Ways to Be Wicked

I was in Seattle last week, my hardest trip yet. I had a couple 14 hour days which really cut into my free time. I spent the first day and a half after my return mostly sleeping. So I'm back, and I don't want to ignore current events.

First up, our congressional representative here in DeKalb county, Cynthia McKinney. Back in March, in an altercation at the US Capitol, she struck a US Capitol Police officer in the chest with her fist, according to a police report. This story was in the news quite a bit, with analysis by her supporters and her detractors. Based on what I read and heard, it seemed that as a US Representative McKinney has a badge she can wear to avoid going through the metal detector at the Capitol. She wasn't wearing it, went around the metal detector, and when the cop tried to detain her she hit him.

Back when I worked at Warner Lambert the guard post had photos of the top 5 company officers so they could get buzzed in without showing ID. That's OK for a handful of people, but to expect that the police should recognize 535 members of congress without ID is dumb, they ought to expect to show ID and be thankful they don't have to take their shoes off like the rest of us. Last week, a grand jury did not find there was sufficient evidence to charge her with a crime.

Also in Washington DC, our nation's capitol, last week Karl Rove's attorney announced that Rove will not be charged in the investigation of who leaked the identity of a CIA agent to the press. This is a complicated story. I spent about three hours tonight reading about it. What I can say with some certainty is the name of a US secret agent was printed in newspapers and discussed on TV. This person was an intelligence expert on WMDs, and was likely engaged in research on the Iranians then-current WMD capability. The CIA Iranian investigation seems to have been damaged by the publication of the agent's name. The investigation continues as to who did the leaking. A detailed outline of the story is on wikipedia, and an interesting story about the CIA was on Frontline this week.

These seemingly unrelated stories are in fact similar. Both people investigated are high profile Washington insiders. The "facts" of both cases have been endlessly discussed and spun by television and radio commentators who have no idea what really happened. A cynical person might say that they both got off because of their positions. A partisan might be pleased with one decision and horrified by the other. I say, if you believe in our system, the result is irrelevant. The process works. Ignore the man in the white Ford Bronco.