Reply #134: Brilliant analysis by John Dean. Quote below. Everything that bothers me about Fitz-Plame

[McCamy Taylor]

It was well understood at the Nixon White House, and it surely is at the Bush White House, that government attorneys do not look to prosecute those for whom they work. We knew that career government lawyers simply were not going to be looking for crimes at the White House -- not because they acted with corrupt intent, but simply because it is no one's instinct to bite the hand that feeds them.

When Archibald Cox was appointed special counsel -- under pressure from the U.S. Senate as a condition to confirm Attorney General Elliot Richardson -- he immediately recognized what had occurred. While no Department of Justice lawyer was found to have engaged in the cover up, their timidity had facilitated it. Cox was fired because he refused to be intimidated. His firing became a badge of honor for all those who do the right thing, regardless of the consequences.

While I have no reason to believe you are easily intimidated, all I can say is that your investigation, thus far, is falling precisely within the narrow confines -- the formula procedure -- that was relied upon in the first phase of the Watergate cover-up by the Nixon administration.

The mistake which the left made was in tolerating any special prosecutor named from the Bush DOJ---which we all knew was the most corrupt body in the most corrupt administration ever in this nation's history. While Fitz may not be the most corrupt attorney in that corrupt body, working in a climate of corruption can not fail to have affected the quality of his work, since he has lacked for appropriate leadership. No prosecutor, dependent as they are upon the goodwill of the executive branch for career advancement and for the opportunity to ply their craft and single minded in their focus on convicting someone of anything, can be allowed to work without some kind of check and balance from above.

Luckily, Obama will provide that necessary check and balance. His DOJ will be an agency which enforces the law fairly, in order to protect the people, not a Mafia style enforcement good squad as the DOJ has been under Bush. I am sorry to say that the only honorable role anyone can have served in the DOJ under Bush-Cheney is the role of whistleblower.