Let the Whitewashing Begin... by georgia10
Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 09:18:46 PM PDT
The King's henchman have sounded the death knell for Presidential accountability. Just a few weeks ago, Republicans from Specter to Hagel to Snowe were calling for a congressional inquiry into the domestic spying program. On the eve of a Senate Intelligence Committee vote to determine whether such an inquiry should take place, the Washington Post reports that a "full court press" by the administration has swayed many Republicans against such an investigation:
Two committee Democrats said the panel -- made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats -- was clearly leaning in favor of the motion last week but now is closely divided and possibly inclined against it.
<...>
Lawmakers cite senators such as Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) to illustrate the administration's success in cooling congressional zeal for an investigation. On Dec. 20, she was among two Republicans and two Democrats who signed a letter expressing "our profound concern about recent revelations that the United States Government may have engaged in domestic electronic surveillance without appropriate legal authority." <...>
In an interview yesterday, Snowe said, "I'm not sure it's going to be essential or necessary" to conduct an inquiry "if we can address the legislative standpoint" that would provide oversight of the surveillance program. "We're learning a lot and we're going to learn more," she said.
Republican Senate DeWine says he will introduce a bill sanctioning the program, explicitly exempting it from the requirements of FISA. Both Hagel and Snowe are said to be in favor of the bill. So suddenly, Republicans are comfortable with the President breaking the law? Where was the bill in the 90s condoning Oval Office blow jobs and Presidential perjury? Oh, that's right. The lawlessness of a President is exempted only when that President wears a 10-gallon hat and calls himself a "conservative."
Good lord, our Founding Fathers must be shaking their heads in shame at the mindfuck that is about to occur in Congress. A legislative body, which is constitutionally tasked with oversight and the solemn duty of ensuring that the Presidency acts within the law, is now prepared to gleefully greenlight its blatantly criminal actions? Is this a democratic Congress or the King's Court? What controls the fate of this country, the Constitution or Karl Rove's blacklist?
As with any scandal, its lawlessness is judged by the proportionality of the administration's response:
Sources close to Rockefeller say he is frustrated by what he sees as heavy-handed White House efforts to dissuade Republicans from supporting his measure. They noted that Cheney conducted a Republicans-only meeting on intelligence matters in the Capitol yesterday.
How kind of Cheney to take a break from his Texan target practice long enough to collude with a partisan cabal on how best to absolve this Presidency of its crime. Roberts, Hoekstra, and every other Republican who votes against an investigation is an accomplice in the raping of citizen's rights. Because, as the article explains, Republicans don't want any investigation to be "punitive." It's the same bullshit we dealt with when Phase II was killed, when the August PDB was dismissed as "historical," and when the Katrina hearings weren't meant to place blame but to "fix" problems. Congressional "oversight" in this Republican Congress doesn't include hindsight, only foresight--only forward-looking tunnel vision with a singular purpose: covering up for the most corrupt administration in history.
Look at your party, Republicans. Look at your civil servants, all you logic-minded conservatives out there. Look at your legislative bimbos, your lemmings in Congress. Look at how they serve only the interests of an Executive drunk with power. Your representatives are about to give the ok to the President unilaterally erasing the 4th Amendment from the Bill of Rights. Your so-called "conservatives" don't dare conserve jack, not the separation of powers, not any sense of fairness, and certainly not your rights.
It's party over principle. Party over justice. Party over civil rights. They just keep shredding up that Constitution and feeding it to that goddamn Elephant, because they have to anything and everything to keep that damn Elephant alive and fat and happy, right? Members of Congress, my ass. Every one of them took their oath of office with their fingers crossed behind their back. Every one of them pledged to uphold and defend the Constitution, with a huge asterisk (*) that when the President's ass needs saving, well, that Constitution just has to step out of the way.
If the vote tomorrow fails, and if indeed this Republican Congress passes a law to cover up the President breaking the law, then this becomes a campaign issue in every damn congressional election in every damn county in this country. And as for history...history will never forgive this Republican Congress, who too many times has given this Nixonian President a pardon from his crimes.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/14/231846/307 
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