Richard Cohen Fulfills the Role of the American Journalist
by Glenn Greenwald
by
Glenn Greenwald
 "Liberal"
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, celebrating the
pardon of indicted former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, December
30, 1992:
Based
on my Safeway encounters, I came to think of Weinberger as a basic
sort of guy, candid and no nonsense – which is the way much
of official Washington saw him,” Cohen wrote. “Cap,
my Safeway buddy, walks, and that’s all right with me.”
"Liberal"
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, condemning the prosecution
of Lewis Libby after he was convicted of multiple felonies, June
19, 2007:
With the
sentencing of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald has
apparently finished his work, which was, not to put too fine a
point on it, to make a mountain out of a molehill. At the urging
of the liberal press (especially the New York Times), he was appointed
to look into a run-of-the-mill leak and wound up prosecuting not
the leaker – Richard Armitage of the State Department –
but Libby, convicted in the end of lying. This is not an entirely
trivial matter since government officials should not lie to grand
juries, but neither should they be called to account for practicing
the dark art of politics. As with sex or real estate, it is
often best to keep the lights off.
"Liberal"
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, arguing against
the prosecution of Bush officials for war crimes, today:
"The
past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."
So goes an aphorism that needs to be applied to the current debate
over whether those who authorized and used torture should be
prosecuted. In the very different country called Sept. 11, 2001,
the answer would be a resounding no.
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