(referencing Saturday’s post )
- THE JUDGE ROY MOORE ‘LYNCH MOB’…THIS IS NOT AMERICA
- REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT: UN “PEACEKEEPERS” HAVE MORE COURAGE THAN THESE GUYS
- THEY GOT YOUR BACK ALRIGHT…UNLESS YOU ARE A CONSERVATIVE
- FAIRNESS, IF THERE IS ANY IN WASHINGTON ESTABLISHMENT POLITICS, DEMANDS A DIFFERENT APPROACH…WE OFFER ONE
- TO THE LIST OF TREACHEROUS, UNTRUSTWORTHY, COWARDLY REPUBLICANS PROVIDED BY MR. FISCHER AT AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION, THERE A FEW MORE ‘STANDOUT, STANDUP PEOPLE WHO RICHLY DESERVE TO BE CALLED OUT:
– Mike Lee. You never know where Senator Lee is going to come down. On occasion, he appears to be a solid conservative. On other times, and this is one, he seems to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of “Swamp Properties, Inc.” It’s how Mike rolls.
– Mitt Romney. Has earned a place in the GOP’s ‘Hall Of Infamy’ several times over. Mitt has proven to be a man with one more face than anyone should have. He was a “Never Trumper” right out of the starting block.
– Do we need to name the Bushes? Tired old GHW has happily announced he voted for Hillary; don’t ask him about Roy Moore. And GW. He says he voted for neither Trump or Hillary. Believe that? I got some swampland in Washington D C you might be interested in. After all, she is the wife of George’s “brother from another mother”!
They are just a few, but there are many more. There are “Flakes” and nasally-challenged Collinses, and so on. Most are solid members of “the Club”, the Washington Establishment. Others desperately want to be. Some have been doing their treachery and betrayal for years and are still in a position to do more.
Before we offer what used to be a time-honored approach to handling un-substantiated charges and uncorroborated slanders, let us take a walk down ‘memory lane’ for those of you who’ve only recently come to know the true ‘establishment’ of the Republican Party and the scurrilous tactics of the Democratic Party.
REMEMBER THESE NAMES?:
*Tom Delay, Former GOP House Majority Leader. Indicted and convicted of illegal campaign contributions and money laundering, forced to resign as House Majority Leader and to drop out of his race for reelection. The case was eventually thrown out and conviction overturned by the Texas Court of Appeal (8 to 1 decision). Cost, however, was 9 years and millions $ in legal fees, and a career destroyed, brought about by a corrupt Travis County Dmocratic prosecutor (It was the same corrupt county that tried to drive Rick Perry out of politics with political corruption charges which were also later dropped.)
Larry Craig, GOP US Senator. Driven from office by allegations by a police officer assigned to sit on a toilet in the Minn-St.Paul airport to try to catch homosexuals soliciting. (This is a classic. Craig was not defended at all by his Republican colleagues; not unusual other than the absurd circumstances and the Party’s abject refusal to have a long time fellow senator’s back).
Mark Foley, former GOP US Congressman. Driven from office for texting “suggestive” messages to male congressional interns. Totally abandoned by his fellow Republican colleagues, completely on his own. Foley had often voted against Dem favored initiatives on behalf of “gay rights”. It would not be a complete story though without mentioning another name, Democrat **Gary Studds. a Dem congressman who admitted to gay sexual encounters with UNDERAGE congressional interns. Studds was then, with the full backing of his party, reelected 6 times and given a ‘hero’s’ funeral upon his death in 2006, hailed as a “pioneer”! (read about the whole sordid account in NPR, presented below).
***Ted Stevens, LATE FORMER VERY POPULAR LONG TIME GOP SENATOR FROM ALASKA; See if this doesn’t sound similar to Judge Moore’s current plight.
Stevens was the longest serving member of the Senate and had been elected by Alaskans to 7 terms. In July 2008, prior to the November election that Stevens was all but certain to win, the Senator was indicted on several counts of corruption. Eight days before the Nov. election, he was found guilty and subsequently narrowly lost his reelection bid. Before sentencing, though, District Judge Emmett Sullivan overturned the verdict, noting “in nearly 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct (by the federal prosecutors) that I’ve seen in this case.” To hear those comments and to have his indictment and conviction thrown out, however, was not all that satisfying for Senator Stevens. He lost his seat and the Democrats gained a Senate slot. And an outpouring of support for Mr. Stevens from his Republican colleagues throughout his ordeal never occurred. As someone has already suggested, you don’t want to share a foxhole with those guys!
These are only a few examples of a long list of Republicans, themselves successful in many ways during long careers in GOP politics but lacking those precious establishment credentials who have been abandoned, undefended, and driven from public service with the help of their own party. Frequently these are people who have built solid reputations for sound character and admirable service, but at the first whiff of attack on their characters and reputations by Democrats, too often baseless and, several times proven to be corrupt, the Republican establishment has chosen to pander to the liberal media rather than take a principled stand on behalf of their own.
As to Judge Moore, allegations have been leveled against him, accompanied by disgusting detail but unsubstantiated and brought by some persons, as Mr. Fischer noted, of dubious character themselves, only a month before an election he was likely to win.
The facts of the entire matter raise so many questions that the McCains, Romneys, and Lees seem indifferent to, or not interested, in asking:
– Why, after almost 40 years, none of this was raised during Judge Moore’s long public career? Nor was it raised during the primary. Where was Majority Leader McConnell’s vaunted skills of due diligence?
– How did this come to light at this time, with an important election only a month away? Did the ladies making these allegations come forward on their own out of a deep sense of civic duty? Who is the WaPo reporter…his background? How did he learn of Mr. Moore’s alleged antics of so long ago? Was any money offered to these ladies?
Finally, we wish to suggest a more sensible, more rational approach to this matter.
Obviously the charges suddenly brought by these ladies whose 38 year old recollections are so vivid in detail, are serious. Primarily, though, they speak to the character and behavior of a 32 year old Roy Moore. Today’s 70 year old Roy Moore appears by all measures to be a far different person than portrayed by these allegations, a man of accomplishment, integrity, and of widely admired reputation…despised only by those put off by his firm commitment to Christian principles, AND BY HIS FAILURE TO KOWTOW TO THE WASHINGTON ESTABLISHMENT.
Perhaps his youthful indiscretions, if indeed they were as portrayed, can be compared to those of an older John McCain. One whose past includes dumping a wife who stood firmly behind him throughout his captivity in Vietnam, who was badly injured in an accident and thus suffered severe physical impairment and permanent disfigurement, and was thus “traded in” by Mr. McCain for a much younger, glamorous, wealthy woman of “connections” who was able to advance the “war hero’s” political ambitions.
Redemption is possible, as Mr. McCain would surely attest. He must recall his own ordeal in the “Keating Five” scandals, references to liberal attacks here here and here. Unbalanced reports, to be sure, but isn’t that the point.
How can Mr. McCain explain the fairness of demanding that Judge Moore, just 30 days, before a crucial election that he won the right, fairly and honestly, to compete in, step down?
Our suggestion for the way to ease the “deep concerns of Senator McCain and the others making similar demands is to “stand down” for now. These, again, are only very disgusting “rumors”. The Republican Party should not cut off its support to Moore’s campaign. Voters should be asked to recognize that this quite possibly is just another unconscionable attack by people who have a track record for making baseless, corrupt, deeply dishonest attacks on people in order to win elections.
And, if indeed, these allegations at some point in the future are proven to be true, there are appropriate actions which can be taken by the US Senate and the political parties to remove a sitting senator.
Fundamental, civilized American fairness demands such an approach! DLH
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* Delay: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled eight to one that prosecutors had failed to make their case that the former House majority leader was guilty of money laundering as part of a plan to redraw the Texas political map in 2002. The court ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that campaign contributions DeLay received were illegal. DeLay was sentenced to a three-year prison term but has been free on appeal since 2011. “This is the end of the line for this case,” said Mr. DeLay’s lawyer, Brian Wice. “The Court of Criminal Appeals shut down a prosecution almost nine years to the day that the Travis county District Attorney’s Office embarked on this unconscionable jaunt.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/404754
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**Rep. Studds, a Congressional Pioneer, Dead at 69
October 14, 20065:21 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
Former Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay man elected to Congress, dies at 69. He retired in 1997. Studds was censured by the House in 1983 after admitting an affair with a 17-year-old former page, but won re-election. . . .
Mr. Studds’ name has been back in the news since revelations that former Florida Congressman Mark Foley exchanged sexually explicit instant messages with a former male page. In 1983, Studds became the first representative ever to be censured by the House for sexual misconduct after an ex-page revealed that he and Studds had had an affair when the page was just 17.
But while Foley resigned immediately, Studds acknowledged his homosexuality and took his case to the voters. In a debate before the 1984 primary, Studds was challenged by his Democratic opponent and received the support of his constituents.
(Soundbite of 1984 debate)
Unidentified Man #1: I simply would like you to explain to these people tonight, as you have refused to do for a year, why your relationship with a teenage page would be any different than a sexual relationship between a teacher and a student.
(Soundbite of jeering crowd)
Unidentified Man #2: Mr. Studds, you have 30 seconds to reply.
Representative GARY STUDDS (Democrat, Massachusetts): That’s the easiest question I’ve ever been asked. There wasn’t anything right about it. It was a damn stupid and inappropriate thing to do, and I never said anything else.
LYDEN: Studds went on to win that election and five more. He retired in 1997. Studds and his long-time partner, Dean Harrah(ph), were among the first gay couples to wed in Massachusetts. According to Harrah, the former congressman collapsed on a walk last week. Doctors diagnosed a blood clot in his lung. Studds died today in Boston.
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***TED STEVENS…
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A federal judge on Tuesday set aside the conviction of Republican former Sen. Ted Stevens while excoriating the case’s prosecutors.
District Judge Emmet Sullivan also appointed an independent, nongovernment attorney, Henry Schuelke III, to investigate possible misconduct by the government lawyers who prosecuted the 85-year-old former senator from Alaska.
“In nearly 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case,” Su
und guilty of seven counts of lying on Senate ethics forms. He lost his bid for re-election in November to Democratic challenger Mark Begich, then mayor of Anchorage.
In December, an unnamed FBI whistle-blower accused prosecutors of withholding evidence from the defense. The whistle-blower reported that someone with the government had an inappropriate relationship with Bill Allen, an oil industry executive who was the government’s key witness.
In a dismissal motion filed Wednesday, the Justice Department acknowledged that Stevens was not given access to the notes taken by prosecutors during an April 2008 interview with Allen.
The notes show that responses by Allen were inconsistent with testimony he gave against Stevens and that information from the interview could have benefited Stevens at trial, according to the motion.
Don’t Miss
Lawyer says prosecutors’ request ‘cleared’ Stevens
“When we were finally given [the notes], you might have thought my reaction would be to celebrate, do high-fives, that we were right,” Brendan Sullivan, an attorney for Stevens, said Tuesday. “It was not like that at all. I was sick to my stomach. How could they do that? Then my revulsion turned to rage, silent rage for a number of days.”
The revelation also helped prompt Attorney General Eric Holder to drop the case.
“In light of this conclusion, and in consideration of the totality of the circumstances of this particular case, I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement last week.
“If I were Sen. [Robert] Byrd, I’d say ‘hallelujah,’ ” a triumphant Stevens said after leaving the courthouse Tuesday.
Stevens maintained his innocence throughout a government investigation that led to an indictment and conviction for failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars of “freebies” from an oilfield services company on Senate ethics forms.
In a statement read to the court Tuesday, Stevens said that his faith in the justice system had been restored.
“Until recently, my faith in the criminal justice system was unwavering. But what some members of this prosecution team did nearly destroyed my faith. Their conduct has consequences they must know can never be reversed,” he said.
“But [I now have] new hope that others may be spared from similar miscarriages of justice.”
Stevens added that he would “encourage the enactment of legislation to reform laws relating to the responsibilities and duties of those entrusted with the solemn task of enforcing federal criminal laws.”
Paul O’Brien, one of the new government attorneys assigned to the case, made no attempt to the justify the conduct of the previous prosecution team. “We deeply regret this occurred,” he said. “We apologize to the court.”
In issuing his ruling, Sullivan noted the Justice Department’s investigation into potential misconduct by government prosecutors had gone on for six months with no result.
“The silence is deafening,” Sullivan said.
The judge previously had excoriated prosecutors during the trial and held the prosecution in contempt at one point.
One of Stevens’ longtime friends, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, said last weekend that Stevens was “screwed by our own Justice Department.”
Hatch praised Holder for “standing up and fixing this foul situation.”
“I think he’s more than shown integrity and decency in this matter, and it’s not an easy thing for him to do that,” Hatch said. “He has, in looking at it, realized now what people like myself have been saying is 100 percent right.”
In the days that followed the Justice Department’s dismissal motion, Alaska state Republican leaders, including Gov. Sarah Palin, called on Begich to step down and allow a rematch without what has been called the “taint” of a criminal case against Stevens.
“There’s no way [Stevens] can just ‘put this behind him’ as some have suggested he should,” Palin said in a statement released Tuesday.
Begich, while indicating his support for a special prosecutor to investigate the botched prosecution, stated that he intends to serve his six-year term.
One of the Stevens prosecutors later committed suicide.
