FrankRep
06-04-2008, 08:10 PM
McCain Staffer Supports Dictatorship
The John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
June 4, 2008
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
Salon's Glenn Greenwald has reported that Michael Goldfarb, a Weekly Standard staff member, has been named Deputy Communications Director of John McCain’s campaign. Goldfarb believes, or so he says, that a president of the United States has near dictatorial powers.
Follow this link to the original source: "Newest McCain official: President has "near dictatorial powers" (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/02/goldfarb/index.html)"
COMMENTARY:
On October 18, 2007, Michael Goldfarb wrote in a blog on The Weekly Standard online edition that all major American companies, particularly telecoms, should cooperate with the federal government if government officials show up at their doorstep demanding "assistance" with warrantless wiretapping even if those telecoms were being asked to break the law, in complete defiance of the Constitution:
If federal agents show up at a corporate headquarters for a major American company and urgently seek that company’s officers for assistance in the war on terror, the companies damn well ought to give it as a matter of simple patriotism, whether the CIA wants a plane for some extraordinary rendition or help in tracking terrorists via email.
Goldfarb views this as an "act of faith," and true patriotism, or so he says. He’s really priming the pump, in anticipation of a true dictatorship by forming public opinion.
Previously, on October 4, 2007, Goldfarb registered his opinion on torture, saying:
The Tmes indicts the Bush administration for exposing terrorists captured abroad to “head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.” Boo hoo.
Since torture sits well with him, it should not surprise that his views of executive power in general are just a bit more expansive than what the Founding Fathers intended. How much more expansive? Goldfarb detailed his views after qouting former Senator George Mitchell’s views on withdrawing the troops from Iraq:
Mitchell: “Congress is a coequal branch of government…the framers did not want to have one branch in charge of the government.”
True enough, but they sought an energetic executive with near dictatorial power in pursuing foreign policy and war. So no, the Constitution does not put Congress on an equal footing with the executive in matters of national security.
Greenwald’s assessment and response to that is spot on:
Until the Bill Kristols and John Yoos and other authoritarians of that strain entered the political mainstream, I never heard of prominent Americans who describe the power that they want to vest in our political leaders as "near dictatorial." Anyone with an even passing belief in American political values would consider the world “dictatorial” — at least rhetorically, if not substantively — to define that which we avoid at all costs, not something which we seek, embrace and celebrate.
Greenwald goes on to say that The Weekly Standard is one of the most "deceptive propaganda organs of the Bush years." He’s completely right to be thoroughly disgusted and alarmed at the thought of Michael Goldfarb being named to a high-level position on Republican candidate John McCain’s staff.
McCain is no moderate. He is an insider, waiting for his turn at the helm in what would be a continuation of the Bush administration’s policies, and worse — and Glenn Greenwald knows it.
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/node/8276
The John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
June 4, 2008
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
Salon's Glenn Greenwald has reported that Michael Goldfarb, a Weekly Standard staff member, has been named Deputy Communications Director of John McCain’s campaign. Goldfarb believes, or so he says, that a president of the United States has near dictatorial powers.
Follow this link to the original source: "Newest McCain official: President has "near dictatorial powers" (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/02/goldfarb/index.html)"
COMMENTARY:
On October 18, 2007, Michael Goldfarb wrote in a blog on The Weekly Standard online edition that all major American companies, particularly telecoms, should cooperate with the federal government if government officials show up at their doorstep demanding "assistance" with warrantless wiretapping even if those telecoms were being asked to break the law, in complete defiance of the Constitution:
If federal agents show up at a corporate headquarters for a major American company and urgently seek that company’s officers for assistance in the war on terror, the companies damn well ought to give it as a matter of simple patriotism, whether the CIA wants a plane for some extraordinary rendition or help in tracking terrorists via email.
Goldfarb views this as an "act of faith," and true patriotism, or so he says. He’s really priming the pump, in anticipation of a true dictatorship by forming public opinion.
Previously, on October 4, 2007, Goldfarb registered his opinion on torture, saying:
The Tmes indicts the Bush administration for exposing terrorists captured abroad to “head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.” Boo hoo.
Since torture sits well with him, it should not surprise that his views of executive power in general are just a bit more expansive than what the Founding Fathers intended. How much more expansive? Goldfarb detailed his views after qouting former Senator George Mitchell’s views on withdrawing the troops from Iraq:
Mitchell: “Congress is a coequal branch of government…the framers did not want to have one branch in charge of the government.”
True enough, but they sought an energetic executive with near dictatorial power in pursuing foreign policy and war. So no, the Constitution does not put Congress on an equal footing with the executive in matters of national security.
Greenwald’s assessment and response to that is spot on:
Until the Bill Kristols and John Yoos and other authoritarians of that strain entered the political mainstream, I never heard of prominent Americans who describe the power that they want to vest in our political leaders as "near dictatorial." Anyone with an even passing belief in American political values would consider the world “dictatorial” — at least rhetorically, if not substantively — to define that which we avoid at all costs, not something which we seek, embrace and celebrate.
Greenwald goes on to say that The Weekly Standard is one of the most "deceptive propaganda organs of the Bush years." He’s completely right to be thoroughly disgusted and alarmed at the thought of Michael Goldfarb being named to a high-level position on Republican candidate John McCain’s staff.
McCain is no moderate. He is an insider, waiting for his turn at the helm in what would be a continuation of the Bush administration’s policies, and worse — and Glenn Greenwald knows it.
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/node/8276