Janet Reno

Janet Reno, Bill Clinton's disastrous attorney general, is following in the footsteps of the classless and incompetent Madeleine Albright.

Like Albright, Reno has decided to make a high profile move and openly attack the sitting president.

If God forbid a Dem is elected president in 2008, can you imagine Bush administration officials behaving so badly?

I can't.

From The Washington Post:

Former attorney general Janet Reno has taken the unusual step of openly criticizing the Bush administration's anti-terrorism strategy -- joining seven other former Justice Department officials in warning that the indefinite detention of U.S. terrorism suspects could become commonplace unless the courts intervene.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case of alleged enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the former prosecutors assert that criminal courts are well equipped to prosecute terrorism suspects while guaranteeing the constitutional rights of defendants arrested on U.S. soil.

Reno, reached at her Florida home yesterday, said she would let the brief "speak for itself. I've been following this, and it reflects my concerns about the detention and treatment of people who have been determined to be enemy combatants in a manner that is not clear how it is being done."

In their brief, Reno and the other former Justice Department officials said: "The government is essentially asserting the right to hold putative enemy combatants arrested in the United States indefinitely whenever it decides not to prosecute those people criminally -- perhaps because it would be too difficult to obtain a conviction, perhaps because a motion to suppress evidence would raise embarrassing facts about the government's conduct, or perhaps for other reasons."

The filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is a highly unusual move for Reno. She has generally maintained a low profile since leaving the helm of the Justice Department in 2001 and has said little publicly about the policies of her successors, John D. Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales.

Remember when President George H.W. Bush's attorneys general, Dick Thornburgh and William P. Barr, ripped Reno for her handling of Ruby Ridge and Waco?

Remember how they went on the record and publicly criticized her for making decisions that led to the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians, including 27 children?

No?

That's understandable, because IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Reno's predecessors didn't publicly criticize her, though she certainly deserved to be.

Gonzales defended the administration's detention and surveillance policies in a weekend speech at the Air Force Academy, telling cadets that it is a "myth" that civil liberties have been hampered by anti-terrorism strategies.

Didn't Reno do enough damage to the country will she was attorney general?

Must she come out of hiding to challenge and undermine President Bush in the War on Terror?

I'm sure that officials of past administrations have had serious concerns about the decisions of their successors. I'm sure they've privately questioned the performances of those assuming their positions.

But why have Reno and those of her ilk determined that criticizing the current adminstration so publicly is wise?

Do they really think it's good for our country?

I think it's more likely that they are much more concerned with feeding their egos than doing what's best for the nation.

Reno was a miserable failure as attorney general. She's chosen to be a failure as a former attorney general.

Pathetic.