What happens when unresolved scandals take a back seat to a domestic agenda?

[seemslikeadream]

Maybe poppy gets to be president again :shrug:


http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

My book, Secrecy & Privilege, opens with a scene in spring 1994 when a guest at a White House social event asks Bill Clinton why his administration didn’t pursue unresolved scandals from the Reagan-Bush era, such as the Iraqgate secret support for Saddam Hussein’s government and clandestine arms shipments to Iran.

Clinton responds to the questions from the guest, documentary filmmaker Stuart Sender, by saying, in effect, that those historical questions had to take a back seat to Clinton’s domestic agenda and his desire for greater bipartisanship with the Republicans.

Clinton “didn’t feel that it was a good idea to pursue these investigations because he was going to have to work with these people,” Sender told me in an interview. “He was going to try to work with these guys, compromise, build working relationships.”

Clinton’s relatively low regard for the value of truth and accountability is relevant again today because other centrist Democrats are urging their party to give George W. Bush’s administration a similar pass if the Democrats win one or both houses of Congress.

Reporting about a booklet issued by the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank of the Democratic Leadership Council, the Washington Post wrote, “these centrist Democrats … warned against calls to launch investigations into past administration decisions if Democrats gain control of the House or Senate in the November elections.”

[bryant69]

1. Well a few points

It's premature to say that we aren't going to look into scandals - we don't actually have any power yet - and won't until congress opens in the next term. Looking at who is going to be chairing the committee I think we are going to see some investgation of what the Bush Administration has done. I also think we can chew gum and walk at the same time - i.e. investigate the President and Impeach if evidence warrents it and push our domestic agenda.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[WilliamPitt]

2. Stem cell research will pass, the minimum wage will go up,

the prescription drug fiasco will be fixed, alternative fuel sources will be pursued, Social Security will be protected, the warrantless wiretapping will be stopped, the lobbying/legal bribery fiasco in congress will be purged...I could go on, but you get the point: good things will happen for the American people.

And I don't think the scandals will be back-seated. Conyers and Waxman have rooms full of investigation files. They didn't do this for decorative purposes.

[seemslikeadream]

4. and because things were not resolved back then

we have this



If things had been resolved then georgie would not be in charge today and I wouldn't be accused of wanting a hood ornament

[WilliamPitt]

5. Back when?

I'm not sure what you're driving at. Are you suggesting the Democrats could have thwarted Abu Ghraib and the Guantanamo abuses while in the minority?

The hood ornament thing is just odd.

[seemslikeadream]

6. hood ornament your words not mine

please read the link then maybe you'll get the time frame

[WilliamPitt]

8. No, I know what you meant

but I'm not really understanding why you are taking it so negatively. Hood ornament = the first thing you see on a car coming towards you. It wasn't meant to describe some kind of useless decoration. The hood ornament is out in front, which is where some folks would like to see impeachment come January. I personally disgree with that strategy.

As for the picture, can you explain what you meant?

[seemslikeadream]

9. Thanks for the clarification

I really thought you meant impeachment as useless decoration.

Though sometimes the truth can hurt, Clinton and the Democrats should understand that covering up the truth can hurt even more. As Clinton’s folly with the Reagan-Bush scandals should have taught, the Democrats may hurt themselves worst of all when helping the Republicans cover up the truth.

[seemslikeadream]

11. Would we be in Iraq right now if the whole Iran-Contra bunch

had been taken out back then?

http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/hamiltoniran-contra.htm

"......former Congressman Lee Hamilton, chairman of the House select committee investigating the Iran-contra affair, was shown ample evidence against Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, but he did not probe their wrongdoing. Why did Hamilton choose not to investigate? In a late 1980s interview aired on PBS 'Frontline,' Hamilton said that he did not think it would have been 'good for the country' to put the public through another impeachment trial. In Lee Hamilton's view, it was better to keep the public in the dark than to bring to light another Watergate, with all the implied ramifications. When Hamilton was chairman of the House committee investigating Iran-contra, he took the word of senior Reagan administration officials when they claimed Bush and Reagan were 'out of the loop.' Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh and White House records later proved that Reagan and Bush had been very much in the loop. If Hamilton had looked into the matter instead of accepting the Reagan administration's word, the congressional investigation would have shown the public the truth. Hamilton later said he should not have believed the Reagan officials. However, today, George W. Bush is considering appointing Hamilton UN ambassador."

[happydreams]

15. We wouldn't be in Iraq. Public exposure of the lies

about Desert Storm would have destroyed the Bush Dynasty. There is nothing that makes my skin crawl worse than hearing a politician say: "for the good of the country" they didn't do their job and prosecute. That is worse than a lie.

:hi:

[blm]

10. Read Parry's ENTIRE article Will.

.

[happydreams]

18. There wouldn't have been any war if the Bushies had been

taken down after the first "Iraqgate". You should read the work of Henry Gonzalez who laid out in detail the crimes of Poppy Bush. Poppy said:

"If the public knew what we had done," Poppy told the Maclendon Newsletter,"they would have chased us down in the streets and hung us."

[peacebird]

3. Good thing the DLC isn't calling the shots no more.....

"Democratic Leadership Council, <snip> “these centrist Democrats … warned against calls to launch investigations into past administration decisions if Democrats gain control of the House or Senate in the November elections.”

The DLC didn't believe in Dr. Dean, but Dr. Dean believed in Dems winning and win we did. Now we need to investigate, and see where those investigations lead us. We need to root out the evil that has become deeply embedded in our government. We need to nueter the imperial presidency, and return the office of the president to scrutiny and congressional oversight.

The DLC does not have the stomach for this work, it might make doing "business" with business once more accountable to the people - not just a tit-for-tat money exchange between K-street and corrupt politicians.

[Parisle]

7. Dealing with the scandals serves a further purpose, too

---- Impeaching and indicting republicans has a great sound to it,.. but the occasion of their 2006 electoral trainwreck will have to serve as the launchpad for another, even more important task for open government. We have to go beyond mercenary political office holders, and push back the unimagineably wealthy corporatist elements which have been setting their agenda for them. For government to work again, we have to slip the yoke of corporate political domination,... and that means getting corporate money out of politics altogether,.. and prying the media away from their narrow control. Cronyism and the "revolving door" have to be eliminated as far as possible. This is the big issue,....... Nothing goes wrong in this country without big money being behind it.

[Karenina]

12. Welcome to DU, Parisle!

:toast:

[robertpaulsen]

13. K & R! Huzzah to you and Robert Parry!

:kick:

:hi:

[happydreams]

14. Excellent post. This shows the pattern of compromise that

leads to bigger disasters.

IMPEACH!!!

[mmonk]

16. With you.

I'm uncomfortable right now.

[mmonk]

17. .

:kick: