Democrats in Congress want an independent special counsel to investigate the Plame Game scandal. So, too, do the Dem presidential candidates. Come to think of it, the overwhelming majority of the public wants this out of the hands of the DOJ as well, according to at least one major poll.
How about Republicans in Congress? Any brave souls willing to admit that a fair an unbiased inquiry should be done by someone outside Ashcroft’s Justice Department.
Not one. At least, not yet.
Apparently, keeping GOP unity on this issue is a top priority among party leaders right now. As the New York Times reported today, Republicans have crafted a two-pronged strategy in response to the controversy: go after Joseph Wilson and prevent Republicans from straying.
The Times said, “The White House encouraged Republicans to portray…[Wilson] as a partisan Democrat with an agenda and the Democratic Party as scandalmongering. At the same time, the administration and the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill worked to ensure that no Republicans in Congress break ranks and call for an independent inquiry outside the direct control of the Justice Department.”
The Times quoted one Republican aide on Capitol Hill as summarizing the GOP strategy succinctly. “It’s slime and defend,” the aide said. (Hasn’t Bush done a terrific job of changing the tone in Washington? Slime and defend is the new GOP motto?)
Going after Wilson now is pretty ridiculous. First, he’s not a partisan. Wilson may have donated to Kerry’s presidential campaign, but he also contributed to Bush’s campaign in 2000. Second, who cares? The guy could be chairman of the DNC for all I care. It wouldn’t change the fact that two White House officials illegally leaked the name of a CIA agent. Wilson is beside the point and they know it.
As for keeping Republicans together on this, the strategy appears to be paying off in the short term. But how much longer can they keep this together?
The case for an independent special counsel is fairly easy to argue. It’s not just John Ashcroft, who has proven himself an obvious Bush partisan with close political and professional ties to White House figures such as Karl Rove. It’s also the Justice Department’s number two man, acting-deputy Robert McCallum, who just so happens to have been a Bush buddy at Yale. For goodness sakes, the two were in Skull & Bones together.
Ashcroft, meanwhile, seems unwilling to even consider an independent special counsel. What a long strange trip it’s been for the attorney general. In 1997, when it was a Democrat in the White House, Ashcroft was a virtual cheerleader for a Reno-appointed special prosecutor every time Clinton would even look at him funny.
On CNN six years ago, during a flap over Al Gore’s use of a White House phone to make a single call to a potential campaign donor, Ashcroft said even “a single allegation can be most worthy of a special prosecutor.”
“If you’re abusing government property, if you’re abusing your status in office, it can be a single fact that makes the difference on that,” Ashcroft said at the time.
He added that Janet Reno couldn’t be counted on to challenge the president who appointed her.
“The man who signs her check is the man that she’s investigating, and she hasn’t been very aggressive about it,” Ashcroft said.
Funny how times change.