AAARGH!!!

(Via Atrios)

First, a little background on Lanny Davis:

Mr. Davis, a partner in Orrick's Washington, D.C. office, is a member of the Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Davis advises clients on a wide range of legal and governmental issues. He concentrates his practice in civil litigation, with particular focus on securities fraud and accounting irregularities cases, antitrust, government contracts and commercial litigation, and legal crisis management and strategic communications. In June 2005, President Bush appointed Mr. Davis to serve on the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, created by the U.S. Congress as part of the 2005 Intelligence Reform Act.

Mr. Davis came to Washington, D.C. in 1970 after graduating from Yale Law School where he won the prestigious Thurmon Arnold Moot Court prize and served on the Yale Law Journal. A graduate of Yale College, Mr. Davis served as Chairman of the Yale Daily News. Mr. Davis started as an associate at Patton Boggs in 1975 and became a partner in 1978.

Mr. Davis has participated in national, state and local politics for almost 30 years. He has served three terms (1980-1992) on the Democratic National Committee representing the State of Maryland, and during that period he served on the DNC Executive Committee and as Chairman of the Eastern Region Caucus. In Montgomery County, Maryland, he served as Chairman of the Washington Suburban Transit Commission.

From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Davis served as Special Counsel to the President in the White House and was spokesperson for the President on matters concerning the campaign finance investigations and other legal issues.

We can see from the above that Davis is a big-time Democratic Beltway Boy. Now, let's go to the Washington Monthly:

Lanny Davis, who served as White House counsel to President Clinton, went even further, arguing that any use of Congressional investigations that's not directly focused on solving the public's problems will backfire on Democrats. “I could come up with a hundred investigations, and 90 percent of the American public would say: 'Can you please do something about our public school system?' And: 'Would you please tell me why we're not energy-independent enough?' And: 'Would you please get us out of Iraq and make us safe from terrorism?'” he told me. “I don't care about digging up whether Bush lied or not, or whether they manipulated evidence or not. That's just playing gotcha.”


First of all, there's no reason an impeachment inquiry means work will halt on these other issues. Second, to callously dismiss an inquiry into serious charges as a mere "gotcha" is to neglect the "Rule of Law". Third, pretending to backoff from being serious about looking into these allegations will just give the Noise Machine ammo to accuse Democrats of being disingenuous, as Shammity is already doing this afternoon.