Another Game of Guess Who Said It

Okay, students, put on your thinking caps and tell me the source of this quote:

The rule of law, the very foundation for a free society, has been under assault, not only by criminals from the ground up, but also from the top down. An administration that lives by evasion, coverup, stonewalling, and duplicity has given us a totally discredited Department of Justice. The credibility of those who now manage the nation’s top law enforcement agency is tragically eroded. We are fortunate to have its dedicated career workforce, especially its criminal prosecutors, who have faced the unprecedented politicization of decisions regarding both personnel and investigations.

Give up?

Was it some arm-waving Democrat? Some wacky believer in the quaint notion of the rule of law? Some anti-Bush sign-waving protest-marching latté-drinking Beemer-driving Nordstrom-shopping limousine liberal?

Nope, nope, and nope.

Believe it or not, that was in the 2000 platform of the Republican Party.

The hypocrisy never stops. That document is just a treasure trove of irony and unintended dark humor. Here's another example:

...a shrunken American military has been run ragged by a deployment tempo that has eroded its military readiness. Many units have seen their operational requirements increased four-fold, wearing out both people and equipment. Only last fall the Army certified two of its premier combat divisions as unready for war because of underfunding, mismanagement, and over-commitment to peacekeeping missions around the globe. More Army units and the other armed services report similar problems. It is a national scandal that almost one quarter of our Army's active combat strength is unfit for wartime duty.

Jesus, if I didn't know better, I'd think this was an up-to-date description of our current armed forces.

And don't forget that it was the "Clinton military" -- much reviled by the neocon thugs who have taken over this country -- that went to Afghanistan and Iraq and did their initial assignment, followed their initial orders, with such success.

Not the Bush military. Not the Rumsfeld military (remember "you go to war with the army you've got, not the army you'd like to have"?

This quaint and naively idealistic document ends with:

Republicans have a strategy. It is a strategy that recalls traditional truths about power and ideals and applies them to networked marketplaces, modern diplomacy and the high-tech battlefield. A Republican administration will use power wisely, set priorities, craft needed institutions of openness and freedom, and invest in the future. A Republican president and a Republican Congress can achieve the unity of national governance that has so long been absent. We see a confident America united in the fellowship of freedom with friends and allies throughout the world. We envision the restoration of a respected American leadership firmly grounded in a distinctly American internationalism.

A wise man (my grandfather) once told me that the way to vote for a president is to read the party platform. If you find one you agree with, vote for the other party because they always go the opposite way from what they say they are going to do.

Wise counsel indeed, when it came to the 2000 Rethug platform.