America's Other Swine Flu

Today, if it walks on four legs and oinks then it does not have swine flu. If it's an elected official of Congress, however, then it's likely spreading something equally unappealing -- a continuing ineffectiveness and an unwillingness to own up to its own recently sordid past.

In today's New York Times, you'll find details of a congressional study -- based on the work of the inspector generals of five federal agencies -- which determined that spying on Americans did not prevent attacks. (In other words, Mr. Cheney, the useless ends did not justify the sordid means.) The article goes on to detail what sounds a lot like criminal conspiracy at the highest level. The executive branch appears to have inserted text into C.I.A. threat assessments. That's tampering. Alberto Gonzales "accidentally" misled Congress in 2007 while John Ashcroft "misunderstood" the nature of what he was authorizing the NSA to do. John Yoo's own boss at Justice was unaware of what this 'legal scholar' was actually doing. There's more, but you get the point.

What the Times fails to focus on is why "the investigation stopped short of assessing whether the wiretapping program violated the law requiring court-ordered warrants before wiretapping Americans' communications." Sadly, the answer seems obvious. The same members of Congress who failed in their Constitutional duty to provide checks and balances are in no rush to legally investigate their own passivity. And since no one oversees Congress, we get "findings" instead of convictions.

Unfortunately, this lack of accountability is like an infectious disease. When it's not checked in one area, it spreads to others, like health care, the economic recovery and the toasty environment. It's like political swine flu, and when Congress has it, we all get very sick.

Follow Michael B. Laskoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mlaskoff

Comments

[Osusuki]

The only cure for this sort of "swine flu" is a huge dose of vitamin D. The most prolific source of vitamin D on the planet is...SUNLI­GHT. Every foible of every crooked, lobbied up swine on capitol hill needs to be exposed at once and held up to the light until the disease is gone. Let the sunlight pour down the halls of congress until the corruption is burned away, and then we can get down to the business of governing.

[pmorlan]

I say we quarantine all of them in their homes. Don't let them even come to Washington until their symptoms have disappeared. By the way the "Washington Swine Flu" has also infected a great many members of the establishment media too.

[Kaviraj]

Yeah! Instead of "business as usual" everything should be brought to light.
Dem or Repub, who cares!

Including of course the aiding and abetting of European leaders in the criminal actions of the Bush White House.

No way Jose! Not going to happen.
Why not?

NATO would fall apart and play in Putin's hands.
The war in Afghanistan would stop - not now, when the Taliban is about to get Pakistani nukes.

Bush has truly achieved the 100 year war and there is no power able to stop it, except of course the cure of the accountability disease.
So no cure, because who is going to be the doctor?

[Dynamohum]

From the very beginning I have believed we need to get to the bottom of this and meat out justice in order to move forward unencumbered. I also think that the chips should just fall as they may. Whether or not it is Republicans or Democrats is immaterial. All involved parties should be exposed and dealt with. This is what true justice would look like, imho.

I think this is why the current Democratically controlled Congress has been avoiding it altogether. Heads will roll down both aisles. Too bad, so sad, a bit of justice would restore our faith and make us very glad!!! And finally we will have learned the truth, learned the lesson and be totally free from repeating what started after how Watergate was dealt with and how every successive failure has been overlooked or just plain swept under the rug of repression.