Government bureaucrat said to be sharp!

TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013

You rarely see statements like this: In this morning’s New York Times, three major figures—two from the GOP—defend the administration’s conduct with respect to the AP.

We aren’t saying they’re right or wrong. We simply want to call attention to one of their statements.

We were struck by the highlighted statement. In our world, you rarely see statements like this:
BARR, GORELICK AND WAINSTEIN (5/21/13): At the time the [AP] article was published, there were strong bipartisan calls for the Justice Department to find the leaker. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. gave that assignment to Ronald C. Machen Jr., the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, who is known for his meticulous and dedicated work. Importantly, his assignment was to identify and prosecute the government official who leaked the sensitive information; it was not to conduct an inquiry into the news organization that published it.
Say what? Machen “is known for his meticulous and dedicated work?” Within our degraded national discourse, you almost never see statements like that.

Please understand: In that statement, the writers are discussing someone who could be described as a “government bureaucrat.” Within our degraded national discourse, you almost never see such people praised for their diligent, competent work.

Over the past fifty years, powerful forces have worked very hard to denigrate people like Machen. If you work for the government, it’s assumed that you’re worthless, just no darn good.

Government bureaucrats totally stink! In recent years, so do teachers! Powerful forces have worked very hard to lodge these ideas in American minds.

We were pleased to see three prominent writers push back against this idea.

15 comments:

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  2. ....three prominent figures
    ...three prominent writers

    Most people would just see three powerful lawyers who made their careers in government defending another powerful lawyer making his career in government. Have to give you credit for finding something positive to say, though.

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  3. Indeed,, this is really priceless, the blind leading the blind...

    “All my means are sane,” Ahab says, “my motive and my object mad.”

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  4. Shame, shame, shame on Bob Somerby. To defend the savaging of the Constitution by the Justice Department, to defend an attack on freedom of the press, is shocking and shameful.

    Have you no shame?

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  5. Attorney General Holder should be fired by the President or removed by Congress for the continual press intimidation and continual attempts at press censorship. Of course, though, this is just what President Obama wants from Holder.

    What at James Rosen? What about Rosen?

    Shameful, Somerby!

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  6. Now I understand why Bob Somerby never could mention the awful abuse of power by President Obama in attacking press freedom repeatedly. There is no concern for the Constitution, no concern for freedom of the press. I finally understand the hypocrisy of what you are about.

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  7. So much of media news presentation currently is based on the model of courtroom adversarial conflict. But the reason courtrooms use this model is because there is a simple yes or no question to be answered, namely, "did this person do the thing he or she is accused of?"

    In almost all other areas of life, things are more complex. In a discussion concerned with the truth, or a better way forward, if one engages like a courtroom advocate, only entertaining and voicing points which support one's position in the larger framework, there is nowhere to go but massive polarization. A third way will never happen.

    Somerby cares about details. This detail (giving props to a bureaucrat) he seemed to find funny, and presented it in a the exception proves the rule ironic style.

    The critics that maintain the orthodoxy of purity to the correct side of whatever argument a detail comes from will be scandalized.

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    Replies
    1. When a government worker sworn to honor the Constitution is making a mockery of the Constitution, only criticism is warranted.

      I get it though, freedom of the press is tripe to pretend-liberal Somerby.

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Well, you have to wonder if TDH is developing a theme of sticking up for the underdogs--like Susan Rice and Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton and US Attorneys--that don't seem like underdogs to anyone except TDH.

      Delete
    2. Somerby is *not* sticking up for this bureaucrat. He's laughing at these "prominent writers" for spouting something they do not believe just to advance their current line of crap.

      Delete
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