-Caveat Lector-
> Public Officials Gnaw Like Termites at Political
> InstitutionsDeroy MurdockAugust 20, 1999
>
> Imagine a land where the ruler's cronies face justice before
> friendly judges. Nearby, the legislature prevents election
> ballots from being tabulated. Meanwhile, parliamentarians
> undermine the law in order to divert tax money for pet spending
> projects.
>
> Would this be Venezuela? Tanzania? Try America.
>
> U.S. political institutions are being eroded by a political class
> that respects nothing more than its own ambitions. As our justice
> system suffers one blow after another, equality before the law
> becomes an increasingly elusive ideal. Meanwhile, a Republican
> Congress skirts the law and the notion of fiscal impartiality in
> order to outspend Democrats.
>
> On July 31, the Associated Press offered a disturbing example of
> America's institutional decay. Norma Holloway Johnson - chief
> judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. -
> personally chose the judges in several high-profile cases
> involving President Clinton's associates.
>
> Normally, a computer randomly assigns judges to federal cases to
> avoid real or perceived favoritism. Johnson, a Carter-appointed
> Democrat, wrote the Washington Times to say she intervened "to
> move the docket as expeditiously as possible." While Johnson
> often ruled against the White House in the Monica Lewinsky
> investigation, her actions still smell fishy.
>
> Judge Johnson handed Judge James Robertson the tax evasion case
> of Webster Hubbell, a long-time Friend of Bill and former law
> partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton. The president nominated Judge
> Robertson in 1994 after he donated $1,000 and "worked on the
> periphery" of the 1992 Clinton campaign. Robertson is also
> friends with Clinton pal Vernon Jordan who Special Prosecutor
> Kenneth Starr cited for arranging $62,500 in consulting fees for
> Hubbell, perhaps as hush money. Robertson dismissed Hubbell's tax
> charges, though an appeals court later reinstated them.
>
> Judge Johnson gave Judge Paul Friedman the case of Charlie Trie,
> a Friend of Bill accused of illegally donating $645,000 to
> Democrats. President Clinton appointed Friedman in 1994. Trie's
> attorney was Reid Weingarten, Friedman's personal friend.
> Friedman threw out several charges against Trie who pled guilty
> after Friedman's judgement was reversed on appeal.
>
> Hubbell and Trie reached lenient plea agreements. Senate
> Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R - Utah) told the AP
> that he worries "about whether the judges were pre-selected so
> that they would give these soft plea bargains credibility."
>
> In an August 3 letter, Hatch asked Supreme Court Chief Justice
> William Rehnquist to review "the propriety" of Holloway's actions
> and determine if she handled other cases similarly. Hatch
> observed that "the assignments in these unique cases may
> undermine public confidence that they were impartially
> adjudicated."
>
> Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. still may not learn the results of
> Initiative 59, a medical marijuana referendum on last November's
> ballot. Led by Rep. Bob Barr (R - Georgia), Congress repeatedly
> has blocked the District from spending money to tally the votes
> on that question.
>
> With their contempt for voters, Congress and the President have
> forfeited America's right to criticize electoral chicanery
> overseas. When foreign despots hear State Department complaints
> about mishandled ballots, they need only ask when Uncle Sam will
> remove the duct tape from the mouths of Washington's electorate.
>
> Having mugged America's democratic ideals, the GOP Congress also
> manhandled federal law to conduct a spending spree limited only
> by its imagination. In 1997, Congress enacted budget caps to curb
> federal expenditures. Outlays may only exceed such restrictions
> in emergencies.
>
> Alas, emergencies are in the eyes of the beholder. In late July,
> the House declared as "emergency" items $3 billion in routine
> veterans' medical costs and $4.5 billion for the 2000 Census, a
> constitutionally-required exercise conducted decennially since
> 1790.
>
> In the last year, Congress has designated a total of $35 billion
> as "emergency" spending, thus rescuing that money from those
> pesky budget caps.
>
> Having ridiculed fiscal restraint, the House voted in late July
> to add 215 pork-barrel projects to one appropriations bill. This
> included $500,000 for research on ship-bottom painting, a $1
> million "Garden Machine" to grow plants in space and $1 million
> for a disaster "staging area" at the Stanly County, North
> Carolina airport.
>
> Similar buffoonery also mocks the tax code. True, Congress long
> ago spurned even-handed revenue laws in favor of multiple tax
> rates. Still, Congress pushes discriminatory tax treatment to the
> point of absurdity.
>
> Special interest groups now enjoy tax loopholes more
> custom-tailored than Tom Wolfe's wardrobe. According to the
> Washington Post, Congress last month granted tax breaks to
> Alaskan seaplane owners, sawmills in Maine and Eskimo whaling
> captains.
>
> Officials too rarely regard democratic rules and traditions with
> reverence. Instead, they gleefully toss them around like Raggedy
> Ann dolls. Meanwhile, average Americans - content with their
> sport-utility vehicles, cell phones and 36-inch TVs - lose
> themselves in their own toys.
>
> Freedom isn't free. It demands what Thomas Jefferson called
> "eternal vigilance." The laws and institutions that enshrine our
> liberties are being nibbled away daily, as if by termites.
> Americans must wake up and demand that our leaders respect,
> rather than flout, the legal limits on their mischief. Otherwise
> - slowly at first, then all of a sudden - the foundation will
> collapse beneath us.
>
> New York commentator Deroy Murdock is an MSNBC Columnist and a
> Senior Fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in
> Fairfax, Virginia.
>
>
>
>
>
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