Quick quiz: Who offered this quote and what was the context?
“This isn’t politics as usual. It’s dangerous and possibly criminal.”
Was it a) Henry Waxman talking about the Plame Game scandal; b) me talking about the White House lying to Congress about the cost of Bush’s Medicare scheme; c) Joe Biden talking about the administration’s decision to ignore international law in the prison abuse scandals; or d) Tom DeLay talking about CBS’s use of dubious National Guard documents.
Obviously, it’s a quote from DeLay, but I think it reinforces just how twisted the Republicans’ priorities have become.
The probably-bogus documents, which relay accurate information about Bush shirking his National Guard responsibilities, have generated some red-in-the-face anger from the GOP, including calls yesterday for a congressional investigation.
A Republican congressman has asked for an investigation into CBS News’ use of “apparently forged documents concerning the service record of President George W. Bush.”
Rep. Christopher Cox, of California, delivered a letter Wednesday to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Internet saying CBS used the memos “to unfairly damage [Bush’s] reputation and influence the outcome of the 2004 presidential election.”
“Despite the growing abundance of evidence that CBS News has aided and abetted fraud, the network has declined to reveal the source of the disputed documents,” Cox said.
If this weren’t so transparently ridiculous, it’d be hilarious.
CBS, it now appears, was duped. The documents, while containing accurate information, are not, in all likelihood, legitimate. But to see the way in which GOP lawmakers selectively choose to use their investigatory power is to watch clowns perform in a theater of the absurd.
Here we have a situation in which a network used bogus documents as part of a broader story. No one, anywhere, has disputed the validity of the charges within these documents, nor any of the other charges brought up in the CBS report. The network’s credibility will (and should) suffer as a result of this controversy, but why on earth does Congress need to launch a federal investigation?
To be sure, I’ve been wondering when Congress would regain its shark-like appetite for contentious hearings. I should have realized the target would sooner be Dan Rather than George W. Bush.
Consider controversies which, by any reasonable measure, went beyond “politics as usual,” and delved deeply into situations that were “dangerous and possibly criminal” — the Plame Game scandal, forged documents used by the White House to sell an unnecessary war, Bush’s Medicare fraud, prison abuse scandals and violations of international law, Enron bilking the government, Halliburton’s no-bid contracts, and so on. In each of these instances, there were countless calls for Congress to consider these controversies with hearings, investigations, and/or subpoenas. And in each instance, Republican lawmakers said the scandals weren’t worthy of Congress’ time.
But CBS runs an accurate report using spurious documents? Time for hearings!
I can appreciate the fact that GOP lawmakers have embraced the hypocrite label, which they now wear with great pride, but take another look at Christopher Cox’s quote. Instead of the Killian memos, insert the lies spread by the Swiftboat Hacks. They used trumped up charges “concerning the service record” of John Kerry; the false charges were used to “unfairly damage [Kerry’s] reputation and influence the outcome of the 2004 presidential election”; and the journalists who spread the group’s lies “aided and abetted fraud.”
So, under Cox’s logic, the House should launch full-scale hearings into the Swiftboat group’s lies, too. Any chance of that happening?