L M (Johnson) Tschudy: Give Them Enough Rope

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by L M (Johnson) Tschudy

My deceased father was a very thoughtful, rational, and analytical person. Until the time he was no longer cognizant and unable to talk, there were many, many times that he and I would talk about people, life, philosophy, religion, and politics and how to determine the best way to deal with adverse circumstances and situations. Frequently, he would advise me to not say anything for the time being, but rather, give the other person enough rope and they would eventually hang themselves. I have learned the wisdom of that advice over the years and have used it to great effect with positive results throughout my life.

With that as a backdrop, I have come to certain conclusions about the current neocon/theocratic government. The way things are now, a large number of We, the People are very upset that the newly elected Democratic Party is not focusing on impeaching Cheney and Bush et al. I was pretty angry about this initially, but decided to think about it from a strategic perspective as opposed to a tactical perspective. The Democratic Party simply doesn’t have the resources now to sustain and proceed with Articles of Impeachment. It would be folly without having the resources to pursue impeachment at this time. I have slowly changed my mind and believe that the strategic position of both Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid is perhaps the wisest and best way to handle the situation they were handed by the Republicons – namely that of being a “rubberstamp” Congress in the Republicon mold of the past six years.

Frankly, I am very happy with the way this strategy is working. Under the Republicons, there was no oversight and there were few, if any, hearings. What we are now seeing is a continuing escalation of hearings into so many of the nefarious and underhanded political machinations and schemings of both the administration and the Republicon Congress. Exposing the workings of our government under the Bushies and the Neocons is perhaps more damaging to them than an outright attempt at impeachment.

The Democratic leadership has launched oversight hearings into a plethora of issues – the leaking of the name of a covert CIA agent; the firings of U.S. Attorneys for what appear to be for strictly political gain; the likelihood of Rove being the brains for the stealing of our system of electing leaders; the issuing of subpoenas for political and partisan hacks who have ignored their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and rule of law; the upcoming investigation of Rove’s Machiavellian actions behind the scenes; the prostitution of our government agencies for political gain; the failure of FEMA to help the Gulf Coast residents who suffered terribly as a result of Hurricane Katrina (political cronyism), ad infinitum. I’m sure there will be more and more investigations to come.

This is all happening before our eyes and is a stellar example of how our representative democracy and the concept of checks and balances is supposed to work. As I watch the hearings on C-SPAN, and listen to the Republicons trying to make excuses for their lack of inaction over the past six years, I know the damage is much worse than any of us could have imagined. This strategy is shining the light of day and truth, in all its gripping dirtiness upon the Republicons who do not give a damn about the Constitution of the United States of America and about We, the People to whom they are supposed to listen. Rove’s temper tantrum the other day when Sheryl Crow reached out to touch him at the White House Correspondents dinner is a good example: “I work for the American people.” However, it is now crystal clear that Karl Rove does not work for the American people. If he really believes this, he would have not have reacted in such an arrogant way.

We are seeing the true motives and values of the Republicons as they argue for the Bush Administration and against the Constitution and the rule of law.

Just yesterday as I watched the hearings of one of the Honorable Henry Waxman’s committees about the issuing of subpoenas to members of the Bush Administration for specific questions about their actions, it was simply stunning to watch the Republicons trying to extend the issues from the here and now of the Bush Administration and try, yet again, to “blame it on Clinton.” Two brief examples from these hearings: Waxman wanted to subpoena Condi Rice to explain misleading statements about the forged Italian letters regarding Iraq and Niger. The Republicons wanted to then amend that simple request that is germane, to include Sandy Berger – of the Clinton Administration. When Mr. Waxman brought up the subpoena for the missing e-mails (possibly 5,000,000) of the RNC, the Republicons wanted to include the e-mails of the Clinton Presidency.

I was aghast at the tactical move on the part of the Republicons. Bush is the current President now and has been since 2001. He is the issue now and he is also the problem. Never mind the fact that the Republicons had 6 years when they held the leadership of the Congress when Clinton was President. They had the time then to do this but they didn’t. And now, they think it is germane during investigations of the possible illegal actions of Bush to bring up Clinton? All they are doing here is demonstrating the “But, But Clinton” line of bovine scatology that they have done since Bush has been President. What happened during Clinton’s tenure was their responsibility to take care of then if they think he did something egregious. Why didn’t they? Why are they trying to prevent the Democratic Party from looking into the actions of the Bush tenure? They had their chance and they just plain blew it big time, or they didn’t think it was such a transgression of the rule of law at the time. No matter what their rationale is, they are only making themselves look more shrill and reactionary than they did before.

As my father said – Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves.

L M (Johnson) Tschudy
Tacoma, WA

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