There is a remarkable inquiry into the death of Dr. David Kelly that is happening in England.

POLITICS HERE AND ABROAD

And there's more. Consider the Hutton inquiry itself. David Kelly killed himself on July 18th, Lord Hutton was chosen to lead an inquiry within days, the inquiry opened on August 1st, and it was taking evidence by August 11th. Hutton is apparently widely respected, has been given a wide remit to conduct the inquiry as he sees fit, and posts all the evidence in the case on the Web daily. All this despite the fact that Tony Blair controls Britain's government even more firmly than George Bush controls America's.

And here's the most surprising thing: my impression from following the testimony is that the inquiry is taken seriously by everybody, no one is refusing to testify, and — to a degree — the witnesses are all telling the truth.

This is really remarkable. In America, there would likely have been no inquiry at all since the minority party couldn't force one. If there were an inquiry, it would take months to get underway and would be headed by a Republican stalwart. The government would cooperate as little as possible. And it would be painfully obvious from the testimony that the witnesses were interested solely in protecting the president and themselves.

In America, the culture of politics has become so debased that we all take it for granted that investigations are little more than political shows and that no one is ever really telling the truth. I'm not suggesting that Britain is a paradise of integrity and public service, but they seem not to have fallen nearly as far down the well of cynicism as we have. I wonder why?
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Here is the Hutton Inquiry website:

The Hutton Inquiry

INVESTIGATION INTO THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE
DEATH OF DR DAVID KELLY

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HUTTON

Terms of Reference:
"...urgently to conduct an investigation into the circumstances
surrounding the death of Dr Kelly."
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It takes a judge to cut through the fudge
Hutton has already shown that Parliament will have to reform the way it investigates future abuses of executive power