Christmas morning was going well enough, until I got the paper out of its little orange bag and got a look at the top, above the fold headline. Apparently, while no one was looking, the 109th Congress had been fulfilling some of its investigatory duties after all. But, why, might you ask, would that put a damper on Christmas? Isn’t that a good thing?
It would be, had the investigation subject been, say, no-bid Iraq contracts, or flimsy excuses for war. Instead, while we weren’t looking, Dana Rohrabacher and his band of merry men on the The House International Relations investigative subcommittee were steadily pursuing the case of the performance of the FBI and Department of Justice in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing.
And, surprise, surprise, the Clinton-era FBI and DoJ were found lacking, on account of not investigating the tragedy carefully enough, being in too much of a rush to execute McVeigh (a point on which I agree), on not following up on leads of people other than Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols being involved in the bombing, including, possibly, FOREIGNERS.
Granted, something that big, conspiracy theories will inevitably follow. But, you think about the myriad 9/11 fantasies, and more so than the details of those conspiracy theories, you recall their proponents being dismissed as crackpots, and being hounded by right wing 'pundits' for daring to suggest anything other than the official line might be true. On a personal level, I go to school at the Uuniversity of Wisconsin-Madison, home of Kevin Barrett. I don’t point that out to say I agree with his ideas on 9/11; I don’t, and frankly, I haven’t found any compelling 9/11 alternative theories. It's just that the 9/11 conspiracies that have been put forward have been ridiculed (and often enough, rightly so). Then what, exactly, is Congress (and I say that because forevermore, Rohrabacher’s last gasp, "we’re losing power next week, so I better get one last blast in on the Clintons while I still can" will carry the imprint of "Congressional inquiry") doing giving official sanction to Oklahoma City tin hattery?
On one level, it puts the, "hey, there must have been some foreign involvement, no way could these two nice American white guys pulled it off all on their own, right? And even if we can't conclude that any foreign involvement was present, it must be due to lack of due diligence on the part of the FBI," concept back in the spotlight. On another level, it just points out the sheer hypocrisy of the Republican 109th Congress in refusing to investigate any of the many substantive issues generated by the Bush Administration. I was almost laughing at the gall in the quote below, in reference to the OKC investigation.
Rohrabacher's subcommittee saved its sharpest words for the Justice Department, saying officials there exhibited a mindset of thwarting congressional oversight and did not assist the investigation fully.
I mean, excuse me? Dare we expect to see any similar language from Republicans regarding Bush Administration procedures? Even if they had continued in power, I feel pretty confident that the answer would be no.
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I looked at the AP piece again later in the day, and this time caught the byline, our old friend, John "Harry Reid Must Die" Solomon. Maybe that explains something, I don't know. The story's been sticking in my craw all day, and I had to get it off my chest.