The way I look at Congress, there are, broadly, lawmakers who I agree with (most Dems), and lawmakers I disagree with (most Republicans). But more specifically, I have an informal hierarchy for those with whom I disagree.<\/p>\n
The largest group is “generic conservatives,” who think the way one expects them to think. Then there are “conservative hacks,” who perceive the business of government as a callous political exercise. They’re not idiots, but they are dishonest. This group exists to take cheap shots, abuse demagogic rhetoric, confuse the public, and basically remove any shred of honor from the political process.<\/p>\n
And then there are “mindless conservatives.” It’s a small-but-curious group of lawmakers who appear to be so dumb, one wonders how they manage to tie their shoes in the morning. Based on their comments and decisions, it’s not entirely clear if they can even read.<\/p>\n
And one of the leading members of this caucus is Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah). Here is Cannon yesterday<\/a> on Fox News, with his unique perspective on Scooter Libby’s commutation and the nation’s confidence in the justice system.<\/p>\n “By not having prosecuted Bill Clinton, we have said people get a pass. I think we have healed and after having prosecuted Scooter Libby, I think goes to some degree to visciate (?) the problem we created by a president who lied and obstructed justice. People now know that you actually go to jail for those things. (lengthy delay) Or at least will have huge penalties.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wait, it gets better. Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) pointed out that Iglesias, like many of the other prosecutors, exercised “independent judgment” and refused to follow the Bush administration’s political agenda. “And as a result, he was fired,” said Van Hollen. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) then shouted out his reason for why the Bush administration fired Iglesias: “No, no. He was fired because he’s an idiot.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I have to admit, hearing Cannon describe anyone<\/i> as an “idiot” is rather amusing.<\/p>\n In this case, though, it’s particularly odd. Iglesias was one of the best U.S. Attorneys in the country. As recently as 2004, he was up for a promotion. In 2005, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey called Iglesias “one of our finest.” Once the scandal broke, Justice Department officials tried to craft after-the-fact talking points to explain why Iglesias had to be removed from office — and they had trouble coming up with anything<\/a>.<\/p>\n All available evidence suggests Iglesias was fired after he rebuffed pressure from Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) to bring bogus criminal charges against Democrats.<\/p>\n So who’s the “idiot”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The way I look at Congress, there are, broadly, lawmakers who I agree with (most Dems), and lawmakers I disagree with (most Republicans). But more specifically, I have an informal hierarchy for those with whom I disagree. The largest group is “generic conservatives,” who think the way one expects them to think. Then there are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nDuring the same appearance on Fox News (where else?), Cannon addressed<\/a> the U.S. Attorney purge scandal.<\/p>\n