The Joel Award goes to Peggy Noonan. In 1998, Noonan urged the impeachment of Bill Clinton because "no man is above" the rule of law.
"The Democrats had long labeled the impeachment debate a distraction from the urgent business of a great nation. But the Republicans argued that the pursuit of justice is the business of a great nation. In winning this point, they caught the falling flag, producing a triumph for the rule of law, a reassertion of the belief that no man is above it, and a rebuke for an arrogance that had grown imperial,"
Noonan's love of the law gets thrown under the bus when it comes to the Bush administration torturing detainees. Nonnan's comments on This Week were sickening.
Noonan: Oh I have reservations about all this. It's hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking oh much good will come of that. Sometimes in life you wanna' just keep walkin'. History has changed. It does change. We have a new administration, a new way. Sometimes I think just keep walkin'. Don't always be issuing papers and reports.
Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan.
Thanks for finding the Peggy Noonan article.
ReplyDeleteMorals are not some fluid version of us vs. them, but right vs. wrong. Lying to congress while under oath is wrong. Violating the Constitution and Geneva Common Article 3 is heinously wrong; there is nothing mysterious about it.
DeAnna