Republican Political Mafia and Federal Law
By Stephen Crockett
03/19/07 "ICH" --- - There is nothing as corrupt as using the
governmental powers of law enforcement, to selectively prosecute
your political enemies and to cover-up criminal behavior by your
political organization and allies, while in a position of
political power. This situation is the essence of the current
scandal concerning the firing of US Attorneys by the Bush White
House.
The Watergate scandal should have taught the Republican Party
that this kind of abuse is outside the bounds of acceptable
political behavior in American society. Republican activists
failed to learn the lessons of Watergate and are now reliving
history on issue after issue. Republican Presidential pardon
powers were used to thwart the rule of law and let the
Republican political criminal Richard Nixon avoid the jail time
he deserved.
Republicans should have gone to jail in large numbers doing the
Iran-Contra scandals. In that case, a Republican White House
ignored the rule of law. They abused the traditions of normal
American political behavior and federal law to impose their
minority foreign policy views on an American public opposed to
the Republican ideologically based policies. Instead,
Presidential pardon powers were abused to help Republican
political criminals avoid the jail time they deserved.
The current Bush White House by executive order changed the
process on revealing prior Presidential papers to the public
early in George W. Bush’s first term in a way that prevented
revelation of criminal behaviors concerning Iran-Contra figures.
The role of his father, the first George Bush, in the criminal
behavior concerning of Iran-Contra remains unexplored. The
executive order may violate the Presidential Papers Act.
At issue is Republican Presidential politics influencing
potential criminal investigations and prosecutions. The current
Republican White House has definitely politicized the process of
federal law enforcement in a way that corrupts American
government. Unfortunately, they are continuing a long Republican
tradition. Republicans seem to view this as politics as usual.
It is not! It is corruption and deeply offensive to the real
traditions of American government.
Under this Bush, it appears that federal prosecutors have
targeted 7 or 8 times more Democratic officeholders than
Republican officeholders. The investigations of Democratic state
legislators in Tennessee looks politically motivated. Anyone
familiar with Tennessee politics knows that Republican
politicians in that state are just as corrupt or corruptible as
Democratic ones. The federal government has not investigated the
Republican officeholders in Tennessee in the way they have
Democrats. The political strength of Republicans in Tennessee
looks to be closely linked to politicized federal law
enforcement by the Bush Administration. The Tennessee
politicized law enforcement situation appears ripe for
investigation.
Criminal investigations of Republican politicians are slowed to
a snail pace by politicized appointees in case after case like
the New Hampshire phone jamming scandal. The federal prosecutor
who convicted California Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham
for corruption was unjustly fired. The federal prosecutor who
would not prosecute phony vote fraud charges against Democrats
in New Mexico, in time for the 2006 elections as demanded by
Republican politicians, was fired.
In 2005, a federal prosecutor investigating criminal charges
surrounding the staff of then Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich
was fired. The investigation was effectively derailed. This
pattern of abuses repeats itself over and over again in state
after state.
Unless the Republicans can purge their Party of this criminal
tendency to abuse public office and government power for
political ends, then Republicans at every level should be voted
out of power. Public investigations and investigative journalism
should be focused on abuses of office by those in power.
The Republican Party is starting to look like a potential target
for a RICO indictment as a profit-making, criminal conspiracy.
Their political traditions should be based on American political
figures like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas
Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt instead of Richard Nixon, Dick
Cheney and Tom Delay. The current Republican Culture of
Corruption is a very sad situation for the Party of Lincoln to
find itself in at the beginning of the 21st century.
Stephen Crockett (co-host of Democratic Talk Radio
http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com
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