Why the Abramoff scandal will leave you feeling jilted again

[burythehatchet]

Maybe I'm too skeptical. Maybe I have every right to be, based on what has transpired over the past five years.

I believe that we on the left should really conduct a reality check and manage our expectations about what the impact of this scandal will be. Notice I say "impact". At its core, the activities of Jack Abramoff and his criminal co-conspirators, including many "elected" republicans, is another in a long list of scandals that define what the republican party really is - a front organization for a vast array of criminal enterprises designed to steal money from the US treasury and to bring us closer to a fascist/corporatist state - period. But is this any more serious than a fraudulent war? Is this more serious than domestic spying? Is this more serious than widespread torture? the CIA Gulag? GITMO? Stolen elections? the destruction of the free press? the war on science? Plamegate?

It is critically important for all to remember that only when the truth can no longer be covered up with the lies does this corrupt government come out with just enough to make us all drool in anticipation. But all they will give you is what you already have. They provide you with the illusion of governance. They do this with political ends in mind. There is no way in hell that this Justice Department is going to investigate anything more than what has already been leaked. What you are seeing now is damage control. Nothing more. So before we start our celebrating and dancing in the streets lets take a moment to reflect on reality. There will be no congressional shift in power in 2006. There will be no fair elections. Karl Rove will not be indicted. There will no free press to facilitate an honest debate. Chucklenuts will be sitting in the White House AT LEAST until 2008.

By the way, how was everyone's "Fitzmas"? :mad:

[xultar]

1. That is how I feel. After re-reading the scoop on it I didn't see where

this thing was gonna bring down congress.

With this mine thing I bet the Abramoff scandal will vanish from the minds of America.

[Demeter]

20. It's Way Too Early To Despair

The wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind very fine. And DC and the election cycle and the economic cycle and the news cycle haven't locked up yet. I know the anticipation is excruxiating, but this is one case where faith and good works are not only justified, but essential.

[tavalon]

2. Is that why you're angry

because Patrick Fitzgerald didn't meet your timeline? I think it is a far better thing for Rove to be indicted in the clear light of January, rather than the Imperial garbage heap that is the Christmas holidays.

People, myself included, are happy because nothing is going right for this administration. This won't be a better year for the Bush administration no matter how much little Bushie hopes for it.

[burythehatchet]

3. I'm angry because my country is being dismantled

and bankrupted. And I feel helpless to do anything about it.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

10. It makes one think that there aren't any real laws against this sort

of behavior, otherwise, why would it be so rampant???

Greeda and Graftina, Abramoff's storms of corruption unleashed upon the indigenous peoples of America.

[burythehatchet]

9. Please don't misunderstand my comments

I'm delighted that this criminal enterprise is being hammered. The coward-in-chief should have been rightfully impeached and convicted on September 12, 2001. That fact that he got away 9/11 and every criminal act since then is what leads me to think this will b no different. For example, look at Ohio. With every scandal that has hit the republicans in that state, they were still able to pass a comprehensive voter intimidation act in the country. Their unpopularity does not seem to matter.

[KharmaTrain]

15. One Less Crook Operating Is A Good Thing

At least the DeLay/Abramoff money machine is shut down and won't be pumping millions into campaign coffers this year. Others are going to be careful who they write checks to or who they take checks from. While the bodies aren't being frog-marched to the delight and expectations of some here, the political changes are already taking place and it'll become apparent in the months to come.

If people want to do something to help this process along...this would be a great time to see what's going on at your local Democratic party headquarters.

[montana500]

4. Ftizmas will better serve us late....

Lets hope it's a nice January day...

[acmavm]

5. I'm not too sure. What's the worst thing that you can call anyone right

now?

A republican.

And the world knows it.

[burythehatchet]

7. Absolutely correct

but power has been consolidated. All branches of government have been corrupted.

[aquart]

6. Don't the Republicans have a whole corps of operatives

To spread the kind of defeatism rampaging thru this board tonight?

Why are we doing their work for them? It gives Americans employment!

[Kolesar]

13. These legal proceedings will keep putting bad press in the media

Further, the gops are going to have vacant congressional seats to defend, like Bob Ney OH-6. This is good news

[Free the Press]

8. I wish you were wrong!

[izzie]

11. Sorry to tell you but we have been here before.

It just that the GOP seem to always takes it over the top. Do you think they are learning it in the same old top level colleges they go to? Does seem that they are coming out of the same place. The Young Republicans seem to be in on this also. I bet you will see a lot on Iraq with them as these young guys were shipped off to run Iraq or so I have read many times. Isn't that where millions got lost?

[InsultComicDog]

12. All we can do is keep hammering (n/t)

[vi5]

14. I feel like a broken record, but....

We've got to stop looking for one event, one scandal, or one person to be the magic bullet that saves us. We all (myself included) like to sit here and chastize many americans as being lazy or apathetic or just having short attention spans being able to focus only on the most glaring, shiny thing in front of their faces at any given moment. But a look at this board says that in many ways we're no better. And this relentless focus on only 1 major thing at a time rather than a broader, little by little strategy is going to keep us in the doghouse politically speaking. Oh yes, people on here will cry "We can focus on more than one thing at once" but it really doesn't seem that way most of the time.

[Catch22Dem]

16. I've been saying the same thing for about 18 months

It's been one "this will bring them all down" story after another. Remember the CBS documents. Even as that was falling apart in every direction, you still had a large contingency of DUers who were saing "Don't worry, the truth will come out, Rather's not that stupid. This will bring them all down." yada yada yada.

Sorry, my prediction is, we'll be rid of * in January of 2009.

[leveymg]

17. You're right and wrong. Bush and his cronies will go down, but not

on the basis of the worst crimes. The most serious offenses will continue to be obscured by insider plea deals and the complacent mass media. Please see my post on the DU Frontpage today for what I mean.

Instead of truth seeking, what we are seeing is something akin to Watergate, where the President was brought down on secondary charges -- which were perhaps somewhat trumped up -- while evidence of the most serious crimes of state were left inside classified files. There are a couple reasons why that's the practice in dealing with the offenses of high officials:

1) The power elites, like Col. Jessup, the Jack Nicholson character in A Few Good Men, truly believe, "You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You?". In other words, the public tribunals that are set up to judge the transgressions of the warriors aren't qualified or equipped to understand what is really done in the name of national security and interest. Men like Abramoff are warriors, of a sort, in the half-hidden world of political dirty tricks and international influence peddling that increasingly dominates the American political process.

2) A detailed public accounting of the worst crimes would violate the prohibition against revealing the "methods and sources" of intelligence agencies. The fact is that at the top, almost everything is monitored and there really are very few secrets that go unnoted by multiple spy agencies, both domestic and foreign. These means of information collection are largely illegal and rely on deception by trusted insiders. No prosecution, even of renegade White House advisors involved in espionage and a conspiracy against the interests of the United States -- I refer here to the Iraq WMD subtrefuge, the OSP-AIPAC spy case, and the Plame outing -- is worth revealing and dismantling this network of informants and double-agents.

So, instead, we get surrogate scandals -- the SunCruz and Indian tribes prosecutions of Abramoff, and the warrantless surveillance of US persons suspected of ties to al-Qaeda -- that only partially reveal the larger crimes. In the end the worst miscreants are brought down, but the truth remains mostly concealed.

[BiggJawn]

18. Simply having...

A WONDERFUL Fitzmas time!
Boy, that story sure as fuck had Big Gnarly LEGS, didn't it? :sarcasm:

I think Abramoff will give up some minor first-term newbie congress-critters and the big fish will again swim to the deep end of the pond.

But this story HAS LEGS! Don't forget that!

[The2ndWheel]

19. Fornicator!

To mock Fitzmas, is simply going over the top.

But I agree with you, except for, "based on what has transpired over the past five years." It's more like five thousand.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. Maybe you need to look back at other scandals and wrong-doings....

...of all of the previous legally elected administrations, and how long it took to finally achieve some form of justice. Some of you folks apparently believe we're still living in a Democracy, but even then, the wheels of justice never turned quickly.

Just curious, but don't you think that a dictatorship is a tougher nut to crack, that it's going to take much more than it would in a democracy to build a nationwide consensus that has the courage to take them on? It's been a little over two years since the CIA struck the first blow by publicly requesting that the DoJ launch a criminal investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame. Since then, a number of other stories reporting wrong-doing by the NeoCons have hit the mainstream news cycle...and now appear to be gaining momentum.

How was my "Fitzmas"? Pretty damn good, to be honest.