The late, great George Carlin had a brilliant routine about religion and prayer. He told us that instead of looking to God to get his wishes fulfilled, he prayed to Joe Pesci:
He looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn’t f*ck around. In fact, Joe Pesci came through on a couple of things that God was having trouble with.
For years I asked God to do something about my noisy neighbor with the barking dog, Joe Pesci straightened that c*cksucker out with one visit. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a simple baseball bat.
After four years of a corrupt Department of Justice under the Orange Mango, many Americans were excited that “justice” might finally be restored to such a vital institution through Joe Biden’s pick for Attorney General. It is becoming clearer by the day, however, that Biden’s pick was not, and is not, the right man for the job. Instead of giving us a fearless lawman who would bring the traitorous Trump and his criminal cabal to justice, he gave us the mild-mannered Merrick Garland.
As Jennifer Rubin observed in a Washington Post opinion piece back on June 23, “It seems Garland is not the right person for his job, which requires determination to clean house and reestablish the highest standards for the department. That requires the ability to absorb political attacks from those who object to his mission to root out misbehavior. If he cannot explain to critics that a thorough investigation is not partisan, but an essential part of reasserting legal norms, he is not up to the challenge before him.”
Yesterday, a nonpartisan nonprofit called on the Attorney General to resign over his apparent failure to “hold accountable former president Donald Trump and his co-conspirators for attempting to overthrow the government,” suggesting, like Rubin, that the Biden appointee is “the wrong person for this job at this time.”
The group, Free Speech For People (FSFP) wrote, “If Garland had created a framework for credible, impartial criminal investigations of a former president of the United States, DOJ would have affirmed that no one—not even a former president—is above the law,”
The odds of Garland resigning, however, are greater than my getting consecutive holes-in-one during my next round of golf!
It is understandable why Biden would choose the man who was cheated out of a seat on the Supreme Court by Moscow Mitch. Perhaps, at a different time, righting such a wrong by making Garland the next Attorney General would not have been so consequential for our democracy.
Many believe Merrick Garland would have made a great Supreme Court justice, the job he was actually groomed for. But being a judge, and an attorney general, require two different skill sets. As James D. Zirin wrote in The Hill, “Unlike a judge, who must be independent, the attorney general under our system is a party to a controversy but he is no ordinary partisan. His duty is to the public, not to convict the guilty but to see that justice is done.”
It looks as if the country is left with an otherwise decent man who is afraid to do the right thing because, god forbid, it might appear too political.
If only the Attorney General would heed the words of Rep. Mo Brooks on the day of the insurrection and start “taking down names and kicking ass” … ala Joe Pesci!
Photo |post-gazette.com/Drew Angerer-AP
In a just world … one without a broken political system … this man would be sitting on the Supreme Court and distinguishing himself as a great jurist.
Thank you Mitch McConnell and the weak Democrats who couldn’t find a way to out-fox Moscow Mitch!
I too wouldn’t mind seeing Merrick Garland on the U.S. Supreme Court.
But I do think, in some ways, he’s similar to Joe Biden in that he tries to work with those who have different views. It’s entirely possible that if Biden had tried to get a “Joe Pesci” in the position of District Attorney, that person would never have been confirmed and, if confirmed, would have actually heightened the vitriol of the Radical Right. It’s much harder to get your group heated when the one you’re going after is not looking for a fight.
Frankly, I think that’s one of the best things about Biden getting elected president. As he’s spent decades “working across the aisle,” it makes him a harder target for religious fanatics. (And yes, I do mean religious fanatics. Thinking the 2020 election was faked in spite of both Republican and Democratic leaders verifying it; QAnon; and expecting the late John F. Kennedy Jr. to come back from the dead and become Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024 aren’t politics, they’re religion.)
No, we did not need a “Joe Pesci” but we certainly didn’t need a Mister Rogers! If traitors and lawbreakers are allowed to walk around without consequence, our democracy, Constitution, the rule of law, are toast.
I would remind the author that Joe Pesci never played particularly intelligent characters.