It's the Cover Up, Stupid!

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Exhibits ACPOC Syndrome

The DOJ continues to be in the news, with a current focus on the firings of some 8 District Attorneys (DA) by the Bush Administration. As with many public scandals, the issue is not so much the act, but the coverup. As experts have stated, these DA appointments "served at the pleasure of the president". So in theory there should be no serious issue, or at least no criminal issue with respect to there firings. Why were these District Attorneys fired? Some have claimed that the administration was not pleased with the prosecutorial focus of the DAs , that they investigated / prosecuted politicians (a/k/a lawyers) which the Administration desired to protect.

Apparantly the supreme Attorney General for the nation Alberto R. Gonzales, the protector of "we the people", has chosen to abandon us through the firing of the DA's who were going after attorneys even if they had broken the law. This is similar to when a judge will allow a client's attorney to resign from a case because that attorney does not want to disclose facts which could get his brethren attorney, the opposing counsel, in trouble. Abandonment of the Client for the Protection of Opposing Counsel (ACPOC) Syndrome can rear its ugly head in a variety of circumstances.

The issue here is not could the DAs be fired, or why they were fired. The issue is the cover up. At most, it was cheezy to fire them. But to lie to the public about the acts is a cover up. Alberto Gonzalez number one problem for now is the cover up issue. Let's remember about the tolerance in the U.S. for a cover up:

Scooter Libby / Valerie Plame - The bad act of the exposure of Ms. Plame's identity was apparently made by someone other than Libby and was not even a crime because Ms. Plame's role at the CIA was not protected as secret under law. However, the cover up was that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. was found to have lied during the investigation, and thus he is now a convicted criminal.

Martha Stewart Scandal - A stock trade was possibly a bad act if made with the benefit of insider information, perhaps not a criminal act but could have subjected Ms. Stewart to civil penalties. A cover up was inferred by a jury concerning Ms. Stewart and one of the most powerful and successful women in business and media did real jail time as a result.

Lewinski Scandal - Bad acts by President Clinton in having an adulterous sexual relationship with a subordinate, but not illegal. cover up includes several crimes such as subornation of perjury in having Lewinski sign a false affidavit and President Clinton lying under oath a deposition. President Clinton was not merely impeached, he was disbarred as an attorney for the crime of lying under oath.

Watergate Scandal - Bad acts performed by very junior campaign workers, but the cover up brought down President Nixon.