Heard that before? Just ask Madonna. In Esther 5:16, Esther says as much to Mordecai as she promises to risk her life to save her people.

Came out okay for Esther, by the way.

[Nobody] accused, say, Govs. Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas or Janet Napolitano of Arizona of “abandoning their posts” when they resigned to take cabinet jobs in the Obama administration. Nobody accused Rahm Emanuel of dissing his Chicagoland voters when he quit Congress weeks after winning reelection in November to become White House chief of staff. That these elected officials took other jobs in public service is meaningless; they all ran for full terms and decided that they wanted to do something else, so they went ahead and did something else. That’s fine, and so is Palin quitting for whatever reason she chose to quit. Being elected is not a prison sentence; just ask Barack Obama, who didn’t let his promise to Illinois voters that he would serve out a full term impede him from running for office; same with Hillary Clinton, for that matter.

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Is Trig really Tina Fey’s child?

I actually quite appreciated most of what was said at the New Nixon blog. New Nixon blogger Jack Pitney made several useful corrections in particular I was able to incorporate into six subsequent printings.

As it turns out, the record isn’t so clear. Ben Smith has now unearthed evidence of British torture centers that was obviously beyond the reach of the resources of “The Daily Dish” and the Executive Office of the President, elusive evidence buried deep within the web site of the British Guardian, damning evidence available only to those who Google with exactly the right search words.

Sullivan now says that if it really happened and Churchill knew about it, then he’s a war criminal, too.

Interestingly, if you capture the link to Sullivan’s new entry, it says, “the-british-tortured,” perhaps the draft headline for the entry. Someone changed the final “Dish” headline to “Three Mansions In London,” which sounds like the title of a Moody Blues song. I thought that on this subject, we didn’t like weasel words.

MK:

You provide fascinating insights on the iron law of political change and retribution via a glimpse at the Bush team’s changing perspectives on NARA now that they are out of office. Sauce for the gander indeed! And yet I wonder how much effect it would have on the torture debates if VP Cheney had accomplished the attitude adjustment you recommend. Here your observation about the delayed gratification of RFK’s ‘68 supporters may come in. Along with all that idealism, passion, and inspiration also seems to have come plenty of anger. I’m not sure President Obama, having confidently proclaimed the ’60s culture wars over, was ready for it.

On leaving office, GWB obviously decided to play it old school, letting his successor have his 100 days and assuming, no doubt, that Obama would give him the same cover that RN gave LBJ by not overtly scapegoating him. The preponderance of Obama’s public comments makes clear that this is where his heart is. But with the left (significantly abetted by the world’s most influential blogger, Andrew Sullivan) defying him and demanding torture prosecutions, I think Cheney heard the rumble of footsteps heading for the Bastille and decided that he was not about to sit meekly and wait for the knock on the palace door.

Have his sometimes aggressive-sounding interviews encouraged his critics? Maybe just a little. And yet by the same token, by essentially saying, “You want a piece of me?”, he’s rallied both the right and the pragmatic middle (including people such as I, not that anyone’s listening) and thus increased the political danger to Obama if he permits a witch hunt. Right now I hear official Washington — government and media elites alike — concurring 1) we need to get to the bottom of torture but 2) without legally scapegoating individuals in the prior administration, which would tear the country apart.

The link below is to works by some authorities on scapegoating from a theological perspective. I’m not sure yet how it fits in with all this, but since I’ve just been reminded of them by a mention in “The Christian Century,” I thought I’d stir it in. Richard Nixon ended up being a perfect scapegoat for Vietnam. In a way, his resignation helped us avoid ever having to come to terms with the war. My guess is that Cheney has decided he doesn’t want to go gently into the San Clemente sunset.

http://www.justpeace.org/justpeacebooks.htm#Rene%20Girard%20and%20Gill%20Bailie