First thing we do, let’s lawyer all the kills

Or some other fractured version of Shakespeare, that post-title seems to make about as much sense as the USA Patriot Act provision that removes the power to effectively determine the pace of state executions from federal courts, and hands it to… you got it… Attorney General Alberto “Fuck You, Congress” Gonzales.
Defense attorneys are outraged. Like we care what they have to say! It is widely believed anathema to execute an innocent person. Except in the United States, where, let’s face it: if they were innocent, they would have been able to afford a decent defense attorney, now, wouldn’t they?
Scott Lemieux wisely points out one advantage of not removing Alberto Gonzales, to wit, a decent attorney general might preserve the myth that providing excessive power might be o.k. because “we could trust” the nice professionals in our government.
The problem is that we have learned by the summer of 2007 that Ralph Nader– bastard that he is– is more right than he is wrong about the two national parties being effectively indistinguishable on most things in the clutch, to wit and most especially, the galling national security state that they are foisting upon us (which, of course, includes the ability to arbitrarily execute us… to keep us safe, of course!)
Even as, for example, polls show extraordinary strong opposition to warrantless eavesdropping, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid instead value the opinions of Tim Russert, David Broder and the assorted other inside-the-Beltway-people that they listen to, rather than the American people (whom they clearly do not listen to), and overwhelmingly. Hence, the bigger the failures of the Bush Administration, this particular (allegedly Democratic majority) Congress’s answer will be to provide it with yet more extensive powers, even as it shows that it only abuses the ones it has.
Such as, in this case, handing the power of life and death to Alberto Gonzales, the same power that he exercised so responsibly in Texas.
Well, just another day. 525 days left of them in this Administration, as a matter of fact (to the extent that it even matters that much).