Why is Clapper the only one taking on Trumps deep state rant?

[geardaddy]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/01/03/why-is-clapper-the-only-one-taking-on-trumps-deep-state-rant/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.1079be55d6c1

As we noted earlier, among his many unhinged utterances on Tuesday, prompted by who-knows-what (Did someone tell him the Russia investigation isn’t close to being finished?), President Trump decried the “deep state” — a common alt-right boogeyman positing that the government is plotting to dethrone its mad king. Calling his own Justice Department the “Deep State Justice Dept.” and urging it to go after Hillary Clinton, her aide Huma Abedin and former FBI director James B. Comey surely would have been the looniest and most outrageous of the day — if not for his my-nuclear-button-is-bigger-than-your-nuclear-button outburst.

Fortunately, there was a strong push-back. Unfortunately, Republicans didn’t raise a peep. That was left to former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., who told CNN’s Jake Tapper: “I think it’s reprehensible to use that phraseology. I guess who that refers to is the career civil servants who are patriots dedicated to the country.” He continued, “I’d point out that when you take the oath of office as a civil servant you swear to uphold the Constitution. It doesn’t say anything about pledging loyalty to this president or any other and if not doing so is what constitutes being part of the ‘deep state,’ I think that represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what this country’s all about and what this government is all about and I find that characterization disturbing.” It is also reminiscent of Trump’s pressuring Comey to give him a pledge of loyalty and his meltdown over Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

Clapper also chastised Trump for threatening political enemies. “The whole issue of a president, this one or any other, reaching out or pointing the finger at someone who ought to go to jail or be investigated is again beyond the pale,” Clapper concluded. “It’s not proper.”

We have yet to hear a response from Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) — who recently pontificated on the necessity of agreeing upon a common set of facts. We haven’t heard from the Republicans who like to strut and brag about their devotion to the Constitution and the “rule of law.” We haven’t heard from GOP congressional leadership. I’ll save space — we didn’t hear a denunciation from any Republican member of Congress.

In creating a parallel universe of conspiratorial nonsense and castigating those who follow democratic norms as the enemy, Trump continues to erode the office and our democratic institutions. Saying it doesn’t matter what the president says belies decades of GOP harping (correctly) that “words matter” and that devotion to the Constitution requires constant vigilance. Their willingness to keep mum — Because Gorsuch! Because corporate tax cuts! — reminds us why they should not be entrusted with majority control of the House or Senate in the midterm elections. The president’s outbursts therefore should remind us that it’s not only Trump who is unfit to serve, but also his silent enablers in Congress.

The rest at link

[Control-Z]

1. Wow. eom