It's More Than Oversight

In dealing with a government as lawless as the Bush administration, it is necessary to attack them from several angles in order to make progress. That's why I think Glenn Greenwald over-emphasizes the importance of Congressional oversight in bringing the fired prosecutor abuses to light.

"There is one thing and one thing only distinguishing this U.S. attorneys scandal from all of the others over the past six years: namely, because Democrats now have subpoena power and seem willing to use it, the administration is forced to disclose actual evidence and documents -- rather than simply issue unscrutinized and uninvestigated denials of wrongdoing -- and that evidence demonstrates that their claims are false. "

Certainly the Bush administration has come up with more documents as a result of more active Congressional oversight. However, it was Bush-appointed prosecutors who blew the lid off the White House's abuse of their appointment power. In fact, traditionalist Republican bureaucrats have been at the front line of opposition to the Bush administration since 2002. It's because of testimony from resigned Republicans like Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill and leaks from anonymous State Department, CIA, FBI, and Pentagon officials that many of the intelligence, detainee, and warrantless wiretapping abuses of the Bush administration initially were exposed. Most left-wing commentators underestimate the extent to which the Bush years have seen an on-going war between the administration and traditional Republicans in the bureaucracy.

Over the last five years, the Bush administration responded to this kind of information with grossly dishonest blanket denials. In fact, Alberto to Gonzales engaged in this kind of dishonesty so often that the denials should just be called the "Gonzales Standard Lie." Nevertheless, the "Gonzales Standard Lie" has never been fully convincing even in cases where the Bush administration was able to ward off further scrutiny (like warrantless wiretapping or CIA prisons) and the general credibility of the Bush administration has been undermined partly because of its reputation for dishonesty in its response to exposes by Republican bureaucrats. Congressional oversight accomplishes is important for providing proof of Bush administration abuses and cover-ups, but it has been the honesty of Republican bureaucrats that originally brought the abuses to light.