Bill Barr's Resignation Letter Perfectly Reflects His Entire Career
Twice, William Barr has been Attorney General of the United States. And twice he has proven to be a willing footman for political deceit and political corruption.
"Some men walk with giants. William Barr walked behind giants. With a shovel."
By Charles P. Pierce
Dec 15, 2020
washington, dc august 04 attorney general william barr listens during an event to highlight the department of justice grants to combat human trafficking, in the indian treaty room of the eisenhower executive office building on august 4, 2020 in washington, dc the trump administration is issuing more than 35 million in grants to provide safe housing to survivors of human trafficking photo by drew angerergetty imagesDREW ANGERERGETTY IMAGES
Twice, I have seen William Pelham Barr ascend to the office of Attorney General of the United States. That is two times too many for one lifetime. Twice now, as of Monday evening, I have seen William Pelham Barr leave the office of Attorney General of the United States. In many ways, that's been worse.
Not that it's not good that he's gone, it's just that his leaving always seems to bring with it a carload of questionable decisions. Barr has certainly served his purpose, which was to run interference for a president* and an administration* that most closely resembled Bonnie and 50 Clydes. He defanged the Mueller report in public. He is the reason that Michael Flynn is free to incite sedition from a podium, and not meatloaf in a prison lunchroom.
And nothing quite became the job he did like the letter he wrote leaving it. It is written in what appears to be the closest thing this republic has for Courtier Speak. It is by turns insufferably self-important and cloyingly obsequious. I mean, Christamighty, even Machiavelli was against flattery of this truckling sort. Hamlet calls it "the candied tongue."
I am greatly honoured that you called on me to serve your administration and the American people once again as Attorney General. I am proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people. Your 2016 victory speech in which you reached out to your opponents and called for working together for the benefit of the American people was immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds.
The nadir of this campaign was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia.
In this letter, Barr makes Polonius look like Clint Eastwood. And I especially enjoy the Pip-Pip-Old-Bean, Windsor-Court spelling of "honored." There's majesty in that extra "U," I tell you.
It appears that the president* soured on Barr because Barr gently refused to follow the president* into the president*'s stalactite-riddled mind on the subject of the election that the president* lost, and that there was some dissatisfaction that Barr had not yet punched Hunter Biden's ticket to Leavenworth.
Unfortunately, this may tempt weaker souls to imagine, even for the briefest moment, that Barr left the administration* having felt a twinge in his largely vestigial political conscience. More likely, the president* told him to resign—and, perhaps, to write the president* a fawning farewell mash note on his way to the sidewalk. Twice, Bill Barr has been Attorney General of the United States. And twice he has proven to be a willing footman for political deceit and political corruption. It is quite a remarkable streak.
pres bush r listening to dep atty gen william barr at wh portico ceremony announcing dep's nomination to succeed atty gen thornburgh photo by dirck halsteadthe life images collection via getty imagesgetty images
Bill Barr has been doing this a long time.
DIRCK HALSTEADGETTY IMAGES
Return with us then to the heady summer days of 1992. President George H.W. Bush was still riding high from his victory in the First Gulf War and the only thing between Bush and a second term was this smiling governor from Bugtussle who had been one of the few Democrats with the stones to run against President 80-Percent Approval.
Unfortunately for Bush, we were just far enough along after the victory that folks were beginning to sniff around how Saddam Hussein had built up the military that we had seen fit to kick out of Kuwait. Gradually, it was revealed that the departed Reagan administration probably had helped in that endeavor a very great deal.
The Commerce Department, for example, may have approved high-tech equipment that it knew the Iraqis could use in high-tech weapons. Most notably, it appeared that the administration also had a) approved the sale of agricultural credits to Iraq even though it knew Hussein was using the money to buy weapons, and b) interfered with an investigation into the business practices of the bank through which Iraq had received the loans and credits.
The whole matter even had become a "-gate." Iraqgate. The Democrats in the House of Representatives pleaded with Barr to appoint an independent counsel. Barr refused, claiming that the Democrats didn't have sufficient evidence to support their case and, most spectacularly, that he didn't want "the criminal process to be used as a political weapon." The scandal petered out over the next four years, finally ending during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
A little more than a year later, Barr delivered his piece de resistance. Bill Clinton had defeated George H.W. Bush in the election that fall. At the same time, Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor who had been running into stone walls for years trying to chase down the Iran-Contra scandal, finally caught a break. He got his hands on documents that not only implicated Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in the Iran-Contra machinations and cover-up, but also seemed to point the way to a serious examination of Bush's role as well.
Weinberger was due to go on trial on January 5, 1993, and god alone knew what he might say to save himself from prosecution. For advice, Bush, now a lame duck, called in Attorney General Barr. In December of 1992, Barr gave an interview to USA Today, the tone of which may very well sound familiar to us today.
“People in the Iran-Contra affair have been treated very unfairly. People in this Iran-Contra matter have been prosecuted for the kind of conduct that would not have been considered criminal or prosecutable by the Justice Department.”
On Christmas Eve, on advice from Barr, Bush pardoned six men involved in the Iran-Contra crimes. Four of them already had been convicted. One of the others was Weinberger, who had not yet gone on trial, and who now never would.
Special counsel Walsh went into orbit, but there was nothing he could do. Bush's pardon power was absolute, even in the case of the preemptive pardon of Weinberger, over whom Walsh no longer had any leverage.
It was the final act in the Iran-Contra cover-up, and William Barr left the office of Attorney General for the first time with those pardons hanging over his head. So now he's gone again, like a crow leaving the Capitol. Some men walk with giants. William Barr walked behind giants. With a shovel.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politic...nl22388003
Twice, William Barr has been Attorney General of the United States. And twice he has proven to be a willing footman for political deceit and political corruption.
"Some men walk with giants. William Barr walked behind giants. With a shovel."
By Charles P. Pierce
Dec 15, 2020
washington, dc august 04 attorney general william barr listens during an event to highlight the department of justice grants to combat human trafficking, in the indian treaty room of the eisenhower executive office building on august 4, 2020 in washington, dc the trump administration is issuing more than 35 million in grants to provide safe housing to survivors of human trafficking photo by drew angerergetty imagesDREW ANGERERGETTY IMAGES
Twice, I have seen William Pelham Barr ascend to the office of Attorney General of the United States. That is two times too many for one lifetime. Twice now, as of Monday evening, I have seen William Pelham Barr leave the office of Attorney General of the United States. In many ways, that's been worse.
Not that it's not good that he's gone, it's just that his leaving always seems to bring with it a carload of questionable decisions. Barr has certainly served his purpose, which was to run interference for a president* and an administration* that most closely resembled Bonnie and 50 Clydes. He defanged the Mueller report in public. He is the reason that Michael Flynn is free to incite sedition from a podium, and not meatloaf in a prison lunchroom.
And nothing quite became the job he did like the letter he wrote leaving it. It is written in what appears to be the closest thing this republic has for Courtier Speak. It is by turns insufferably self-important and cloyingly obsequious. I mean, Christamighty, even Machiavelli was against flattery of this truckling sort. Hamlet calls it "the candied tongue."
I am greatly honoured that you called on me to serve your administration and the American people once again as Attorney General. I am proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people. Your 2016 victory speech in which you reached out to your opponents and called for working together for the benefit of the American people was immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds.
The nadir of this campaign was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia.
In this letter, Barr makes Polonius look like Clint Eastwood. And I especially enjoy the Pip-Pip-Old-Bean, Windsor-Court spelling of "honored." There's majesty in that extra "U," I tell you.
It appears that the president* soured on Barr because Barr gently refused to follow the president* into the president*'s stalactite-riddled mind on the subject of the election that the president* lost, and that there was some dissatisfaction that Barr had not yet punched Hunter Biden's ticket to Leavenworth.
Unfortunately, this may tempt weaker souls to imagine, even for the briefest moment, that Barr left the administration* having felt a twinge in his largely vestigial political conscience. More likely, the president* told him to resign—and, perhaps, to write the president* a fawning farewell mash note on his way to the sidewalk. Twice, Bill Barr has been Attorney General of the United States. And twice he has proven to be a willing footman for political deceit and political corruption. It is quite a remarkable streak.
pres bush r listening to dep atty gen william barr at wh portico ceremony announcing dep's nomination to succeed atty gen thornburgh photo by dirck halsteadthe life images collection via getty imagesgetty images
Bill Barr has been doing this a long time.
DIRCK HALSTEADGETTY IMAGES
Return with us then to the heady summer days of 1992. President George H.W. Bush was still riding high from his victory in the First Gulf War and the only thing between Bush and a second term was this smiling governor from Bugtussle who had been one of the few Democrats with the stones to run against President 80-Percent Approval.
Unfortunately for Bush, we were just far enough along after the victory that folks were beginning to sniff around how Saddam Hussein had built up the military that we had seen fit to kick out of Kuwait. Gradually, it was revealed that the departed Reagan administration probably had helped in that endeavor a very great deal.
The Commerce Department, for example, may have approved high-tech equipment that it knew the Iraqis could use in high-tech weapons. Most notably, it appeared that the administration also had a) approved the sale of agricultural credits to Iraq even though it knew Hussein was using the money to buy weapons, and b) interfered with an investigation into the business practices of the bank through which Iraq had received the loans and credits.
The whole matter even had become a "-gate." Iraqgate. The Democrats in the House of Representatives pleaded with Barr to appoint an independent counsel. Barr refused, claiming that the Democrats didn't have sufficient evidence to support their case and, most spectacularly, that he didn't want "the criminal process to be used as a political weapon." The scandal petered out over the next four years, finally ending during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
A little more than a year later, Barr delivered his piece de resistance. Bill Clinton had defeated George H.W. Bush in the election that fall. At the same time, Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor who had been running into stone walls for years trying to chase down the Iran-Contra scandal, finally caught a break. He got his hands on documents that not only implicated Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in the Iran-Contra machinations and cover-up, but also seemed to point the way to a serious examination of Bush's role as well.
Weinberger was due to go on trial on January 5, 1993, and god alone knew what he might say to save himself from prosecution. For advice, Bush, now a lame duck, called in Attorney General Barr. In December of 1992, Barr gave an interview to USA Today, the tone of which may very well sound familiar to us today.
“People in the Iran-Contra affair have been treated very unfairly. People in this Iran-Contra matter have been prosecuted for the kind of conduct that would not have been considered criminal or prosecutable by the Justice Department.”
On Christmas Eve, on advice from Barr, Bush pardoned six men involved in the Iran-Contra crimes. Four of them already had been convicted. One of the others was Weinberger, who had not yet gone on trial, and who now never would.
Special counsel Walsh went into orbit, but there was nothing he could do. Bush's pardon power was absolute, even in the case of the preemptive pardon of Weinberger, over whom Walsh no longer had any leverage.
It was the final act in the Iran-Contra cover-up, and William Barr left the office of Attorney General for the first time with those pardons hanging over his head. So now he's gone again, like a crow leaving the Capitol. Some men walk with giants. William Barr walked behind giants. With a shovel.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politic...nl22388003
1
