Events have truly heated up in the past few days as the chair and staff of the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have created and then approved releasing a memo on the FBI and their use of FISA warrants in the Russia investigation. It seems to me there is so much “he said, she said” in this debate that the average American has given up trying to figure it out and in most cases has reverted to their respective corners of either believing Fox News or CNN/MSNBC commentary. Even I, who attempt to understand much of it, have a hard time keeping the players and accusations straight.
I guess my fallback position is to try and determine who has conflicts of interest here and who do I trust and who do I not. The Chairman of the Intel Committee of the House, Devin Nunes, had to recuse himself on a similar matter months ago as he was formally on the President’s transition team. In my view of the world, I would have thought recusal throughout the entire process would have been appropriate. Right or wrong, his continued participation has put his credibility and the recently-released memo from the Republican majority in jeopardy. That said, by not allowing (so far anyway) the release of the Democratic response, even more tainting of the report is occurring.
That said, we each come from our own biased position and I will now admit mine. Before I retired, I owned a company that managed 23 different associations, two of which were federal law enforcement associations, the ATF Association and the Association of Former Agents of the US Secret Service (AFAUSSS). There are 50+ federal law enforcement agencies, with the FBI being in the top three. All are made up of well-trained, competent, dedicated men and women whose first and foremost obligation is to this country.
I was privileged to see that commitment on a daily basis with the work I did. Could there be a few outliers not fitting the model? Of course, as long as human beings are filling positions of power that will be true. But if I compare federal law enforcement personnel to any other subset of the population, my experience is that they are head and shoulders above the rest and fall into the same category as doctors and clergy and way ahead of politicians. Therefore, if it is a question of “who do you trust” in this series of events, sorry, but the FBI wins hands down.
Also, in the fray are the Russians and in a “who do you trust” line up – they come in dead last or maybe tied to the North Koreans.
All of this tells me there is “stuff” which still needs to come out on the investigation into the Russian meddling of our election process. I have certain opinions, but will save them for another article. All I can say now is, “please everyone take a deep breath.” Don’t politicize the Mueller investigation and let it go where it needs to go to get at the truth. This investigation is critical for our democracy.
If in the process either the special council Bob Mueller or his boss, Rob Rosenstein or the head of the FBI Christopher Wray are let go any time soon a major constitutional crisis will be upon us. Hopefully we will get through this without that occurring and truth will win out.
by Dick Goodson
Photo via Gage Skidmore
Posted 2/5/18
5 Comments on "Our Impending Constitutional Crisis"
Trump and the GOP cabal gave up their ethics and common sense many years ago. They have learned to distort the truth and confuse the American public with their half-truths and lies. The memo is one more example of their abuse of political power. The best way to stop the GOP and their divisive tactics is to vote them out in 2018 and 2020.
It’s far too late to not politicize the Mueller Inverstigation. The Republicans, and Nunes/the Pretender in the Oval Office have ensured that all hope of a non-partisan (on their part) investigations is gone. Mueller will do what he will do, Thank Heaven – and the bots and the Republicans will do almost anything they can do derail what he and his staf are doing.
Welcome to Russia-on-the-Potomac, Comrade.
The chips will fall. Nixon also tried to quash his opposition but we lived in more bi-partisan times when our Congresspeople were dedicated to our constitutional values.
As I find myself in the Winter years of my life, I do find the present days of America fearful and interesting, to say the least. I come to believe the groundwork for what we are witnessing these days was laid back in President Ronald Reagan days. You know, there was a time when the news media made a mistake, they were required to publish a correction. Now we have had years of commentary and media like Fox being fed to us under their auspices as news and it is not required to be corrected which has produced a perfect storm that has created the Darkness of what we are witnessing today. We now have Trump who supports White Supremacy-KKK and like-minded folks, he wants to build the wall to enhance his bigoted bullying mind, has questionable business practices along with his questionable ties to Russia, and+ let’s not forget the amount of lying that he does. The list could go on and one could surmise that Trump’s resume must be a closet full of negatives and the results so far can be realized in his draining of the swamp, his support of the new tax bill, deregulation, his bad ideas on health care. If one pays attention at all, Trump loves to negatively tweet and stir up a lot of bad excrement. To top all of the Darkness of Trump, we have the Majority of the Republican Majority supporting all of the Darkness that Trump leaves in his wake even the tearing down of America’s Icons. During this time of chaos, we are even witnessing a segment of the Religious folks supporting all of the Darkness of Trump. I do not know about you, But I believe The FBI, Commey, Robert Mueller and his investigators above the Darkness coming out of Washington and some of the State Houses.
I agree with all opinions above and let me make it clear after the Presidents remarks this afternoon that opinion will not change. Ever. But here is a piece of advice for him–you are your own worst enemy ; have you no self-control at all?