Fill-in-the-blanks quiz

Quick! Who said this?
“Mr. Gonzales has presided over an unprecedented crippling of the Constitution’s time-honored checks and balances.”
“He has brought the rule of law into disrepute, and debased honesty as the coin of the realm.”

Fill in the missing words in the shrill anti-Bush-Administration screed below.

Extra credit: Name the signers.

Mr. Gonzales has presided over an unprecedented crippling of the Constitution’s time-honored checks and balances.

He has brought the rule of law into disrepute, and debased honesty as the coin of the realm.

He has engendered the suspicion that partisan politics trumps evenhanded law enforcement in the Department of Justice.

He has embraced legal theories that could be employed by a successor to obliterate the _______ philosophy of ________ ________and ______ _________ celebrated by the Founding Fathers.

In sum, Attorney General Gonzales has proven an unsuitable steward of the law and should resign for the good of the country.

The President should accept the resignation, and set a standard to which the wise and honest might repair in nominating a successor, who will keep the law, like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion.

Answers at the jump.

conservative

individual liberty

limited government

The American Freedom Agenda:

Bruce Fein (Reagan DoJ)

Richard Viguerie (wingnut direct mail guru)

David Keene (American Conservative Union)

Bob Barr (formerly R- Georgia)

John Whitehead (Rutherford Institute)

Note that everything the letter accuses Gonzales of doing he did at the direction of Bush and Rove.

Water, gunn’els, rats.

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