No, I’m not talking about Bush and Cheney starting a war based on cooked intelligence, nor dismantling habeas corpus, nor employing illegal wiretapping, nor inserting signing statements into bills not vetoed, nor…well, you get it.
I'm talking about Democrats, yes, Democrats. As obvious as it should be that the Republicans are the ones who have committed treason this article entitled When Does Politics Become Treason accuses Democrats who dare to question DICKtator Bush in a time of war of being traitors. Written in 2003, published in Insight on the News by Michael Waller and Kenneth Timmerman, both rightwing smear merchants, every single word in their 2003 article could easily be the playbook for the Bush/Cheney evildoings.
In the article the authors cleverly cite Abraham Lincoln throughout their writings in order to make the case that it is, indeed, the Democrats who are bordering on treason. And to make their case they included one statement under an image of Lincoln that reads “Laying down the law: Lincoln’s policy was to have treasonous federal lawmakers arrested and tried before military tribunals, and exiled or hanged if convicted.” In another part of the article Lincoln’s own words are used and read as follows: “Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged.”
So the basis of this unitary executive with broad authority rests solely on ensuring that this country is in a state of perpetual WAR. This is why the Republicans cannot allow the occupation of Iraq to end and it is further evidence of why the occupation is consistently referred to as WAR. It also makes sense that we have a “backup” WAR in the works in the form of an attack on Iran. Endless WAR equals endless presidential authority.
Here are some of the instances in which Democrats are cited as having been treasonous, according to Waller and Timmerman.
- Senator Jay Rockefeller “ decided to turn the probe [The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that was investigating 911 and possible faulty intelligence leading to the Iraq attack] into a savage and bitterly partisan weapon against the White House.
- Fox News received a leaked memo that was authored by a Rockefeller staffer.
- Senator Bill Frist was outraged at the leaked memo, saying, “For a quarter-century there has been a consensus in the Senate that the committee’s non-partisan tradition must be carefully safeguarded. Nothing else is acceptable. I came to the [Senate] floor because that critical tradition has now been willfully attacked. How can I say that? By this memo,” Frist roared.
- Intelligence professionals agree that the plan was a grave breach during a time of war.
- And, of course, lest they ever leave Clinton out of the equation….a senior Bush aide said, “When [Bill] Clinton got a [sexual favor] in the White House he unleashed a thousand Lanny Davises and he won. The handling of the Rockefeller memorandum follows the same strategy.”
- In 1986 Patrick Leahy was accused of repeatedly revealing sensitive secrets in interviews with reporters when he let an NBC reporter read a secret draft on the emerging Iran-Contra scandal. The Intelligence Committee investigated and forced Leahy to resign from the panel.
- Dick Morris referred to Hillary Clinton’s trip to Baghdad prior to the 2004 elections as Hillary’s “badwill tour of Iraq’. The authors say that she had to be assigned greeters, unlike Bush who “showed up unannounced on Thanksgiving Day to serve turkey to servicemen and women on combat duty in Baghdad” where he was greeted with “wild cheers”. Additionally, the authors say that Al- Jazeera broadcast her remarks and used them as propaganda against the U.S.
- Al-Jazeera also used Senator Jack Reed’s words as propaganda when he “opined that the administration’s justification for the war was “tenuous at best” and that Americans “could look back and see the decision to attack Iraq was one that ended up being very, very costly.”
- Former NYC police commissioner Bernard Kerik was quoted as saying, (according to then Iraqi police captain Anwar Ibrahim) “Our enemies all have satellite television and they are watching. When they hear this kind of thing (referring to Clinton and Reed) they think they are winning. Such delusions cost American lives.”
Then the article backs up their assertion that Congressmen can and have been tried for treason by citing Congressmen of long ago who have been convicted of treason; Robert Alexander, Andrew Alien, Joseph Galloway, Lambdin Milligan, Alexander Long, and Clement Vallandigham who had varying degrees of punishment, primarily from confiscation of property, but other measures such as exile in the Confederacy.
At the end of this diatribe the authors quote lawyer and author Henry Mark Holzer, who wrote a book about Jane Fonda’s “exploits” during the Vietnam War. Holzer stops short of saying there is treason involved in speaking out about wartime issues, but he says what Mrs. Clinton did “may be comfort to the enemy, but it’s not treasonous. For stunts such as hers, the only possible remedy is at the ballot box. It’s the price we pay for the First Amendment”. So rightwingers have been trying to put Hillary and treason in the same sentence for a long time.
And there you have it. Use the Abraham Lincoln analogy, twist events and language around to justify the right wing lunacy, throw in a few Clinton quotes, along with a fake turkey story, and voila! Justification of treason for all who would merely question the legitimacy and wisdom of war. No wonder the wiretaps, the perpetual war, with rumbles of more war, the obstruction, the signing statements, the politicization of the courts, the voter fraud, the overzealous Republican backing of Joe Lieberman in 2006, the commutation of Libby’s sentence. The criminals in this administration are hanging on for their very lives, lest THEY be found to be the SABOTEURS that we know they are.
WARNING TO DEMOCRATS: Watch your backsides. The right wing machine has been building their case for years. And, in order to look “bi-partisan” Democrats, by and large, let the Republican criminals have their way. Now that there is oversight of all their evil doings this administration is fighting back with everything in their arsenal.
What is happening in the last few days with Hillary Clinton vs. The Pentagon would appear to be part of the strategy to turn the tables on the Democrats. Forget that our executive branch leaked the name of a CIA undercover operative, with no regret and no disciplinary action. THAT was a treasonous action, but there apparently will be no price for them to pay. This group of criminals is relentless, if nothing else. With nothing to lose and time running out, the Democrats should be mindful that WAR is the underlying justification for all the malfeasance of Bush/Cheney. Take away WAR and we can put a stake through the heart of the Bush/Cheney beast.
Addendum: I had just finished this diary when I ended up watching Hardball. I’d like to thank Naomi Wolf for her kickass takedown of Smellanie Morgan. I have no link, but ironically, the discussion was almost completely about treason, with Smellanie sticking by her statement last year that Bill Keller, of the NY Times, should be hanged if found guilty of printing treasonous information. Naomi took her to the woodshed and told her that nobody should ever die for asking tough questions, especially since freedom of speech is what our men and women are fighting for. She then told her to go read the Constitution. This is how to take apart the lunatics like Melanie Morgan.