The White House continued to defend its handling of the dismissals.
"We continue to believe that the decision to remove and replace U.S. attorneys who serve at the pleasure of the president was perfectly appropriate and within our discretion," Ms. Perino said.
This quote from the New York Times set me thinking of all the things that are "within our discretion" to do in life but are absolutely immoral, ignorant, uncivilized, abhorrent, or just plain crazy. It is, for example, within our discretion, I believe, to scream in our backyards, to cease to bathe, to be dysfunctional parents, to dodge all responsibility for errors, and to be disrespectful or hateful toward those who differ from or with us.
We can, especially during the summer, wear whatever we please on walks, to religious gatherings, PTA and even Scout meetings - many of these discretionary outfits perhaps barely visible but not the least bit illegal. It's "within our discretion," is it not, to pester, perturb, aggravate, belittle, undermine, insult, deceive and dominate those we dislike? But, more often than not, most of us use "discretion" - in this case defined as "the ability to behave responsibly ". And why is that? Because we are civil people, socialized, educated, and aware that the limits of our power and prerogatives are not supposed to be jumping off points but extremes we should avoid.
The Bush administration measures all moves on the basis of what, from their vantage point, is "within our discretion " -- the word used here in reference to legal latitude of choice -- better known as loopholes (just short of impeachable).
The next time we elect a President, we should consider not his or her "discretion" in this sense or in terms of political expediency, but "discretion" having to do with the capacity to make judgments based on human decency.