Naïve

You know and I know that our political system is broken, and that even when it wasn't broken, it wasn't exactly fixed. We all know there's graft in the system, and patronage; we all know laws are broken even people we agree with.

But I used to believe that we hadn't convinced ourself that this was a good thing. I used to believe that the graft and patronage and corruption and malfeasance was something both sides should fight against, fight all the harder when it happens in our own ranks. It turns out that I was just a fool -- a rube, a country bumpkin, an idiot from flyoverland. Certainly, I'm no cosmopolitan like Karen Hanretty.

Hanretty, a GOP operative, went on Hardball last night opposite the redoubtable Ezra Klein, and...well, remember back in 2001 when Dubya said, "We must always ask ourselves not only what is legal, but what is right."? Turns out the answer didn't really matter:

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about this more tricky question of Albert Gonzales. The president said the guy has done nothing wrong. Point to something he has done,
Ezra. Because either that or the president is right completely. Point to something he did wrong.

KLEIN: Aside from the firing of the prosecutors?

MATTHEWS: No, what did he do wrong?

HANRETTY: That wasn’t wrong.

KLEIN: Well, there you go.

MATTHEWS: What crime did he commit?

(CROSSTALK)

KLEIN: I’m not going to speak on whether or not he committed a crime, I’m not a lawyer. But what he did wrong was fire prosecutors for political reasons. I think we can agree on whether that is an ethical violation.

MATTHEWS: And that has never been done before?

HANRETTY: That is not illegal…. Yes, you absolutely can fire someone midterm for political reasons. It is not against the law.

Leave aside whether AG might have broken the law. Ladies and gentlemen, we now know that what is right is what can be sort of defined as legal. If it ain't illegal, it ain't wrong. Indeed, given that Hanretty though Scooter Libby should get a pardon, it might not be wrong even if it is illegal.

Ezra noted this little inconsistency, and got his ears boxed for the trouble:

HANRETTY: How old are you and how naive are you that you honestly think
that this town is not built on political patronage? Give me a break.

KLEIN: And how cynical are you that you believe you should support that
political patronage and excuse anything they do? … How far have we fallen?

We've fallen a long, long way, from a time when we actually cared about corruption, when George W. Bush claimed to be running to restore honor and dignity to the White House. We now know we were naïve to ever think, just for a moment, that there might be someone out there who cared about corruption. It's just foolish youngsters like Ezra and Digby who think that maybe, just maybe, it's not crazy to hold our elected officials to a higher standard than "technically, it didn't violate the law."