“The implacable logic of retribution will prove as appalling as the crime itself,” observes the loyal-to-a-fault Macduff in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” “consisting of the soul’s slow agonizing descent.”
That’s why philosophers and preachers have argued against seeking retribution since time immemorial. Judeo-Christian thinkers have tended to advocate instead for mercy and fairness.
Which brings us to Donald Trump’s appalling choice of Matt Gaetz to lead the U.S. Department of Justice.
Trump just won an election in which he did not hide his plans. He is entitled to choose his own team for his nascent administration and we’ve no intention of joining the Democratic handwringing over every appointment before they have had a chance to do anything whatsoever.
Elections do indeed have consequences. It’s fair to say that while hiring Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to run a new “Department of Government Efficiency” might seem like “a joke” to writers at publications like Vox, and may even turn out to be so, there’s no doubt that draining the so-called swamp will please most Trump voters and, therefore, a majority of voting Americans.
But Gaetz as attorney general of the United States? Running what is, inarguably, the most dangerous and powerful part of the executive branch? As nominated a few days ahead of the expected release of a report by the House Ethics Committee into his own conduct involving money, drugs and sex? That cannot hold, and he must not be confirmed.
Gaetz, of course, has claimed that the bipartisan panel had gone after him as a retributive act for his daring to question the Republican leadership in the House. But the truth is that Trump’s choice of this (now former) Florida congressman is the mother of all retributive picks — payback for the Department of Justice under the current administration pursuing Trump’s own crimes and misdemeanors in a way that the president-elect found enraging.
Trump said that his choice was meant to clean up corruption at the DOJ. But the evidence suggests that Gaetz, once confirmed, is far more likely to pursue vengeful acts of his own. After all, the DOJ has been investigating him as well as going after his boss. That’s a two-headed hydra of conflict of interest.
Even if you think, like Trump and Gaetz, that these investigations have been politically motivated, the worst thing a president-elect can do in response is strike back using someone with an axe to grind and no record of moral compunction when it comes to throwing it, once sharpened, at the head of his enemies.
The idea of the DOJ being held in the clutches of revenge served cold is too painful to consider, given how much ordinary Americans need that department to stand for fairness, equality under the law, the rule of law and, yes, where merited, for mercy.
Senate Republicans must nix Gaetz. Otherwise, that slow, agonizing descent is all but assured.
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