Praising the Boss: Rod Rosenstein's Dilemma

On May 6, the Washington Jewish Week reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, speaking at an Anti-Defamation League event, praised President Donald Trump for “recogniz[ing] last August that no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag and we are all made by the same almighty God.”  The online headline for the article read “Rosenstein praises ‘Lincolnesque’ Trump”, and the print edition headline read “Rosenstein likes boss to Lincoln.”

I posted a comment on the article, which the WJW published as a Letter to the Editor last Thursday. 

The WJW published two letters, actually.   The first, from John Glaser of Alexandria, simply lambasted Rosenstein, fairly asserting that Trump had demonstrated himself to be part of the problem of bigotry, not part of the solution.   The Glaser letter ended saying "Shame on you, Rod Rosenstein."   

My letter took a slightly different approach, pointing out the absurdity of Rosenstein's comparison of Trump to Lincoln, but also noting Rosenstein's difficult situation.  Here is my letter (headline provided by the WJW).

Rosenstein in an enigmatic position 

Unless Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has walled himself off from all of President Donald Trump’s divisive, demagogic rhetoric of the past years, he cannot possibly believe that this president is like Abraham Lincoln, who urged us to follow “the better angels of our nature” (“Rosenstein likens boss to Lincoln,” May 10). On the other hand, Rosenstein’s presence at the Department of Justice is likely the only thing standing between Trump and the firing of special prosecutor Robert Mueller, an action that would hasten our potential slippery slide into fascism.

So Rosenstein must keep Trump at bay. This is an age-old dilemma, which is particularly familiar to those who recall the painful “choices” presented some Jews during the Holocaust: When should people of good will sidle up to propagators of evil in the hope that they may be able to limit the harm?

DAVID S. FISHBACK
Silver Spring [NOTE, the WJW mistakenly listed my home as Silver Spring.  I have not lived there since 1986]

If this is the calculation Rosenstein is making, we will see in the coming months whether he calculated correctly.