Michael Gaynor
A good start, Mr. President. But not quite Clarence Thomas-worthy
By Michael Gaynor
When it comes to confronting fierce political opponents and calling a spade a spade instead of a digging implement adapted for being pushed into the ground with the foot, President Bush is not yet in the class of Justice Clarence Thomas. A man whom he rightly admires. But there is hope for the President. He's learning. On Veteran's Day, President Bush stopped being a punching bag and threw a right hand punch to the body of those who have been infecting the American body politic with their poison. With 57% of Americans reportedly considering him untrustworthy, thanks to constantly repeated but mostly ignored lies, it was past time. Better late than never.
When the political opponents of Justice Thomas tried to block his confirmation as an Associate United States Supreme Court Justice, Justice Thomas confronted them. He called a high-tech lynching...a high-tech lynching. By doing so, he saved his nomination and won confirmation.
In 1991, Justice Thurgood Marshall, America's first black Supreme Court Justice retired and President George H.W. Bush nominated Justice Thomas to fill the vacancy. There was ferocious opposition, because Justice Thomas had criticized affirmative action and was suspected of opposing abortion. At a July 1991 National Organization of Women conference, feminist Florence Kennedy announced the basic Thomas opposition strategy: "We're going to bork him." It had worked in 1987. And they expected it to work again.
They tried mightily. Toward the expected end of the confirmation hearings, Democrat staffers for the Senate Judiciary Committee leaked to National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg the contents of an FBI report which reported that a former colleague of Justice Thomas, University of Oklahoma law school professor Anita Hill, had accused him of sexually harassing her when the two had worked together at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Apparently contradictory statements by Ms. Hill and additional testimony for Justice Thomas by former female associates cast great doubt upon Ms. Hill's claims. The Committee did not find sufficient evidence to corroborate it. [Hill supporters insisted that relevant testimony from Angela Wright, an EEOC PR director who allegedly had witnessed offensive conduct, was suppressed, even though the Democrats controlled the Senate. (Democrats opted not to call Ms. Wright as a witness after Justice Thomas testified that he had fired her for calling another employee a 'faggot.')]
What really saved the day for Justice Thomas was...Justice Thomas. The way he boldly confronted and refuted his attackers. Testifying under oath with respect to the Committee's investigation of the Hill claims, Justice Thomas did not mince words. He declared: "[A]s far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate rather than hung from a tree."
The Committee sent the Thomas nomination to the full Senate without recommendation. Justice Thomas was confirmed by the Senate with a 52-48 vote on October 15, 1991. The vote was not strictly by party lines: "yea" votes from 41 Republicans and 11 Democrats and "nay" votes from 46 Democrats and 2 Republicans.
After month after month of relentless pounding by his political enemies (including the many in the media), President Bush finally stood up and charged critics of the liberation of Iraq with "rewriting history." Not quite as stirring as charing your political enemies with "a high-tech lynching." But a good start.
During a Veterans Day speech at a military installation in Pennsylvania, President Bush charged that "it is deeply irresponsible" for those who criticize the war in Iraq to "rewrite the history of how that war began." "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," President Bush explained. He noted that foreign intelligence services and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced at the time that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. "Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war," he said, even though a Senate investigation "found no evidence" of political pressure to change the intelligence community's assessments related to Saddam's weapons program. "More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power," President Bush said. Adding that in the war on terror, America "will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory."
President Bush needs to continue to forcefully attack contemptible critics of the war in Iraq who rewrite history and undercut American forces on the front lines. "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," as President Bush said.
EXACTLY!
Commentator Fred Barnes said that it's "amazing it took the White House this long to get it back together and fight on this issue." Mr. Barnes reported that the Bush administration will launch an aggressive defense against the misleading and vicious attacks — primarily by hypocritical Democrats — that "Bush lied" about the war in Iraq. "Steve Hadley, the national security adviser, certainly refuted the critics Thursday," Barnes said. "He told the critics who said the president manipulated WMD intelligence that they are mistaken, citing all of the comments made by high-ranking Democrats [such as Sens. Clinton, Kennedy, Kerry, Schumer, Reid, Rockefeller etc.] who backed the war based on the same information."
Negative comments by Democrats about the war in Iraq have significantly damaged President Bush's credibility, as reflected in his plummeting poll ratings. Mr. Barnes is confident that those numbers will rise as Americans are reminded that Saddam was a killer and his history of possessing and using weapons of mass destruction made it essential that he be removed from power. "If you'll notice, Democrats say 'Bush Lied' but they never cite specific examples," Barnes said. "That's because they were saying the same things and many of their comments are captured on tape. To say that the president lied about the reasons to liberate Iraq is just incorrect. Ask the people of Iraq and they'll tell you that Saddam had to be removed. There is no doubt about that."
Mr. President, many Americans have joined the opposition because you failed to defend yourself and expected them to realize that the scurrilous charges against you were false. They have been waiting for you to reclaim your good anme and their trust. This Veteran's Day, you began that campaign. Perhaps the most important campaign you ever will mount. Take a page from Justice Clarence Thomas' playbook: call your contemptible political enemies who are out to destroy you and your Administration, and willing to undermine the War on Terror, duplicitous scoundrels and malevolent manipulators, and reassure the American people that you are their trustworthy public servant whom they elected and re-elected instead of excusing them as merely mistaken. The American people expect you to be outraged if you are innocent of the charges made by your political enemies (and you are), and to let them know that your political enemies are worse than mistaken if they are (and they are).
© Michael Gaynor
When it comes to confronting fierce political opponents and calling a spade a spade instead of a digging implement adapted for being pushed into the ground with the foot, President Bush is not yet in the class of Justice Clarence Thomas. A man whom he rightly admires. But there is hope for the President. He's learning. On Veteran's Day, President Bush stopped being a punching bag and threw a right hand punch to the body of those who have been infecting the American body politic with their poison. With 57% of Americans reportedly considering him untrustworthy, thanks to constantly repeated but mostly ignored lies, it was past time. Better late than never.
When the political opponents of Justice Thomas tried to block his confirmation as an Associate United States Supreme Court Justice, Justice Thomas confronted them. He called a high-tech lynching...a high-tech lynching. By doing so, he saved his nomination and won confirmation.
In 1991, Justice Thurgood Marshall, America's first black Supreme Court Justice retired and President George H.W. Bush nominated Justice Thomas to fill the vacancy. There was ferocious opposition, because Justice Thomas had criticized affirmative action and was suspected of opposing abortion. At a July 1991 National Organization of Women conference, feminist Florence Kennedy announced the basic Thomas opposition strategy: "We're going to bork him." It had worked in 1987. And they expected it to work again.
They tried mightily. Toward the expected end of the confirmation hearings, Democrat staffers for the Senate Judiciary Committee leaked to National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg the contents of an FBI report which reported that a former colleague of Justice Thomas, University of Oklahoma law school professor Anita Hill, had accused him of sexually harassing her when the two had worked together at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Apparently contradictory statements by Ms. Hill and additional testimony for Justice Thomas by former female associates cast great doubt upon Ms. Hill's claims. The Committee did not find sufficient evidence to corroborate it. [Hill supporters insisted that relevant testimony from Angela Wright, an EEOC PR director who allegedly had witnessed offensive conduct, was suppressed, even though the Democrats controlled the Senate. (Democrats opted not to call Ms. Wright as a witness after Justice Thomas testified that he had fired her for calling another employee a 'faggot.')]
What really saved the day for Justice Thomas was...Justice Thomas. The way he boldly confronted and refuted his attackers. Testifying under oath with respect to the Committee's investigation of the Hill claims, Justice Thomas did not mince words. He declared: "[A]s far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate rather than hung from a tree."
The Committee sent the Thomas nomination to the full Senate without recommendation. Justice Thomas was confirmed by the Senate with a 52-48 vote on October 15, 1991. The vote was not strictly by party lines: "yea" votes from 41 Republicans and 11 Democrats and "nay" votes from 46 Democrats and 2 Republicans.
After month after month of relentless pounding by his political enemies (including the many in the media), President Bush finally stood up and charged critics of the liberation of Iraq with "rewriting history." Not quite as stirring as charing your political enemies with "a high-tech lynching." But a good start.
During a Veterans Day speech at a military installation in Pennsylvania, President Bush charged that "it is deeply irresponsible" for those who criticize the war in Iraq to "rewrite the history of how that war began." "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," President Bush explained. He noted that foreign intelligence services and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced at the time that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. "Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war," he said, even though a Senate investigation "found no evidence" of political pressure to change the intelligence community's assessments related to Saddam's weapons program. "More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power," President Bush said. Adding that in the war on terror, America "will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory."
President Bush needs to continue to forcefully attack contemptible critics of the war in Iraq who rewrite history and undercut American forces on the front lines. "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," as President Bush said.
EXACTLY!
Commentator Fred Barnes said that it's "amazing it took the White House this long to get it back together and fight on this issue." Mr. Barnes reported that the Bush administration will launch an aggressive defense against the misleading and vicious attacks — primarily by hypocritical Democrats — that "Bush lied" about the war in Iraq. "Steve Hadley, the national security adviser, certainly refuted the critics Thursday," Barnes said. "He told the critics who said the president manipulated WMD intelligence that they are mistaken, citing all of the comments made by high-ranking Democrats [such as Sens. Clinton, Kennedy, Kerry, Schumer, Reid, Rockefeller etc.] who backed the war based on the same information."
Negative comments by Democrats about the war in Iraq have significantly damaged President Bush's credibility, as reflected in his plummeting poll ratings. Mr. Barnes is confident that those numbers will rise as Americans are reminded that Saddam was a killer and his history of possessing and using weapons of mass destruction made it essential that he be removed from power. "If you'll notice, Democrats say 'Bush Lied' but they never cite specific examples," Barnes said. "That's because they were saying the same things and many of their comments are captured on tape. To say that the president lied about the reasons to liberate Iraq is just incorrect. Ask the people of Iraq and they'll tell you that Saddam had to be removed. There is no doubt about that."
Mr. President, many Americans have joined the opposition because you failed to defend yourself and expected them to realize that the scurrilous charges against you were false. They have been waiting for you to reclaim your good anme and their trust. This Veteran's Day, you began that campaign. Perhaps the most important campaign you ever will mount. Take a page from Justice Clarence Thomas' playbook: call your contemptible political enemies who are out to destroy you and your Administration, and willing to undermine the War on Terror, duplicitous scoundrels and malevolent manipulators, and reassure the American people that you are their trustworthy public servant whom they elected and re-elected instead of excusing them as merely mistaken. The American people expect you to be outraged if you are innocent of the charges made by your political enemies (and you are), and to let them know that your political enemies are worse than mistaken if they are (and they are).
© Michael Gaynor
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