Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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July 25, 2007 1:10 PM
The Hypocrisy Of The 6 House Judiciary Members Who Voted To Impeach President Clinton In 1998, But Today Refused To Issue Contempt Citations Against Bush Administration Officials...
Today, by a 22-17 party-line vote, the House Judiciary Committee issued contempt of Congress citations against White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and President Bush's former legal counsel, Harriet Miers. The committee sanctioned the pair for their refusal to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several U.S. prosecutors, as they simply refused to show-up when ordered. The matter is now sent to the full House which will consider the possibility of fines and prison sentences.
Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) offered his rationale for opposing holding White House officials in contempt for their actions:
"The real argument here is not over the audacity of the White House, but over the strength of our legal argument."
Ironically, Cannon is one of six current members of the same Judiciary Committee that voted, in a straight 21-17 party-line vote, to impeach President Clinton in 1998. Those six members currently rank first, second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh in seniority among committee Republicans.
Here’s what Cannon had to say in December 1998 about why impeaching Clinton was necessary:
We are at a defining moment in our history. What we do here will set the standard for what is acceptable for this and future presidents.
I believe profoundly that the behavior of this president is unacceptable because I agree with John Jay, one of our Founding Fathers, who said, "When oaths cease to be sacred, our dearest and most valuable rights become insecure."
...President Kennedy thought that if a president were not to fulfill his obligations, the obligations of his oaths, that he would begin -- that is, the president, any president he suggested -- that he would begin to unwind this most extraordinary constitutional system of government. He was not, and we are not, talking about separation of powers. We're not talking about the other constitutional concepts, like the delegated powers, the reservation of powers to the states. Kennedy and Jay are referencing something more fundamental. They are talking about the glue that holds our system together.
Similarly, here are excerpts from the self-righteous preachings by those other five Republican members of the Judiciary Committee that refused to hold today’s White House officials in contempt for their actions, but eagerly pursued impeachment against President Clinton:
Ranking Member, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.).:
The framers of the Constitution devised an elaborate system of checks and balances to ensure our liberty by making sure that no person, institution or branch of government became so powerful that a tyranny could be established in the United States of America. Impeachment is one of the checks the framers gave the Congress to prevent the executive or judicial branches from becoming corrupt or tyrannical.
I represent a district far removed from the Beltway and its accompanying mentality. Here we are surrounded by Beltway advisers, who demand fees in excess of $500 per hour. And many of these adept advisers, lawyers, counselors are "spinmeisters." They attach their spin, and oftentimes confusion results.
...I take umbrage to charges that some are out to get the president. Mrs. Bono, the gentlewoman from California, earlier said this week that it is not we on this committee who created the problem that's now before us; that was the president's doing.
Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.):
Lying after swearing before God and country to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is a very serious offense. It is taken very seriously by our judicial system, one of the three equal branches of government in the United States.
...Our legal system, which protects the rights and liberties of all citizens, is dependent on people telling the truth under oath. The president is our chief law enforcement officer and our chief magistrate. When he lies under oath he undermines the integrity of our judicial system and threatens the rights and liberties of every one of us.
Mr. Chairman, I'm not a lawyer -- one of the few on this committee -- however, everyone that knows me knows I believe in the rule of law -- believe the rule of law is fundamental to our society. A society without laws is anarchy. Societies that ignore the laws are condemned to violence and chaos.
I have a constitutional duty to follow the truth wherever it leads. The truth in this case leads me to believe that the president knowingly engaged in a calculated pattern of lies, deceit and delay in order to mislead the American people, impede the search for truth, deny the right of his accuser to have her day in court, and protect himself from criminal prosecution. Therefore, I have no alternative but to support articles of impeachment against President Clinton.
…The precious legacy entrusted to us by our founders and our constituents is a nation dedicated to the ideal of freedom and equality for all her people. This committee must decide whether we will maintain our commitment to the rule of law and pass this precious legacy to our children and grandchildren, or whether we will bow to the political pressure for the sake of convenience or expediency.
As a member of Congress, and as an attorney, I'm very troubled because every day in courthouses throughout this nation, Americans raise their right hands and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
They do so under the penalty of perjury. Yet in this case the President of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer of this land, has made an utter mockery of that fundamental precept. That is a travesty. No person stands above the law. All Americans, no matter how rich, how powerful, how well connected, should be held accountable for their actions. Every American must be held accountable.
...Finally, in constructing this cover-up, President Clinton used the power of his office to mislead, impede and obstruct a federal grand jury, a civil deposition, and the American people. He used government resources, including government attorneys and staff to disseminate his deceitful story to the public and to the grand jury.
...I ask my colleagues to search their hearts and answer this question: What message are we sending the youth of America if we abdicate our constitutional duty and allow perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power to go unpunished. When we cast our votes, we are not voting as Republicans or Democrats, we are voting as Americans. Our allegiance does not lie with any one president but with our country. Our charge is not handed down from any one political party but from the Constitution. Every member of this body is duty-bound to put politics aside, follow our conscience, and uphold our oath of office.
Funny how things change for these six hypocrites in less than ten years...
---Mark Nickolas
(cross-posted at Rocky Mountain Report)
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
One thing's for sure. If the GOP keeps up like this, more people will probably feel like call it the NAZI Party.
What can you expect from representatives of representative dictatorship? Corporations put Hitler in power and ditto Bush. We are a pseudo democracy. The constitution is obsolete except to dummies or hypocrites. The question is what to do about it. Parity Democracy at amazon.com or BN.com
ewode, that much is true. In fact, when asked what America would look like if it were the likes of 1930s Germany, this scary quote he correctly predicted:
"When fascism comes to America, it will be draped in the American flag."
Louisiana could use a Huey Long who SMASHES BLANK-O and LAND-RUIN anyday ! The same for the rest of this nation.
By the way, speaking of hypocrisy and democracy, it's no coincidence that our fucked up reps and sens who preach democracy talk the same talk no different from Saddham Hussein when push comes to shove. In fact, America's business interests and gubbmint built Saddham Hussein just like they built Osama bin Laden !
Talk about loyalty to a fuckup thats been killing the party, its beyond belief.
The thing is the GOP reps know Bush is slowly killing the party but out of some bizarre sense of loyalty they are following him into the aybss. Its like watching the Soviets implode. By all right they should send him a message to shit can most of his cronies to quiet the populace, but no its uber alles to the end, idiots.
Perhaps its because the GOP abandoned its original pragmatic issue based political model and went over to ideological driven one which has put them in a intellectual straight jacket. Not to mention that they so polarized part of the electorate that they wont vote for anyone who isn't a Bush goosestepper.
IMO the GOP predicament illustrates the perils of following a ideological driven political model - you end up like the Maoists or the GOP.
The other name for the Republican party is Hypocrites 'R Us.
In reality, they are being extremely consistent.
In their single-issue single-tracked little minds anything to destroy Democrats is good, anything to support the Republicans agenda is good. Truth, justice, ethics, and the Constitution of the United States have no bearing on this agenda.
They have the arrogance to feel that the opinions of the American People don't count, and they can manipulate politics, elections, and the government to support their own ends, opinion be damned.
Just like any other third world dictatorship.
Butte
The hypocrite label applies just as much to the Democrats as it does the GOP. Both parties are mere shadows of what they once were.
The GOP wasn't always this insane, for a long time they were just hard core fiscal conservatives with a dose of social conservatism. They served as the loyal opposition to various forms of Democratic inspired stupitity.
What happened is that that ideological nut jobs like Norquist and others infiltrated the party(Sirota covered it in a book review), kicked out all the old timers and replaced them with plutocrats and fanatics. Much like what happened with the Democrats during the 70's when elitist social issues only liberals took over the party and allowed corporations to crush the working and middle-class over the next 30 years.
But to say Democrats are really better than GOPers is a stretch. Who pushed NAFTA, WTO, MFN for China and CAFTA through? Democrats thats who. Who abandoned the working class? Democrats thats who. Which party so alienated itself from the working class that it allowed the election of a lunatic like Bush? Democrats thats who.
And what are Democrats doing today? playing a kabuki dance on Iraq, making secret deals with K Street over "free" trade despite peoples opposition to it, doing nothing to protect the working class from corporate predators.
And the Democratic leadership seems to be the biggest joke of them all. All they have is a weasely, mealy mouthed drip of a corruptocrat in the senate and in the House, there's a K Street owned nervous nelly of a Speaker.
In short the Democrats are only marginally better and need to be watched closely lest they betray the American people again like they did on NAFTA and other "free" trade deals.
The Federalist Society has a stranglehold on our government the entire Judiciary, the Supreme Court and the Justice dept., so if push comes to shove we'll loose the fundamental under pinnings of our very system of governance..!
Simple as that..!
Speaking of Federalist Society, Alexander Hamilton is very likely gloating at the EMBARRASSING fact that the DLC has done a hell of a job undermining the Democratic Party which used to be what Jefferson , Jackson, FDR, etc ... used to represent by fucking the party up with the "Hamilton Project" or something like that.
P.S.: The politics out here in Nebraska have only gotten more MISERABLE. Being unable to tell the difference between the NE Dems and NE GOP, the political landscape is depressingly "if you can't beat them join them" mentality along with the amoral and lawlessness from the corporate mafia that continues to RAPE the state to DEATH ! :(
One more thing, thanks to "free" trade, deregulation, globalization, etc ... the most depressing aspect of rural Nebraska is dealing with Nebraska farmers or what's left of them looking obese and having a fridge stacked with beers and "Hungry Man" frozen shit. It's depressingly getting harder to find a farm where farmers actually grow their own food. If I or my wife try to get any of these farmers to look at what "free" trade has done to them, they react in a very hostile manner no matter how easy we try to convince them out of it. It's as if they badly want to drown with the "if you can't beat them join them" mentality. It's bad enough that most young people either move out of the state or join the army and risk losing their lives, physical or economic. For the jobs that remain here, it's nothing but part time and/or temporary positions and worse, getting a position that lasts even a year let alone longer is becoming more of a pipe dream !
The only way Congress people and Senators will be limited is if people force them into temporary contract positions of one term each in the Senate and no more than 3 terms in the House. Congress will not reform itself or even open the door to democracy. We the people need to force them somehow.
Nathan that's all correct no doubt but this is really a very dangerous time for our Republic..!
What could be more dangerous than a cabal of lawyers and Judges working from the same script from within the government, from the White House to the Justice Dept. to the Federal Courts and holding a majority on the Supreme Court now as well such small minority with a largely hidden agenda that gives ovations to a cretan like Karl Rove and has already brought such shame and disgrace and undermined the confidence of the American people in the Justice dept. itself, and yet persists with it's zealotry and pernicious plot to undermine forever our very system as the Founding Fathers established it..?
How can one be an objective Supreme court Justice if they are also sworn and committed to the agenda of this cabal The Federalist Society..!
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