Partisanship and Hypocrisy

The President's commutation of Lewis Libby's sentence has led to a great clamor, mostly from the left. Most notable about the comments I have read and heard is the clear illustration of the partisanship and hypocrisy that is rampant in politics and the media today.

The Democrats are apoplectic at Bush's "violation" of Constitutional Law. I guess they haven't read the Constitution; the power of the President to pardon and commute sentences is spelled out directly. Mrs. Clinton, speaking at a campaign rally with Bill on the podium with her, spoke about the President's misuse of his powers. Give her credit, only someone with brass balls could make such a statement given her husband's having handed out pardon's like candy (remember, Marc Rich and Roger Clinton, among many others) not to mention perjuring himself and sending out staffers with misinformation.

Hypocrites on both sides have used the commutation as an opportunity to, once again, tell the Iraq War, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, story, and to characterize the story in the light most favorable to their views. Depending upon who is telling the story, either Bush, Cheney and Libby outed Plame to get Wilson for exposing their Iraq War build-up lies or Plame and Wilson were part of a conspiracy to discredit the Bush administration and help John Kerry win the 2004 election. Today's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle editorial on the topic is a clear example of such partisan "reporting" of "fact".

The best example is Chris Matthews of Hardball. He was interviewed on the Today show about the Libby story. The beginning of the interview is on point but he quickly launches into a diatribe apparently claiming that Bush commuted Libby's sentence to keep him quiet about everything he knows about the Iraq War build-up. Watch it, but it will probably make you wonder where Chris keeps his tinfoil hat.

The only thing that we know for sure is that the truth is irrelevant to the vast majority of partisans in politics and the media. The only goal is to make sure "our side" wins. "Heart-felt" positions taken by politicians and pundits in the past, evaporate under new sets of circumstances, like changes in which party runs Congress, or the latest opinion poll.

The big problem with this ongoing battle is that the goal of always winning is inconsistent with the great compromises that are needed to get big things done. The problems of Social Security and health care coverage and costs are looming as great disasters. Such problems can only be dealt with by cooperation. The type of partisan competition we have today will never allow for those problems to be addressed.