Yes, folks, we’re in Saturday Night Massacre territory: Bush is firing prosecutors investigating massive Republican corruption.
I agree with “rich,” commenting on TPMmuckraker: firing San Diego U.S. Attorney Carole Lam just as she was bringing a major national-security corruption case puts us in Saturday Night Massacre territory. I’m glad to see that Chuck Schumer, for one, isn’t going to take this lying down, but the mainstream press has been remarkably passive. Someone should remind Gonzales and McNulty that the statute of limitations on obstruction-of-justice charges will not have run out by 2009.
My sense is that Rove, Cheney, and their sock-puppet have yet to adjust to a situation in which their actions are subject to Congressional oversight.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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