DOJ Website Design Issues

The fact that General Eric Holder took the stars and stripes off of the United States Department of Justice's web site irritates me, but is not, in and of itself, a reason to replace him as Attorney General. I am not even particularly mad at him for highlighting a quote that, for some, implies his affinity for the union movement. I certainly don't have any problem with the quote itself: "The common law derives from the will of mankind, issuing from the life of the people, framed by mutual confidence, and sanctioned by the light of reason." As I understand it, no one is really sure who first said it, but it has been used by a lot of good people over the years and I believe is chiseled into the facade of the Justice Building.

There is an email campaign underway to bring these transgressions to the attention of those who are expected to vote in 2012. I wish that same amount of effort would be focused on the very real problems that are far, far more important then the top of a web site page. There is no question that Mr. Holder is well left of the political center. There is no question that he should be removed from office in 2012, but the top of his website is not high up in the list of reasons. This kind of thing may be red meat for the hard right, but it is not what conservatives should be focused on. All this sort of quibbling does is to stimulate liberal pundits to find something dumb that a conservative has done recently. There then follows a schoolyard full of name calling, but little or no real thought.

Mr. Obama's administration is in the process of ruining America. He is engaged in a lot of really unintelligent policies, but the principal problem that faces this country is that we are actually, perhaps irreparably, going broke. We have daunting national problems that we have never faced before and some others that we have refused to face. We must find a way to compromise, repeat compromise, our way through these next few budget cycles so that we can continue to enjoy a strong America. Yelling at each other about web site design is distracting, but not useful. After we have the budget under control I am willing to debate things like the top of DOJ's website pages, but even then I would suggest that there are a couple of other subjects that might take precedence.

People, this situation is serious. We need to stay focused.