They Died So Republicans Could Take the Senate

[reprehensor]

They Died So Republicans Could Take the Senate

Published on Monday, June 20, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

by Thom Hartmann

Richard Nixon authorized the Watergate burglary and subsequent cover-up to advance his own political ambitions. Because Nixon's lies were done for the craven purpose of getting and holding political power, his lies - in the minds of the majority of the members of Congress - were elevated to the level of impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Bill Clinton had sex in the White House with Monica Lewinsky, but Congress concluded he'd lied about it to maintain political power. Another impeachable crime.

The real scandal of the Downing Street Memos, with the greatest potential to leave the Bush presidency in permanent disgrace, is their implication that lies may have been put forward to help Bush, Republicans, and Blair politically. If Bush lied to gain and keep political power, precedent suggests he and his collaborators in the administration may even be vulnerable to impeachment.

Conservatives say the Bush claims of WMD and "mushroom clouds" were a "lie of ignorance." Condoleezza Rice periodically does the talk-show circuit and repeats the "lie of ignorance" myth. "The entire world thought Saddam had WMD," she and other Bush representatives suggest over and over again. "We had bad intelligence."

more@link

[seafan]

1. The bottom line nugget in this excellent piece is:

--snip

It was, pure and simple, well planned years in advance, a war to solidify Bush and the Republican Party's political capital.

It was a war for political power. That had to be first. Everything else - oil, profits, ongoing PATRIOT Act powers, easy manipulation of the media - all could only come if political power was seized and held through at least two decisive election cycles.

The Bush administration lied us into an invasion to get and keep political power. It's that simple.

--snip



Everyone should digest what Hartmann frames so succinctly in this article. It was always about total control... over people, over resources, over the environment, over our civil rights, over our economic rights, over our personal rights, and over our ability and freedom to think for ourselves. Anything less than total control would threaten their domination. And that is why it is so imperative that the Dems/Independents in the House and Senate FIGHT LIKE HELL. We, the people are the most formidable army...we need a LEADER to step forward.

We have to confront the Bush administration and we have to confront the media. Every waking moment. If we don't, we, as a country, are lost. And God only knows for how long.

[satya]

2. This deserves a kick!

:kick:

[Tommymac]

3. No,it's up to the Fifth Estate...Us.

The Truthseeking denizens of the Internet community.
(Replying to section of article below)

Quote from above link
But if Jefferson was right when he said that the best defense of democracy was an informed electorate, there is still a small window of opportunity for the American press to do the job they've been so carefully avoiding these past five years.

Instead of just reporting that the Downing Street Minutes and memos exist, they can highlight them against the timeline of Bush repeatedly lying during those days before the war. They can quote him saying that he had no plans for war, was working toward peace, and only wanted Congressional authorization to avoid a war, and point out that this was all after - months after - his administration had told the British that war was a sure thing.

Lying, in other words, to get us to go along with an invasion that would cement in Republican control of the Congress and the White House, and, thus, also the courts. Lying for nothing more than "political capital."

Let us hope our Fourth Estate is up to the task.

The Fourth Estate is dead.

[IndianaGreen]

4. The fact that Bush was talking about war back in 1999

should be reason enough to impeach him and send him packing to the International Crimes Court.

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Kick !!!

[indepat]

6. Will some stop at nothing to gain absolute power?

[KoKo]

7. Great article but leaves question hanging. Why did so many Democrats

support it? That's what I can't understand. What was in it for them to have Republicans rule the whole government?

[dchill]

8. Democrats supported the war because...

they allowed the Republicans "frame" the issue, instead of the original "framers" - of the Constitution.

James Madison - “A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy. A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives them.”

Thomas Jefferson - “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.”

In other words, to avoid being called traitors, Congressional Democrats allowed the people to be misinformed - lied to. They abrogated their responsibility to the Constitution, and now many have lost their lives, and many have lost their freedoms - and will continue to do so until these Members of Congress - who work for us - do their jobs.

Republicans, in their lust for power, actively sought to misinform the people, and must bear most of the blame, but Democrats who voted "for the war" must share in it. There was no shortage of deception on either side, sadly.