How Can We Frame the DOJ Scandal?

One frame that I have fought against is the "incompetence" frame. It's very easy to cast the White House, especially Bush himself, as being incompetent, meaning not really to blame for all that has happened.

Saying that these emails are lost is just another instance of "Oops, I did it again" and the American public continues to think of Bush as a bumbling yet benevolent guy.

Saying that they were deleted or erased is more accurate, and frames the event as being a coverup, that they have something to hide.

I find the whole firing of the Federal attorneys/prosecutors very difficult to frame in a positive way. I prefer approaches that take pro positions on positive programs, but how can this be done when the crimes are egregious and the cover up so blatant?

First, we find that the Federal prosecutors were fired, and still other were pressured into resigning, but no one remembers why. E-mails that discuss the matter have been deleted. When Gonzalez is brought before the congressional hearing, he can remember nothing about the firing of the attorneys or the meetings he attended that discussed the firings.

Second, we discover that some of the Federal Prosecutors may have been fired for not investigating and prosecuting voter fraud according to Gonzalez's instructions. It seems the Bush administration was convinced that democrats and undocumented workers have been involved in widespread voter fraud. While in fact they investigated voter fraud, they did not find the widespread conspiracy that the Bush administration wanted them to find. The exception was a few felons had voted that did not realize they no longer had the right to vote. The hidden agenda here was to prove that voter fraud, specifically by undocumented workers, was widespread so that it would be easier to pass laws requiring proof of citizenship at the polls in order to vote.

I also remember that a bi-partisan congressional committee commissioned a study on voter fraud. When the report was finished it was turned over to committee that now had a Republican majority. When it was discovered that the study concluded that there were no widespread conspiracies to commit voter fraud, it was edited it to report what they wanted it to find - and guess what that was?

Third, it is revealed that some of the fired prosecutors did not follow Gonzalez's instructions to either 1) drop ongoing corruption investigations of Republicans in tight races until after the elections, or 2) investigate Democrats (with no probable cause)in tight races before the elections.

And finally, we hear that the fired federal prosecutors were replaced by intimates of the Bush administration in a process that runs counter to civil service policies.

How can this be framed except as a betrayal of fairness, blatant corruption, and an ongoing refusal to believe professional studies based on partisan politics?

The best way I can think to frame this is that Responsible Government means Fairness for all Americans, and the Bush administration has not played fair, so it is irresponsible.



 

All excellent points Emily and I actually was not aware of some of that information so thank you for educating me. The reason why I suggest we figure out some of these frames is so that we can better connect with the public and inform them on this issue in ways that the media simply does and will not. People need to see how this administration, along with many other conservatives, is putting politics and profits before people.

Most Americans are not as well informed as you are and are constantly fed conservative frames and misinformation through the media. We need to take control of this situation legally and politically and we need to use strong and insightful language to help us do both.