Townsend: fear of subpoenas ‘crippling’ White House

ThinkProgress.org: In an interview with the NY Times, President Bush’s outgoing homeland security aide Francis Fragos Townsend said she was concerned about “the acrimony” that hangs over Bush’s last year in office. “I find it both offensive and crippling,” she said. “When both career people and political people are worried about getting subpoenaed, it’s hard to get a lot accomplished.” Steve Benen responds, “Oh, those poor, poor White House officials. If only Congress would go back to ignoring the administration’s scandalous, sometimes criminal, behavior, the president and his aides would find it much easier to go about their business without the fear of accountability.”

Comments:

1. If only those subpoenas ever amounted to anything. I swear, to get the public’s reaction to any testimony the White House gives, Bush himself would have to rape a dog on the white house lawn in a dress. And even then, the KGB, er, RNC would cast it off as stress from being such a great defender of freedom -_-
2. When I break a lot of laws and torture the F@ck out of people and shred the Geneva Conventions… you know... ** sniff sniff ** I feel worried too. What’s a dictator to do these days? huh?
3. In the words of Michelle Malkin: Boo frickin’ hoo!
4. aWWWWWW, she’s doing what the right-wing does best – portray themselves as victims…
5. Funny how when you and the people you work with break the law those darn subpoenas come in. How inconvenient. We should just ignore all these scandals by the Fox Republicans like we should have ignored Watergate…
6. Isn’t a central tenet of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism that if you’re not guilty, you should have no problem with someone secretly looking into your phone calls, e-mails, the books you buy and borrow, etc.? Well, then I have to ask — if Townsend and her fellow “loyal Bushies” have done nothing wrong, then why do they fear oversight? In a trial, Townsend’s words and actions would be considered “consciousness of guilt” and could be used to demonstrate that she had actually committed a criminal act.