The Beltway exception to the rule of law

Glenn Greenwald posts a very good essay here on how the Beltway culture is trashing the rule of law – from poor, sad Scooter Libby and that mean old Republican prosecutor and that nasty, draconian, unfair Republican judge, to the absurd demand that the telcos be made retroactively immune to any lawsuit for violating eavesdropping law, even though neither the telcos nor the administration will tell Congress what it is they did that they should receive immunity for. And now we find out it began not after 9-11, as has been represented, but within weeks after the inauguration. (Now why am I suspicious that it was Cheney’s office driving this? Just paranoid, I guess.)

Greenwald’s big point is that it’s the willingness of the government to abide by the same rule of law that applies to everyone else that distinguishes an advanced society from a third world country – and that under Bush and Cheney, we have been rapidly moving towards the latter with cheerleading from the Beltway chattering class.