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(NOTE: This was supposed to be a reply to Viva la Revolution's BookTV Schedule thread for this week, but I don't think the thread was posted at all, or at any rate I can't find it.)
Wow--this is it! The long-awaited Lincoln Chafee political memoir is finally here, and this program is the first media appearance that I have heard of. This was a speech, with question-and-answer afterward, before a Brown University audience a few weeks ago. There were many behind-the-scenes stories told, on how quickly bills were drafted and pressured to be voted on, on pressure from Republican leadership in Congress and from the Cheney-Bush White House and the increasing popular revolt against it, on the totally fake and orchestrated build-up to the Iraq war and the incalculable damage it has caused, etc., and all of it so clearly and compellingly told, that this seems to be a really first-rate expose.
The talk started off with a little background on Chafee's early career, and appoinment to the Senate upon the death of Chafee's father, who held the seat. Already, because of the Gingrich-type obstructionists there, in both Houses of Congress, there was a silly, hostile exercise Chafee called a "pointless waltz," just to fight then-Pres. Clinton, of Republicans passing an outrageous bill that Clinton was going to veto, Clinton vetoing it, Republicans unable to override, and the bill dying. Then, on to the next thing, and the same: pass an outrageous bill that they already knew Clinton was going to veto, Clinton vetoes, and no override. It was time-wasting, nothing real or actual was ever accomplished (and you remember the Starr money-wasting, never-ending "investigation," the "impeachment," all the blocked judges and appointments, etc., etc.)--all for the sake of fighting everything Democrats wanted, and finally the American people had had enough, and elected many new Democrats to Congress. Any hope that this would end the complicity was soon killed, however, as Democrats began one of the strangest eras of complete submission in the history of the country.
Chafee told a very interesting and disturbing story about voting on a bill, early on in the Senate, and some Senators were talking, and were all confused as to whether the bill they were voting on was a bill to authorize military force in Afghanistan, or a bill to allocate funds to New York! Chafee said that this actually happened several times; people not paying any attention at all to what they were voting on, just voting in (Republican) Party lock-step.
The 2000 elections were described with some detail. There was a recent thread here on DU (posted by kpete, I think; or, I don't know) of an excerpt from the new Chafee book, on a horrific meeting new Republicans elected to the Congress had with Dick Cheney, and the kind of "orders" they got. About how they will be accountable to no one, will ignore the International criminal court, will cut taxes by $1.6 trillion, and other frightening new Republican agenda items that flabbergasted Chafee. It would be a completely class-based approach of undoing every legal and regulative reform that had been passed over the last century, and would fight and thwart everything Democrats, and the American people, wanted. There would be no consensus with Democrats, no working together anymore, no legislation at all passed, if that was what it took; there would be conformity and obstruction. It was also the exact opposite of everything they had campaigned on. Many people on the thread were horrified at Cheney, and knew this was "a smoking gun," but others attacked Chafee for criticizing other Republican moderates for not standing up, then also Chafee doing nothing. There are two sides to this thing.
What happened next, though, was the Sept. 11th attacks, and everything changed. Suddenly, there was a huge Republican "energize-the-base operation" that overran everything else. Bills were hurriedly written, from Republican leadership, (one example given by Chafee was of a bill so rushed that a word was crossed out and another handwritten on the margin above it; Chafee asked why it was being so rushed that it could not even be properly typewritten first, and got no answer), then instant, severe pressure put on people in Congress to vote for it, (or they were "traitors," etc., as we all well recall). Many people, such as Viet Nam veteran, who had lost three limbs, Max Cleland of Georgia, were bizarrely and stupidly painted as "traitors," "hate America/supporting the terrorists," etc.-and lost their elections! It was a time of crushing pressure from all sides, urged on by the lies of the Republican slogan machine and owned-media, but even still, as Chafee told here, there were heroes, and not all were fooled or made to submit. Sen. Robert Byrd, you may remember the powerful speeches by Byrd, telling people not to go ahead with this vote on war with Iraq, to an empty chamber, also Sen. Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, Paul Sarbannes, the late and great Paul Wellstone, and Representative Barbara Lee in the U.S. House, bravely stood against the tide. Chafee made the point that this proves yet again that not "everyone" wanted us to go to war with Iraq, and many were completely baffled as to the (unproven) "connection," especially since weapons inspectors were specifically not allowed to do their jobs.
Part of the talk also told of Chafee's increasing distress at the phoniness of the trumped up "war on terror," fake attacks on others "helping the terrorists," "the fear card," the asinine "red alert/orange alert," silliness, etc., and how organized--and effective--it all was. It got so bad that a very sensible amendment proposed by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, very respected and on the Armed Services Committee, to just slow the process of invading Iraq down and get more information first, was roundly and quickly crushed.
Many of these things are no longer new, of course, and all of the books that have been by-now written have accomplished nothing, but the sense I got from this book is that the stories were so well-told, and from a political insider perspective, that it might be really informative as an understanding of the way the current, degenerate Republican Party strongarms and threatens its members to vote, keep silent, "parrot the Party line," as Chafee out it. This could be a great insider's telling of the way things really work, etc., (like another fabulous recent book, on Hubert Humphrey, etc., called "Heroes, Hacks and Fools," by Ted Van Dyk). It is also a reminder of the way Republicans used to be, when they still had their liberal New England group, Midwesterners, etc., and others now almost gone, driven out.
The book was written before the current Presidential campaign really got underway, but Chafee recently announced an endorsement of Barack Obama for President. I was very upset when Chafee lost, as Chafee and Olympia Snowe are the only Republicans I can stand, and I like them both, but Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who won Chafee's seat, is so fabulous, that I have become a huge Sen. Whitehouse fan since. Chafee is now associated with Brown University, and may possibly run for Rhode Island Governor (audience member's question).
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