Ok, it is. An anonymous Mill Town of the early Industrial Age all growed up in the middle of the most boring stretch of highway between me and Maine where about a week from now I’ll be attending a rare performance by Mame Dennis who does most of her work behind the curtain currently.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I voted for Republicans.
I mean, I’ve always been a registered Democrat and when asked my political affiliation that’s usually how I answer though my philosophy is Anarcho-Syndicalist, but there was a time when I considered, and did, vote for a Republican or two. For instance we had a good Mayor in Stars Hollow who was very anti-development that was a Republican and he had my support.
Another one was Lowell Weicker. See Lowell was a Liberal Republican and while it’s an oxymoron now he was in fact a Big Government New Deal Fair Deal Great Society Liberal, more so than many Democrats.
Conservatives hated him and recruited Joe Lieberman to chuck him out of the Senate (one of the many things personal and political I despise about Joe) and he turned around and ran for Governor as an Independent.
They hated him even more after that because he instituted a State Income Tax and there are a number of Grover Norquist Club for Growth types who can’t let go of it even though it’s been almost 25 years.
But that’s the local view, most United States citizens remember him for his work on the Senate Watergate Committee and he has an OpEd in today’s WaPo reflecting on that experience in light of our current situation I think is worthy of your attention.
I was on the Watergate committee. Don’t hide Mueller’s report from the people.
By Lowell Weicker, Washington Post
February 7, 2019
Nearly 46 years ago, I was among seven U.S. senators who were part of the Senate Watergate Committee charged with investigating corruption and coverups at the highest levels of government. At the opening hearing, I asked, “The gut question for the committee and country alike is and was how much truth do we want?” None of us knew precisely what we would find — a list of enemies kept by the president, and tapes that proved the president’s complicity — but we knew that, as an equal branch of government, duly elected with a responsibility to provide effective oversight, we had to get to the truth.
Today, as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III enters the fourth quarter of his investigation, the questions are familiar ones for the 116th Congress: How much truth do you want? And how much truth do you owe the American people? My bottom line is the same as it was in 1973: It isn’t enough for the special counsel to complete his investigation and then have his report buried in a drawer at the Justice Department, or censored by those appointed by the subject of the investigation. Mueller’s report and full findings must be made public for Congress and the American people to read. It is the only way to pull our country together around the truth, which after all should be the standard.
I don’t know what Mueller has found or will find. I know there is much that is deeply disturbing in the indictments already public. But I know that if the president is as innocent as he has argued from day one, then he should want Mueller’s report to be public and transparent, rather than rebutted and censored as Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, has already suggested he will do.
Our country is as polarized as we have been in recent memory. President Trump’s tweets and tantrums about Mueller’s inquiry do a disservice to anyone who simply wants the truth about Russia’s attacks on our elections and whether any Americans conspired with them. That is why the public needs to see the special counsel’s full, unvarnished findings for themselves — with redactions to protect only information that is classified or otherwise restricted by statute. Only by reading the evidence and conclusions that detail how Russia carried out its attacks and whether any members of the Trump campaign committed additional crimes can the country protect itself from future threats and assess accountability.
The good news is that I hear some voices emerging in Congress across partisan lines, green shoots of statesmanship after a winter of silence. Republican Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) have co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that would protect not just this special counsel, but all future special counsels, from political interference. Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) recently introduced legislation that would require the Justice Department to release the special counsel’s findings to Congress and the public.
To those who argue that it is hopeless to expect the president’s party to do more than rubber-stamp his attacks on Mueller through silence or action, I’d remind them of where we found ourselves in 1973. President Richard Nixon had carried 49 states in the 1972 election. He would remain popular with a majority of Republicans until the day he left office. But we drew the line, nonetheless. There is a proper place for Congress to take Mueller’s findings and hold anyone who committed a crime accountable, including the president.
It will take all of us — Republicans, Democrats, and none of the above — joining once again to make sure Mueller can release his findings for everyone to read. If that happens, I am confident that we will emerge stronger , as Ernest Hemingway wrote, “at the broken places.”
I think Lowell is incredibly optimistic. I can’t imagine a Republican today that would vote to convict Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio, though I could be pleasantly surprised.
That does not mean he should not be Impeached, as a matter of fact, if you care about the Constitution at all, it’s kind of mandatory.
Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio is a Russian spy, a Traitor. He has Obstructed Justice and Abused his Power. He’s as guilty, guilty, guilty as Richard Nixon ever was of all the same things only Super Sized and with an additional side of Treason.
The reason he must be Impeached is as an example to others there is Political Conduct that is unacceptable in a Democracy and a consensual Blow Job (albeit with creepy power dynamics) IS NOT IT!
After 70 years of the Cold War, what is so difficult to comprehend about “Spying for Russia, Bad.”? It’s so simple even the Lizard Brained Racist Republicans and the illiterate Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio can understand it.
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