Chutzpah
Consuming my daily dose of events and news, I stumbled over an opinion column in the Washington Post that stopped me dead in my tracks. Not because of it’s content…I didn’t even bother to read it…but because of it’s author.
It’s entitled “Another Blow to Justice” written by Jamie Gorelick. It’s a screed about how our justice system is damaged because the Justice Department made an attempt to hire only Republicans to occupy judgeships and prosecutor positions. But I really don’t care about that…I’m sure some of our resident trolls will.
What I care about is the chutzpah it takes for Jamie Gorelick (or the Washington Post for that matter) to complain about partisanship in government. Remember Jamie Gorelick was the clintonista at Justice who designed and defended the “wall” between law enforcement and the intelligence community that prevented intelligence-sharing on terrorist activities against the United States (Washington Times link).
As the No. 2 person in the Clinton Justice Department, Ms. Gorelick rejected advice from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who warned against placing more limits on communications between law-enforcement officials and prosecutors pursuing counterterrorism cases, according to several internal documents written in summer 1995.
“It is hard to be totally comfortable with instructions to the FBI prohibiting contact with the United States Attorney’s Offices when such prohibitions are not legally required,” U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White wrote Ms. Gorelick six years before the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.
More stunning, perhaps was the fact that she served on the 9-11 Commission while she should have been testifying to that Commission instead. (Wall Street Journal link)
From any reasonably objective point of view, the Gorelick memo has to count as by far the biggest news so far out of the 9/11 hearings. The Mary Jo White prosecutions and the 2001 Moussaoui arrest were among our best chances to uncover and unravel the al Qaeda network before it struck the homeland. But thanks in part to the Clinton Administration’s concern with appearances and in part to its legacy, these investigations were hamstrung.
Ms. Gorelick–an aspirant to Attorney General under a President Kerry–now sits in judgment of the current Administration. This is what, if the principle has any meaning at all, people call a conflict of interest. Henry Kissinger was hounded off the Commission for far less. It’s such a big conflict of interest that the White House could hardly be blamed if it decided to cease cooperation with the 9/11 Commission pending Ms. Gorelick’s resignation and her testimony under oath as a witness into the mind of the Reno Justice Department. What exactly was the purpose of the wall?
It takes real chutzpah to think that anyone would consider reading a partisan hack’s opinion on others’ partisan hackery. But then that’s the Washington Post’s readership, I suppose.
Category: Politics, Terror War
The mention of her name requires that I need a barf bag. She also was part of Fannie/Freddie board that cooked the books…Ickes, Freeh, too.
When you’ve given up all attempts at rational thought or even trying to appear non-political, there is only one thing to do: make a complete ass of yourself. So, the Post and Gorelick gladly give us exhibit “A.”
Jamie on phone to Justice Department: “Kettle this is Jamie; YOUR BLACK!” (click)
Why don’t we take a look at the Clinton Justice Departments during the “Bill Does Washington” tour? We could conclude, THEY ALL FREAKING DO IT!
Do I like it, no, but it is Washington.
Sorry A.F. 5-0, there’s no controlling authority for that.