Lee Hamiltion, the Republican's favourite investigator!

[JohnyCanuck]

Dr. Hamilton and Mr. Hyde

By Jerry Meldon
March 27, 2008

Editor’s Note: Whenever the Republicans have a touchy national-security scandal to put to rest, their favorite Democratic investigator is Lee Hamilton. Over the years, Hamilton has developed a reputation as a very reasonable fellow who knows how far he can go without ruffling too many important feathers.

snip

As veteran journalist Robert Parry has persuasively argued at Consortiumnews.com, the Bush family name squeaked through the 80’s and early 90’s essentially mud-free, only because:

--On Christmas Eve 1992, lame-duck President George H.W. Bush pardoned six of his earlier co-conspirators in the Iran-Contra affair (the Reagan-Bush White House’s diversion of profits from illegal arms sales to Iran to bankroll Nicaragua’s contra terrorists in defiance of a congressional ban). Until he was pardoned that day, former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger might have bought clemency by testifying against co-conspirator Bush.

-- After Bush left office on Jan. 20, 1993, President Bill Clinton (along with other senior Democrats, including Hamilton) cut short a congressional inquiry into Bush’s secret billion-dollar loans to Saddam Hussein and did nothing to help Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh penetrate the Iran-Contra cover-up.

--Hamilton also soft-pedaled two key congressional inquiries. The first investigated the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987 and the second examined allegations that the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign team had struck a treasonous deal with the hostage-holding Iranian government while Jimmy Carter was still president.

Conventional wisdom has attributed the target-friendliness of those latter investigations to Mr. Hamilton's celebrated spirit of bipartisanship.

After all, what else could have persuaded Hamilton to narrow the scope of the Iran-Contra investigation in order to placate Dick Cheney and the rest of the committee's Republicans, if not his desire to appear bipartisan?

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/032608c.html

[saltpoint]

1. In the larger mosaic, Lee Hamilton represented a fairly conservative

district in the Congress for some many years, largely on the correct perception of people in that part of Indiana that Hamilton was possessed of a bedrock decency.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. Correct perception that Hamilton possessed a bedrock of decency? Bullshit.

The 9/11 cOmmission was a farce, and he as co-chair should have made sure that it was done properly. Finally, one of the cOmmissioners is speaking out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3041310


9/11 Commission Expose - Not the Last Word
Friday, 21 March 2008, 12:16 pm
Opinion: Kyle Hence


Not the Last Word:
New Expose Shreds Credibility of 9/11 Commission Report

By Kyle F. Hence
© Copyright 2008 - Kyle F. Hence
3/18/08

This Nation, in fact this World, will not be set right, until the whole
truth is known, and justice done. Regardless of our own personal
connection to these horrific events it is our personal responsibility to
rectify the untenable position we now find ourselves relative to the
events of 9/11 and inadequate attempts at investigation which amounted
to a total failure to effect any accountability whatsoever. Phil Shenon
has done a great service in shedding more light on the failings and
compromises of the 9/11 Commission. But it's only a beginning...whether
the process is completed or not may well depend on what you personally
do to make a difference on this issue. Former Senator and former 9/11
Commissioner Kerrey has called for Congress to establish a permanent
Commission to continue the investigation. This is courageous stand.
Let's hope that soon he will joined by other Commissioners and staff and
that the next President will support just such a Commission. There is no
doubt whatsoever there is just cause.

[saltpoint]

3. Sorry. I think the voters of his district would disagree.

I stand by Lee Hamilton and respect his constituents' instincts.

[democraticinsurgent]

11. Not everything is what it seems

And the old Firesign Theatre album "Everything You Know is Wrong" comes to mind here. ONe of the few benefits of the Bush regime is that they have pulled back the Oz curtain and allow anyone who wants to look closely to see how corrupt our government really is.

As a lifelong Hoosier I know that Lee Hamilton commands major bi-partisan respect and has for a long time. My dad loved him. Many mainstream reporters here still write glowingly about him.

However, you can't ignore the clear evidence that Hamilton in fact is a major "fixer" for all things scandal, especially as it relates to the PNAC crowd. His "halo" is being used to lend credibility to investigations that are nothing but cover-ups.

The constituents may have supported Lee Hamilton, but that doesn't mean he's not rotten to the core.

The evidence says that he is.

Sad to say.

[JohnyCanuck]

4. My definition of "decency"

would not include participating in the cover up of criminal behaviour and treason by colleagues.

[saltpoint]

5. Here is a column about Hamilton that might shed light on the

perception by voters in his conservative district:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080323/COLUMNISTS06/803230505/1025/news0202

The COURIER-JOURNAL is just across the river from that district, but casts a keen eye on doings in southern Indiana.

Note the work on Medicare and the Voting Rights Act.

[JohnyCanuck]

6. So that gives him a license

to allow Poppy Bush and Ollie North and pals to get away with treason?

[saltpoint]

7. You're angry on one issue and aren't examining the big picture.

U.S. politics is rarely about one issue. Even slavery was an aggragate of many issues, subdivided by region and international pressures.

You're back-handing a good man.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. So turning a blind eye to treason and assisting in covering up the largest crime in our history is

a trade-off?

[saltpoint]

10. Wow. How histrionic is that?

Yeah. I'm defending a Democrat on a pro-Democrfatic board.

Call me old-fashioned.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

13. This actually has nothing to do with Hamilton being a Democrat. It has to do with his

actions and inactions. I also believe that your post equates to the worn argument, "my country, right or wrong".

Are you going to defend the Senate Democrats who recently voted to give the telecomm companies retroactive immmunity? Or the ones that continue to support the war? How about defending the ones who voted against Habeus Corpus? Or in general the ones that are walking in lockstep with the Republicans in their voting against our best interests?

[JohnyCanuck]

12. This is how I see it.

Suppose that a cop investigating a serious crime found evidence that pointed to a prominent businessman and an heretofore upstanding member of the community as being responsible. E.g. the suspect is a well respected member of the local Chamber of Commerce, sits on the schoolboard, is prominent in charity work, gives generously of his time and money to local causes and is well thought off and respected by the community at large.

Now suppose the cop decides that, although he knows this evidence exists pointing the finger to the suspect in question, because, he (the cop) is also a well respected members of the community (attending many civic and social events where he rubbed shoulders and even worked with the suspect in the course of his career), an upstanding family men and an all round "decent" sort, he decides that it would cause too much disruption to civic affairs in town if this prominent individual was charged with a serious crime. Besides which, the suspect is also the breadwinner for a large family and his wife and children would be left without support if he had to go to prison. Therefore, the cop hides the evidence and intentionally does not follow the leads he comes across in his investigation and allows the suspected perpetrator to go free. I'd say, however well intentioned, that cop failed in his job and failed in his duty to his community who pays his salary and should get the sack when his dereliction of duty is discovered.
.

[Mabus]

8. When they were putting together the 9/11 Commission

my husband said, "what do you bet they go to Hamilton?" When they did it was no surprise.

[Supersedeas]

14. there is a predictable circle of beltway cronies to go to

[Mabus]

15. I'll finish that sentence for you

"...especially if want particular results."