The Charade is Now Over
by JohnHuang2
December 7, 2001
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At the end of the day, Leahy's much ballyhooed 'hearings' became the proverbial dog that didn't bite.
The proceedings, ostensibly to plumb the administration's "controversial" decision to use military tribunals to try Osama Bin Laden and other foreign terrorists for war crimes, were billed in advance by the press as the moment America had been waiting for -- the greatest show on earth! U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft would be shamed and humiliated -- reduced to smoldering ash over Leahy's flaming grill, the *ash* in *Ashcroft* acquiring new meaning.
Last week's hearings with Michael Chertoff, Ashcroft's point man at DOJ's criminal division, were sold as dress rehearsal, a taste of what awaited his boss the following week. Chertoff was treated rudely, spitefully by tactless Committee Democrats. 'Ashcroft is toast now, and we're rearin' to go,' Democrats would gleefully tell their media chums afterwards.
The Bush haters had everything vested in these Kangaroo hearings. They hoped the scintillating spectacle would light a fire under this issue, setting off a storm of popular resistance.
The opposite proved to be the case.
For Ashcroft, the hearings yesterday were certainly no Waterloo. Following Leahy's rambling/disjointed opening, the proceedings became a boring, humdrum display of mediocrity -- on a grand scale. Rather than blazing fireworks, the only detectable heat on that committee billowed from flaming liberals, who spend sleepless nights distressed over 'poor' Osama Bin Laden's "constitutional" "rights" and "liberties."
To hear the paranoid rantings of Leahy and his ilk, America becomes a totalitarian police state UNLESS Osama Bin Laden is read his Miranda rights, is formally served an arrest warrant and is accorded nothing less than all of the "rights" and "protections" reserved for every American.
Hold on, not so fast: Last time I checked, Osama Bin Laden wasn't an American...
Gee, apparently, the clique of demented black Helicopter schizoids on Leahy's side of that committee have yet to notice there's a war going on.
Oh, and the putrid hypocrisy of it all. The same charlatans piously feigning "concern" over "privacy rights" and the 'rule of law' -- without the vaguest hint of irony -- demanded to know why DOJ denied an FBI request for records of background checks on private citizens who purchase firearms!
Ashcroft calmly and gently reminded the gun grabbers that, er, that's the law of the land. The New York Times conveniently omitted this niggling detail from its Thursday 'blockbuster' from which Committee Democrats were obviously drawing their asinine line of questioning.
End of story.
On the public relations front, in an effort to limit negative fallout for Democrats, the media till now has been careful to frame this issue under the phony cloak of 'bipartisanship' as if opposition to military tribunals and other anti-terrorist measures derived equally from both sides of the aisle.
That charade is now over.
Last time I checked, leaky Leahy was not a Republican. Nor was that guzzling boozer, Teddy Kennedy. Nor was greedy-shyster-lawyer-turned-pol John Edwards of North Carolina. Near as I could tell, all the sniveling and snuffling and bleating emanated from the Democrat side.
But, through it all, America's top cop handled his detractors with aplomb. His steadfast composure, his grace under fire, his patient demeanor frustrated his former Democrat colleagues who tried desperately to trip him up. Everything the loonies threw at him, he would toss right back in their faces.
Man, am I glad adults are back in charge!
My two cents..
"JohnHuang2" |
