Christopher Hitchens As Alberto Gonzales

What bothers me most about the journalist Christopher Hitchens is not necessarily his endless support for the Iraq occupation(although he is as wrong on that subject as anyone can be)but rather his disturbing loyalty to George W. Bush personally. This is a man who exemplifies everything a secular humanist should detest. Bush's offensive public religiosity, his close ties to the anti-democratic, anti-pluralistic forces of the religious right, his shameful positions(one could not call them policies)on social welfare, his stubborn refusal to listen to reason on foreign affairs, his debasement of values like fairness, right to privacy, governmental restraint, separation of church and state, ad infinitum, should combine to make him the bete noire of any freethinking individual. But none of this fazes Hitchens because he doesn't really care about the people of the adopted country he professes to love so well; Bush's crimes don't affect him as he is a member of the media elite who since September 11, 2001 has embraced his inner he-man. For someone who is incessantly preaching about decency, Hitchens seems blissfully unaffected by the more than 20,000 dead and wounded American servicemembers as well as the who knows how many dead Iraqis that have resulted from this misbegotten conflict. Bush has emphatically proven himself to be,if not the worst president in history, to be swimming near the bottom but as long he continues killing Muslims he's aces with Hitch.

Futility Of Impeachment

For at least two years, I have supported the impeachment and removal of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney but, now, as the administration’s second term lurches embarrassingly to its ignominious conclusion, I realize that the implementation and execution of such proceedings would be a waste of time and money. This does not mean I feel any less disdain for them, nor has my acute shame abated for a country that would allow two archvillains to fundamentally alter American doctrines and values as well as to complete the quintet of Opus Deists on the Supreme Court, a consummation that heralds the end of abortion rights and the separation of church and state.

Congress should, and most likely will not, aggressively pursue charges against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who has displayed a contemptible disregard for both law and truth, and a slobbering devotion to an individual that would make Clyde Tolson or a black Labrador blush. As for Bush and Cheney, the best we can hope for-since here as in most countries, high officials are never punished for their crimes- is that they slink off the scene into a richly deserved disgrace.