credibility matters

i mean that title NOT in the way you first read it.

there's been a horrific shift in the american political landscape which conflates:

celebrity culture *&* infotainment *&* religious discourse

and now people say things (regularly) like:

but, how you know that he (X politician -- fill in the blank) is _a good christian_.

OR

at least you always know _where he stands on things_. He takes one position and always sticks to it.

OR

its our duty to support _men of god_ in their political office.

I understand that in the post-clinton / monica-gate / it depends on the what the meaning of is *is*...

that the idea of a SIMPLE STRAIGHTFORWARD LEADER seems like a good solution to the danger of legalese shiftyness.

but this morning, while reading the news, I bumped into this story about the "godly" John Ashcroft whose minions have been working night and day to carefully parse the meaning of

SEVERE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL SUFFERING -- words which constrain the define the borderland between torture and coercion within the US consititution....

Of course this stuff probably won't get airtime or real play in the mainstream newsmedia -- but the reality is that politics and government and legislative demand an ability to live in the murky realms of grey which define the ugly land of legalese...

why won't the evangelicals pass around excerpts from this memo on email linked up to what a faithful upstanding member of his congregation Ashcroft is?

...

and the problem with voting for George Bush because he's a simple, straighforward fellow is this:

he *is* responsible for all of the specific policy decisions that have been made on his watch by his people.

Cheney's Halliburton fiasco -- is PART of G.W.'s moral character.

Ashcroft's careful legal defense for the untenable torture/coercion at various sites in the U.S. occupation --- IS part of of GW's moral character.

The new US foreign policy of unilateral engagement based on the simple (and wrongheaded) suspicion of WMD -- is part of GW's moral character.

that is -- if moral character is why we vote on presidents or politicians -- I'd much rather vote on their policies and their appointments.