Scandal Overload

Trying to keep track of ongoing political scandals is like juggling bowling balls, eventually you're going to drop one. Besides the continuously scandalous policies of the current administration, the two biggest headaches for the White House right now are the revelations of shoddy care for wounded soldiers and the purge of U.S. Attorneys for political reasons. As heads begin to roll, let's catch up.

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey resigned in the wake of the revelations of what wounded soldiers face at Walter Reed and elsewhere. If only the buffoons responsible for the war itself met such quick justice. The usual suspects are saying this is just further proof that the government sucks and we should privatize everything. Oops, but wait, what's that, it's the facts making a return assault! It turns out that privatization had already sunk its claws into Walter Reed.

The real lesson here, as I mentioned on Saturday is that when you elect people who hate government to run it, you get crappy government. Elect competent people who care about the government and the people it serves and you get better results. Pretty simple concept.

Moving on to the purged U.S. Attorneys, this scandal is like watching "Lost"... if you missed one episode, you're shit out of luck. Here's the backstory: Someone (read: Sen. Specter and/or his subordinates) slips a provision into the Patriot Act renewal making it easier for the White House to fire said Attorneys and replace them without Senate approval; White House acts accordingly.

Soon revelations come out that Republican members of Congress may have assisted the White House in pushing out undesirable attorneys (read: those investigating Republicans instead of Democrats). Some quick sleuthing narrows this down to Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Sen. Domenici (R-NM), both of whom reversed previous denials by admitting they may have talked to the Attorneys about stuff, but didn't threaten them or anything, no way. Then comes news yesterday that Michael Battle, executive director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, has resigned. Attorney General Gonzales tells Congress he is too busy to answer their pesky questions.

The House and Senate are holding hearings today. TPMmuckraker has continuous updates.

Phew! I feel (slightly) more educated already. Until tomorrow, when we'll be behind again.