Restoring America
“What the President has made clear is that we abide by our values, we abide by our laws and we abide by our treaty obligations. He’s made that clear in all that we do.”
--Scott McClellan 12-16-05
It takes a certain amount of professional schizophrenia to stand in front of the Washington Press Corps and to make the statement that Bush’s behavior in office illustrates our positive national character. For that, if for nothing else, Scott McClellan gains an iconic status in the most thankless of jobs—White House Press Secretary.
The problem is, of course, that McClellan’s assertions are entirely wrong. Bush’s behavior has made it clear that, under his leadership, we do not abide by American values, laws or treaty obligations.
Busting Treaties: From the moment he stepped into the oval office, Bush has been busy dismantling treaties and backing away from our international obligations. He began by barring foreign aid to groups that even mentioned abortion during family planning sessions. He quickly followed by rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, to which the United States was an unratified signatory—taking a “let them eat cake” approach with a global problem to which we are the largest contributor.
In 2001, Bush withdrew from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, citing our need to develop a missile defense system. The United States later walked out of a conference updating the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention because the Bush administration didn’t want to be subject to inspections. Why not, if we have nothing to hide?
We have been embarrassed by our refusal to sign the Land Mine Treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the International Criminal Court Treaty. I could go on.
It is disconcerting and more than a little sad to be able to rattle through a list of treaty violations and breeches of international commitments as so much “old news.” But it is a national stain that we failed to live up to the Geneva Conventions in our treatment of prisoners in Iraq and in the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.
Indeed, it took a virtual rebellion among Republican senators to convince Bush that we are a nation that should commit our standard against torture to law. But then it appears laws are not necessarily binding on this “wartime President.”
Breaking Laws: Certainly, skeptics who watched Cheney stonewall the congressional investigation of the White House’s Energy Policy Development Group knew early on that the Bushies were fast and loose with regards to ethics. With Scooter Davis under indictment and Karl Rove still being eyed by Prosecutor Fitzgerald, it should be increasingly clear even to Bush loyalists that all is not on the up and up in the White House.
And now we have Bush’s secret Executive Order allowing warrantless eavesdropping on people in the United States in direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). It wasn’t enough for the administration that FISA provides for warrants under a secret court, allows for warrants to be issued 72 hours after the search, and that the FISA court had a history of rejecting only 5 of 19,000 requests since 1979. The Bush administration needed a process completely under their control and review.
So Bush circumvented congressional oversight by classifying the program, “briefing” a select few congressional leaders and forbidding them to speak about a program some found highly questionable.
The administration claims that congress granted them authority to violate FISA when it passed its Authorization for Use of Military Force on September 14, 2001. Just in case that doesn’t fly (as numerous legal experts on both sides of the aisle indicate), Bush defense number two is that he’s given such authority in the Constitution. In other words, he’s not bound by the law because he’s the President.
Violating Values: Not all Americans agree with Bush about just what constitute American values. But I would be surprised to find any American who didn’t believe that our national values include democracy and integrity.
Sadly, Bush has left our national reputation for these values in tatters. Ushered into office in 2001 by a highly questionable election, he vowed to fix the process and then ignored the recommendations of his Commission on Election Reform.
Shortly after gaining the White House, he undermined America’s reputation for commitment to democracy abroad by supporting a coup to oust the democratically elected, but politically inconvenient, Hugo Chavez from Venezuela. Is it any wonder that the world questions our ability to midwife a new democracy in Iraq?
Nor is it at all surprising that so many question our motives. In his single-minded determination to go to war with Iraq, Bush ignored dissenters, dismissed the reservations of heads of state and millions of protestors. Relying on questionable intelligence to justify a foregone conclusion, he squandered our reputation as a nation of sober intent and integrity.
At the beginning of this New Year, I find myself asking what will it take to restore America to itself? The answer is found in Scott McClellan’s words. It will take a President who abides by our values, honors our treaties and is subject to our laws. If only the answer were also found in Scott McClellan’s boss.
(This column was originally published in The Signal newspaper in Santa Clarita on 1/3/06.)