One cliché that I've been beyond sick of since literally the first days of this administration is the ugly notion that the people -- you know, the putative bosses of the country -- should simply expect not to be entitled to basic notions of accountability and probity when it comes to the frequently suspect advice exchanged in the decision-making process.
This began most notoriously during Big Time's much-vaunted Energy Task Farce, which included such forward-thinking luminaries as Ken Lay. And we were told, right up through Cheney taking Combover Tony Scalia pheasant hunting, that it was none of our business, that the only way the panel could be successful is if its members could count on their advice remaining off-the-record and confidential. It was the only way the Deciders could ever count on receiving "unvarnished" advice.
I seriously don't get how they keep getting to foist that nonsense, even now with the U.S. Attorney purge. Does anyone really believe such a thing, and if so, what the fuck are they doing working in government? We are not talking about classified information with national security ramifications; we are talking about policy panels being larded with people whose financial and power interests lies in said panels going in certain directions. We may never know what took place in Cheney's ETF, and if we ever do find out, by then Cheney himself will have long since taken his eternal place shoveling shit in hell.
This is a very dangerous, fundamentally undemocratic sentiment, that every policy-making decision is somehow exempt from basic oversight and due diligence. And when there is just cause, as there is now (yet again), scrutiny is reasonably expected.
It is about high time that the obvious starts being more publicly acknowledged and re-iterated -- that these people are liars and hypocrites. They were all very much for sunshine and openness during the awful, awful Clenis era. Now, not so much. We children are not supposed to expect a forthright explanation from the adults.
And that's worked out pretty well, hasn't it?
No comments:
Post a Comment