Congressional Hearings: Bring It On!

Congressional Hearings? Why do they call them hearings when the inquisitors don't really want to listen. Unlike me and thousands of other bloggers who want comments, Congress only wants to drag Bush administration 'chain of command' fodder before their royal court to probe and get to the bottom of a great injustice (or however MoveOn.Org tells them to frame it).

Interpretation: Congress wants to punish George Bush and Co. for 8 successful years of daily proving his character and integrity on the issue of National Security (something they have no reference point for). More simply put: Payback is a _ _ _ _ _ .

Here is an analogy in the whole "Is It Torture" debate that I think all would agree on. Whenever we see a clip on TV of highway patrol or local police apprehending a criminal and we witness the 'use of force', something inside of us says 'wow, did they really have to do that'. Then we hear that the incident is being investigated and we sigh with relief that somebody is going to look into it. Officers are almost never reprimanded but the inquiry is necessary.. and private. The privacy part is important because police tactics and strategy are something we don't want all criminals to know about. Crooks should not be allowed to know the standard operating procedures of the cops, because it gives the good guys a disadvantage in very dangerous and potentially life threatening situations.

Likewise, exploiting the 'Interrogation Tactics' of the military during a congressional hearing is going to do 2 things for sure:

First it is really going to tick off countries who now view us as weak as a result of Obama's recent grovel-athon. This will give them the hubris to ramp up aggressions against us. Jihad's will be issued, terrorist recruiters will have a built-in ad campaign complete with sound bites and pictures, and the world will have one less reason to respect and fear our great nation.

Secondly, we are going to give the 'bad guys' inside intelligence on the workings of the U.S. Military, which gives them the ability to adapt their methods of attack with knowledge of our Achilles heel.

trea·son
n.
1. Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
2. A betrayal of trust or confidence.

Enough about that, since it will probably happen anyway. Congress's approval rating can't drop any lower since members of ACORN alone probably make up the dismal 18% that approve of them.

President Obama can't do much to stop Congress from voting to hold hearings, but he can 'Veto' their request for a hearing, and cannot be happy about this option. As the President has been touting how he wants to move forward and look to the future, congress sees their window of opportunity to, amongst other things, payback Republicans for what they did to President Clinton. Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives on grounds of perjury to a grand jury. Only the second impeachment in U.S. Presidential history, Clinton was acquitted by 45-55 vote in the Senate only 2 months later. As a result President Clinton was humiliated and lost his privilege to practice law.

Whether Obama is secretly in favor of these hearings isn't clear. What is all too clear is that a congressional hearing in the first year of his presidency can only hurt Obama's favor-ability amongst everyday Americans. It will take the public focus away from the President who enjoys a 60%+ approval rating and shift it to Congress, who wallows in sub 20% approval. It will also shift attention away from Obama, who is a floundering freshman in foreign policy, onto President Bush, reminding all Americans of the passion and competency our former president, illustrating why we have been terror-free for the past 7 years.

It is a risky move on the part of democrats, since a terror strike at home in the next 4 years is more than likely. In that scenario, democrats will be vilified by the public for focusing more on limiting rules of interrogation, than keeping America safe from harm.

Either way, hearings can only minimize the President and help the fledgling Republican party. But as we have seen before, when Democrats are in power, they just can't help themselves and are doomed by their own banal nature. So I say.. Bring It On!

I welcome your comments.