Post-Gazette Editorial – 5/19/07

This page was last updated on May 20, 2007.

Sick visit: Gonzales crossed a line in muscling an ill Ashcroft; Editorial; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; May 19, 2007.

Rather than do a point-by-point critique of the editorial, I just want to make a few points.

First, this is yet another example of the PG’s position that by definition, everyone in the Bush administration must go. Messrs. Libby, Rove, and Wolfowitz are a few examples. I have little doubt that as soon as President Bush appoints a person, the PG has a boilerplate editorial ready explaining why he/she must go.

Second, while I don’t recall any editorials that weren’t unfavorable to decisions made by Mr. Ashcroft, in this editorial “Mr. Ashcroft was alert and astute enough to refuse.” Since Mr. Ashcroft isn’t in office and Mr. Gonzales is, I guess the editorial author felt this comment was OK if it helped in the mission to get rid of AG Gonzales.

Of course, because he was blinded by his contempt for Mr. Gonzales, the editorial author missed a point. If “Mr. Ashcroft was alert and astute” as the editorial asserts, then what was wrong with Messrs. Card and Gonzales visiting him? The editorial would have a case only if Mr. Ashcroft hadn’t been “alert and astute.”

Third, how absurd is it for the PG to lobby for a Congressional investigation into whose idea it was for Messrs. Card and Gonzales to visit then-AG Ashcroft in the hospital? What’s next, an investigation into who sent Mr. Ashcroft get-well cards and what those cards said?