen, insisting that judges
"cannot ignore the statute or the record," or try to create new law.
In a harmful-product case, Gonzales wrote that Owen's dissent (in favor of
the manufacturer) would have required the court to act improperly and
"judicially amend" the law.In a wrongful-termination case, the Gonzales majority, which found in favor of a fired employee, criticized Owen's dissent, saying it "defies the Legislature's clear and express limits on our jurisdiction," adding, "We cannot simply ignore the legislative limits on our jurisdiction."
When not specifically accusing Owen of judicial activism, Gonzales and
other members of the majority were dissing her legal thinking, waving off one
dissent as "nothing more than inflammatory rhetoric and thus merits no
response."
Gonzales himself took the unbelievable step at his attorney general confirmation hearing as claiming that the statement in his opinion referred not to Owen, but to himself!
Yet, in an excellent column by Eric Boehlert at Salon.com (subscriber required, regrettably), he very effectively debunks every conservative argument in defense of Owen, leaving her exposed as the right-wing ideologue that she is. Right-wing lies aside, if Frist wants to go nuclear on Owen, we'll be ready to engage.
