Today, I give thanks that in January, Arlen Specter will no longer be head of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Why?
Because I want to see Alberto Gonzales testify under oath.
It was a detail, in a small drama, but it seemed to me to capture the full collaborative dementia of the last several years. Specter talks tough. Like he's going to defend the constitution. Like he's going to stand up to the executive branch. Like he's going to ask real questions of judicial nominees, about torture, about wiretaps without warrants. Then, he goes out of his way to tell the Attorney General
of the United States, who has volunteered to testify under oath, that
he does not have to do so.
That will give way to a new drama. In which Gonzales
will have to answer truthfully or lie and face perjury charges, or
refuse to answer and be charged with contempt of congress and perhaps
force a constitutional conflict between congress and the White House.
That will be just one of many confrontations. All headed
in the same direction.
We are headed for a period of grand public drama and
fabulous political entertainment. Ploys and counter-ploys,
confrontations and threats, and courtroom moments that will top the
Nixon and Clinton impeachments combined.
I am grateful, therefore, to every voter, every blogger, every
writer, every reporter who made that possible. I am grateful whoever
leaked the Mark Foley's IMs. I am grateful to the gay Colorado
prostitute who came out about Pastor Haggard. I am grateful to the
people who gave money to the campaigns and to the Democratic
candidates who ran.
It has been a long and treacherous nap.
I want to give thanks to the public school system. I have two
children. At various times they were in private schools. I thought
the private schools were pretentious, inept and sometimes
destructive. The public schools have done much, much better by them.
My daughter is currently studying in Prague through the State
University of New York. It's affordable. It reminds me of when I was
growing up and the city colleges were free and tuition at SUNY was so
low that the smallest Regents Scholarship covered it. It's not as
good as that, but it's good.
I want to give thanks for having such wonderful children. For their
growth and progress through life. For their health and safety. For
their good luck and good fortune.
I want to give thanks to my parents, both dead, who gave me so much
and gave my living family so much.
Most of all I want to give thanks for the beautiful and extremely
intelligent woman I am married to. For loving me and helping me with
everything I do and for sharing our children.