Truth By Subpoena!

This is something I wanted to touch on this morning but I've been very pressed for time all day. Now I'm tired and probably won't be able to express my point (if I even have one) effectively, but I feel the need to get it out.

I was listening to Drew and Mike this morning when I took Jenna to school. They were discussing this whole U.S. attorney situation and how yesterday it was announced that President Bush would allow key members of his staff to be interviewed by Congress.

Today on J's blog, he made a comment to me that he felt that Congress was moving in the right direction. This is evidenced in many ways and, in this case, by their insistence that allowing simple interviews is not enough, they want to actually subpoena these key members of the administration to testify before the judicial commitee.

Drew and Mike were making the point that what they really want is to get at Karl Rove. But what would it matter? Do they expect him to tell the truth?

At the time, what they were saying made me laugh as almost everything on the program does. Upon reflection, I got a bit irritated.

After all, it's true. Testifying under oath does not put the fear of God into anyone anymore. I'm not saying it should, I don't even believe in God. The point is, how can an oath assure us of anything (especially with all of the shit that's happened over the past few years)? All it really does is remind the person testifying that if they lie, and they get caught, they face charges.

It's the whole tree falling in the forest, no one's around, does it make a sound thing.

If Karl Rove (or anyone else) were to testify, what version of the truth would we really get? The only thing we're sure to get is that which evidence exists to corroborate. Effectively, if he tells a lie, but no one of consequence can or will refute it, is it a lie?

I'm certainly feeling cynical about this issue today. I'm glad that something is being done and that it's becoming clear that accountability can't be dodged. I'm just frustrated that things like this keep surfacing. What on Earth is going on?

As far as the actual issue at hand, the firing of the U.S. attorneys, any idiot on the street could have handled it better and differently and the whole thing would've never seen the light of day. There's nothing illegal about the actual action. But because of the way it was done, we now get to watch the whole thing get aired and be further sickened by the bullshit that goes on.

And we have to wonder if we'll even get the truth. Although the chances of that are probably better than I think given that these idiots continue to send "classified" emails actually expecting that no one will ever find out. Christ