A Left Turn FOR CLARK

Some observers perceive a double standard in how the Republican Party of today trumpets the righteousness of President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence compared to their prior zeal for impeaching Bill Clinton when he was President. Obviously they are missing the point

Bill Clinton was a hard working life long public servant who had never been in trouble with the law before the Republicans in Congress impeached him for lying under oath. There was no underlying crime involved, just a lapse in personal morality for which no one was ever charged. But Clinton lying under oath then, in the eyes of the Republican Party, was reason enough to bring down a government and nullify a national election in which the voters of our nation chose Bill Clinton as their President. “Sorry voters”, said the Republicans, “but no one is above the law; Bill Clinton lied under oath so he can’t remain your President. We must spend hundreds of millions of dollars and months of Congress’s time seeking Clinton’s removal from office, because lying under oath must have consequences. This isn’t about a blow job; it’s about the rule of law.”

Now, with Scooter Libby spared from spending a single night sleeping in a jail cell, it’s important to realize that this isn’t about intentionally taking America into war under false pretences. Nor is it about illegally outing a C.I.A. agent out of partisan political vindictiveness, because no charges on that were ever brought. No, the commutation of Libby’s prison sentence is about mercy for a hard working life long public servant who had never been in trouble with the law before, and it is about the pursuit of justice, because making Scooter Libby spend as many hours in jail for his conviction on obstruction of justice, as Paris Hilton did for evading court imposed restrictions on her driving, would have been a miscarriage of justice, verging on cruel and unusual punishment for a man who was only following the wishes of his President when he committed his crime.

Fortunately for Scooter Libby, he served an activist President who felt free to disregard legally established sentencing guidelines, and empowered to overrule a strict interpretationist judge and jury to substitute instead his own enlightened understanding of justice for the rote rule of law that our judicial system slavishly attempts to impose equally on all Americans.

Fortunately for Scooter Libby, George W. Bush is in the mainstream of today’s Republican Party, which rejects a firm moral compass with rigid definitions of right and wrong. Instead the modern G.O.P. enthusiastically embraces relativism, which is what allowed them to rise up against our Commander in Chief during America’s war in Kosovo, while Bill Clinton was President, without forfeiting their freedom to condemn dissent against our current Commander in Chief, George W. Bush, as unpatriotic and verging on treasonous during this time of war inside Iraq.

Repeatedly, Republicans in the U.S. Senate have shown both their willingness and their ability to muster the 40+ plus votes needed to sustain a filibuster by denying a motion for cloture. As a result several crucial Democratic legislative initiatives, which if polls are to be believed all had strong public support, have expired with a whimper not a bang. And each time the Democratic Senate leadership turns to the public with a collective shrug and says; “We tried but they won’t let us”, while public dissatisfaction with a Democratic Congress continues to grow. It must be frustrating for them. Is it their fault that the American people haven’t elected enough Democratic Senators yet to bring legislation to a vote when Republicans refuse to limit debate? No, it’s their fault for refusing to make Republicans either put up, or shut up.

Each time the Republicans demonstrate that they have the votes they need to filibuster Democratic legislation to death, Democrats respond with an emphatic “there’s really no need to bother” as they move on to the next item on their legislative agenda. From where I sit it seems like they’re all just going through the motions. Democrats propose important legislation which they are confident reflects the will of the people, and then Republicans tap them on the shoulder and say “you don’t have 60 votes”. Democrats respond;”we can’t argue with your math”. The legislation dies, dueling Press Releases get released to the press, and they all move on to repeating the exact same charade with the next important piece of Democratic legislation.

It seems like a “gentleman’s agreement” prevails in the Senate that says in unspoken words, “none of us are up for the stress of a real filibuster anymore, so let’s have cloture votes instead, and if Republicans can muster 40 votes we’ll consider that a substitute for a successful filibuster and save all of us a lot of unnecessary trouble.” Well what’s wrong with that, some might ask? If you know you will lose anyway, why not say uncle early and save yourself an unnecessary fight? I suppose it’s a fair question. When I begin to formulate an answer my mind fixes on an image from many years ago. If you allow me a short digression, I think you will understand why.

For readers of tea leaves, the omens have not been favorable lately for a 2008 Gore Presidential run. For one thing, the man himself still sounds decidedly less than enthusiastic about the prospect, and there are those supposed semi-insider leaks that say Gore spoke more positively in private about the prospect two months ago than he has of late. Jimmy Carter seems convinced that Gore won’t run despite having personally urged Al to throw his hat into the ring. Now there is a report quoting his daughter Kristen saying at a book signing for her second novel that; “He's really not going to get in the race.”

We have come to the near end of a dramatic run of events that have deservedly kept Al Gore’s name (and his mission) centered in the public eye. Starting with the release of “An Inconvenient Truth”, furthered by a campaign that organized many hundreds of simultaneous nation wide viewing parties, followed by “An Inconvenient Truth” winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Al Gore has been on a deeply meaningful and productive roll.

Al Gore then published a high profile political book offering his unvarnished take on what is wrong with America; The Assault on Reason, which led to high profile book promotion opportunities both in the media and in person. Most recently Al Gore produced and hosted the world wide series of concerts, “Live Earth”, which highlighted the global environmental crisis facing all of us, which also spawned hundreds of viewing parties all across the nation. Finally, the Draft Gore movement capped all of this off with the delivery of 100,000 signatures on a petition to Al Gore, urging him to run for President. The buildup has reached a climax, the stage is set, but Al Gore isn’t seen standing in the wings, adjusting his bow tie, waiting for the curtains to open on a spot lit podium with a microphone pre- adjusted to his height.