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Opinion
Nominations
bringing out the worst kind of politics
January
21, 2005
Not
unlike voters all over the country, those in Greenwood are
just as tired of politics as usual. Every time one election
ends, the politicking begins again and the process keeps
repeating itself.
Even if voters could get used to the
whole rigmarole that accompanies every election to every
office in the land, from boards and commissions to the White
House, Statehouse and Congress, there is more than enough
politics surrounding everything. Under the circumstances, no
voter will ever suffer from withdrawal pains. Politics never
withdraws.
A couple of current situations illustrate the
point. They involve Alberto Gonzales, whom President Bush
nominated for U. S. Attorney General, and Dr. Condoleezza
Rice, the president’s National Security Advisor who was
nominated to succeed Colin Powell as Secretary of
State.
GONZALES HAS BEEN PILLORIED in
Senate Committee hearings because of a memo he wrote on what
constituted torture under the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva
Conventions provide for the humane treatment of civilians,
prisoners and wounded persons in wartime.
Gonzales’ legal
opinion, in effect, was that the Geneva Conventions applied to
nations, and that terrorists who don’t represent any nation
and commit atrocities without regard to borders, are not
covered by the same rules. That was immediately construed,
purposely, it seems, to mean that Gonzales apprved torturing
terrorist prisoners. That’s not what he recommended, of
course, but it provided an opening for critics to exploit for
partisan political interests.
NOW, FOR DR.
RICE’S CASE. At her Senate Committee hearings, Sen.
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., flat out accused Dr. Rice of lying.
Instead of asking questions, she spent her allotted time
venting against the Bush Administration, the Iraq War and
anything else that she could use to verbally bludgeon the
Secretary of State nominee. Rice, as most people know by now,
can handle herself well and in no way was she cowered by the
accusatory and sullying tactics of Boxer.
Oh, yes. Someone
else showed up at the Rice hearings: Sen. John Kerry, who lost
his presidential bid against Bush. Kerry carried on the same
kind of performance as Boxer.
Politics? You have to wonder.
Both Gonzales and Rice represent blocs of voters … Hispanic
and Black. Is that the real reason for the tough grilling
Democrats are putting Rice and Gonzales through? It happens,
of course, with both parties. Only the time and faces change.
Editorial expression in this feature represents
our own views.
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