Dodd keeps focus on what matters

6/29/08

Let’s get this out of the way first: Sen. Christopher J. Dodd should have known better about his sweetheart mortgage deals. People are up in arms about it, and for good reason. It’s not just impropriety; it’s the appearance of impropriety that causes problems.

So, to paraphrase Chris “Mad Dog” Russo: Bad job, senator. Bad job.

Having said that, I don’t much care. I can’t imagine Dodd would take a risk on sacrificing his career over a break on his mortgage. It’s probably hopelessly partisan, but I don’t think it’s an issue worth dwelling on.

What does matter, and is worth dwelling on, is that Dodd gave a speech last week on the floor of the Senate that summed up better than anything else all the frustration, anger and outrage of living in George Bush’s America. From Iraq to torture to wiretapping and everything in between, Dodd brought together in one place what people have been feeling who can’t believe what has happened to their country.

The issue in question concerned a bill that modernizes the nation’s surveillance laws. It makes some changes that no one contests. What it also does is throw out lawsuits of people who say phone companies helped the government illegally spy on them.

Now, the way this normally works is a judge rules on whether the suit can proceed, and then a court decides for one party or the other. This legislation, though, would pre-empt that process. Instead, it would say that no matter what these companies did, they cannot be held responsible. Even if they knowingly broke the law, it doesn’t matter.

Of course, the Constitution says something about preventing illegal searches, and by all accounts, what the phone companies did was illegal. The government told them to break the law, they did and now Congress wants to say it’s OK.

Well, it’s not OK. But it’s also the way things are done here these days.

We are supposed to be, if nothing else, a nation of laws. We certainly preach about the rule of law to the rest of the world often enough. But what this bill is saying is that the law doesn’t matter; what we say matters — “we” being the government.

But if the rule of law means anything, it has to matter every time. It has to apply to everyone, people and corporations, equally. If people or companies can break the law and get away with it because the government says so, then we don’t live in the country we think we do.

Dodd took it a step further. “Retroactive immunity is on the table today; but also at issue is the entire ideology that justifies it, the same ideology that defends torture and executive lawlessness. Immunity is a disgrace in itself, but it is far worse in what it represents.”

It’s how we ended up in a war with no coherent rationale; with administration lawyers explaining away torture and secret prisons.

Dodd continued, listing the administration’s many sins: “We are deceiving ourselves when we talk about the U.S. attorneys issue, the habeas issue, the torture issue, the rendition issue, or the secrecy issue, as if each were an isolated case. As if each one were an accident. …

“There is only one issue here. Only one: the law issue.”

Today, we have a president and an executive branch who do not feel bound by the rule of law. Anyone who thinks a presidential election is going to be enough to wash that away will be disappointed.

Dodd will never be president, but we’re lucky to have him in the Senate. Someone has to say these things. Someone has to make clear to the world, and to history, that we know how far our country has sunk.

Hugh S. Bailey is assistant editorial page editor of the Connecticut Post. You can reach him at 203-330-6233 or by e-mail at hbailey@ctpost.com.