Daily Show Argument Exposes Obama as Bush Lite

A Justice Department lawyer argued in court yesterday—with a straight face—that releasing statements Dick Cheney made during the Valerie Plame investigation could cause future administration officials to hold back out of fear their statements would “get on The Daily Show.” The judge overseeing the hearing seemed skeptical, and had nothing on Dan Froomkin, who writes in the Washington Post, “This is not just wrong, it’s perversely wrong.”

The Obama Justice Department has picked up where its predecessor left off—right down to using an opinion by torture-memo author Stephen Bradbury, “the utterly discredited head of the Office of Legal Counsel” under President Bush, Froomkin fumes. He explains: “Why all this still matters is that it’s long been clear that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was hot on Cheney’s trail until he was obstructed by a pack of lies from former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby.” (More Justice Department stories.)