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The Iran-contra investigation lasted seven years and cost 60 billion dollars and the report was delivered on Friday before the election on Tuesday! The Democrats don't seem to remember any of this,
Well, I DO, and keep volunteering my disgust with the drag out of Iran-Contra before anyone else brings it up.
I also expressed that disgust to close friends at the time.
BTW, I've always thought that the cost of these things is a silly issue. It's a drop in the sea for the Federal budget. Or rather, the cost is relevant primarily to the question of proportionality, and the onslaught that any individual, even the President when forced to defend himself with his own privately paid attorneys (if he wishes to enjoy attorney-client privilege, which is fundament to a good defense).
Although that was at root about high foreign policy issues, and the current Starr referral is at root about sex sin in the White House, my reasons for disgust are actually similar. The basic underlying conduct was not clearly illegal. And although extremely distasteful to many or most in the opposing party (and to many people generally), it wasn't really enough to go forward. Instead, in each case, the investigation devolved primarily into a sort of gotcha perjury trap.
As many of these investigations have. The charges against Cisneros for lying to the FBI about the fact that he had a mistress for example. (Under Federal statutes, lying to the FBI is generally a crime - which I regard as completely outrageous, but there you are. (Who are they, a neutral and fair tribunal under all circumstances. Balanced by the challenge of opposing counsel? Etc., etc.)
Doug |
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