Discovery

Glenn Greenwald, reminiscing about his days as a litigator, tells us that the discovery phase was the part he liked best and he (don't we all?) looks forward to the time when the clear light of day may shine into the dark recesses of BushCo's record and their wrong-doing might be exposed for even the 39% to see. I feel like Donny Ray's mother in John Grisham's Rainmaker when she answers the question: what do you want to get out of the verdict? Her answer is something to the effect that it's not the money. Money won't bring Donny Ray back (nor will impeachment bring any dead innocents back to life). She wants the insurance company to be exposed as being wrong. Public shaming, powerful stuff.

... the discovery process almost always uncovers critical, hidden facts that reveal what really happened, and it is virtually always the case that there are documents or testimony even more incriminating than can be predicted. People resist, and lie under oath, and try to conceal things even in the face of disclosure obligations, but compelled disclosure has a way -- sometimes slowly and incrementally, but inexorably -- of uncovering the truth and exposing wrongdoing.

In my view, more than anything else, this will be the value of a Democratic takeover of at least one of the houses of Congress. As much wrongdoing as we have learned about on the part of Bush administration already, it is almost certainly the case that there is much, much more that we don't know about, but ought to.

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It is difficult to overstate how crucial that is for exposing what the Republican Party has become and undermining those who control it. The administration has been able to ward off even the most incriminating accusations and disclosures because they control the primary sources of information. They can deny anything, selectively release misleading exculpatory information, and operate in the darkest shadows and behind the highest walls of secrecy. As a result, disclosures about what they have done are always piecemeal and easily obscured. But full-fledged hearings will shine a bright light on what the administration has really been doing, and that will enable the public to get a full picture of the true state of affairs.

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They [BushCo] know that their conduct cannot withstand the scrutiny of truth-finding processes and that is why the stakes in this election are so high for them. Nobody thinks that a Democratic takeover of Congress is going to result in fundamental legislative changes or policy over the next two years, but what it will do is enable Americans to learn the truth about what the administration and its allies have really been doing for five years, and that will have a far greater and more constructive impact than any single policy change or bill.