View from the Left: Gutless

[babylonsister]

View from the Left: Gutless
Kerry Eleveld
Daily Kos Staff
Saturday September 08, 2018 · 2:00 PM EDT


The only thing more maddening than reading a sanctimonious anonymous op-ed in the New York Times from someone congratulating themselves for saving the citizenry from the orange menace in the Oval Office was watching the collective shrug of GOP lawmakers in response.

The piece we've all read by now, authored by a "senior administration official," outlined exactly what we have known and has been reported for months: Trump is a mentally addled clear and present danger to the very existence of our republic. The only difference here is that the report came from the perspective of someone on the inside looking out, and confirmed that Trump's own inner circle is an informal secret government working to subvert and mitigate the existential threat their commander poses.

But as the "who dunnit?" guessing game ensued, GOP Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Corker of Tennessee wondered simply "Who wouldn't have written it." Everybody's known about this from "day one," he said.

"Anyone who has had any dealings over there knows that this is the reality that we're living in,” Corker remarked about the White House, “and so I think a lot's been made out of nothing,"

Sure, Trump could blow us all up at any given moment, but don't get your panties all in a wad, folks—much ado about nothing.

Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse agreed. “It’s just so similar to what so many of us hear from senior people around the White House, you know, three times a week,” he said.

Yeah, ya know, several times a week we hear the President of the United States is so temperamentally unhinged that people are stealing documents off his desk.

I'm gonna apologize for this in advance but... good god almighty—what the hell are these guys doing? If a president is that inept, that unstable, that explosive, lawmakers have a constitutional duty to investigate what exactly is going on in the White House. Congress is coequal branch of government for god's sake. As Nicolle Wallace said on MSNBC the day the op-ed posted:

“Why there haven't been calls for congressional hearings, even if they're in secret and closed from the public right now? Every cabinet member should be called before a closed hearing to be asked what is at stake, what is at risk, as long as there are men and women in our military in far-flung places with their lives on the line.”

Republicans who laughed this off this week as something they've known all along may as well have just spit in the face of the electorate they are supposedly serving. And to Wallace's point: What about the Americans who signed up to potentially make the ultimate sacrifice in defense of this country? Is it too much for them to ask GOP lawmakers who are ducking reporters, gifting millions in tax cuts to billionaires and attending posh Washington fundraisers to show a little accountability to the people risking their lives overseas?

more...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/8/1794281/-View-from-the-Left-Gutless

[sandensea]

1. Our Joint Chiefs need to act. Quietly, discreetly, even secretly - but act nonetheless.

My guess is that they're just waiting for Cheeto to issue some really insane order - which of course he may at any minute.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

2. Republican's oath of office means nothing to them.....

Their only allegiance is to money and power - with no damn limits on what they'll do to get it.

They hold Reagan's and Grover Norquist's words in higher regard than those of our founding fathers and our Constitution.

......

[alwaysinasnit]

3. I second that. Repugs aren't even trying to hide their agenda anymore.