Slink - Chop!
That sound - of an ever-efficient guillotine, marked the end of King Louis XIV’s reign of France, and official beginning of France’s bloody 1792 Revolution.
Maximilien Robespierre, in league with the radical leftist Jacobin party, had the gift of oration. Denouncing Louis, and boasting of incorruptibility, made him popular with the masses, and he was appointed – get ready for it – Public Accuser. A title, which brings to mind another wonderfully woeful time know as the Spanish Inquisition. His oration and plotting helped engineer Louis execution, after which he, and his fellow revolutionaries formed a committee of 12 to preside over France's bloody nightmare.
Now, a modern day Robespierre wannbe comes delivered to us in the most unlikely of forms - House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi, a far leftist Democrat, would be most comfortable among the French Jacobins, having spent the past eight, going on nine years, without pause, whining about the Bush administration.
In true Robespierreian fashion, in an effort to “open the Bastille,” Miss Pelosi (public accuser), governed by uncontrollable partisan impulses, has led a cacophonous parade of Democrats (Jacobins) calling for ironically named “truth commissions,” to prosecute Bush administration officials on seemingly everything they enacted, from the Patriot Act, to Guantanamo Prison, to C.I.A. torture techniques.
Standing on a pyramid of soap-boxes, (which would cause Pharaoh Ramses II to be envious), Pelosi has taken the lead in demanding the release of previously classified C.I.A. photographs, depicting tortured enemy combatants. To what end?
In a maniacal effort to guillotine the Bush Administration, Democrats have come to the bizarre conclusion that any discomfort given to captured enemy combatants, (anyone caught on a battlefield aiding the enemy, or shooting at our troops) is to be considered torture.
But, as with all things political, a very large horse fly flew into their carefully manufactured virginal ointment. That fly, arrived in the in the guise of a political reporter’s question.
During a recent press conference, which the word awkward would be far too mild a description, fumbling through notes, the Speaker denied being briefed on torture (water-boarding) techniques the C.I.A. employed over the past eight years. A reporter then asked, “Madam Speaker, just to be clear, you’re accusing the C.I.A. of lying to you in September of 2002?” The Speaker’s answer, “yes, misleading the congress of the United States!”
Pelosi’s answer opened up a Pandora’s box, causing the “accused” C.I.A. to go on the warpath, releasing previously unseen documents, showing Miss Pelosi had been fully informed, and assented (voicing absolutely no objection at the time) to it’s interrogation methods.
Pelosi’s next blow came when President Obama, in a complete about-face from candidate Obama, decided to take the advice of his military commanders.
Recalling Abu-ghraib prison torture photos, which riled up anti-American fervor in Iraq, the President’s military brass warned him that release of these new photos will make life tougher for our troops in Iraq. The administration has now decided not to release the offending photos.
Following Obama’s about-face, at precisely the wrong moment, an “Et-tu Brute?” event reared it’s head, when Democrat, former Clinton chief of staff, now C.I.A. director, Leon Pinetta, released a memo basically saying “cut it out Miss Speaker! The C.I.A. didn’t lie to you, or the congress!”
Obama’s about-face, the C.I.A. document release, and Pinetta’s admonishing memo, have effectively tilted the guillotine in Speaker Pelosi’s direction. In supreme irony, Pelosi now finds herself in the midst of being swallowed up by her own assertions.
Nervous Republicans, who, would rather be water-boarded, than deal with impending Democrat torture investigations and “truth squads,” have now been buoyed by Pelosi’s self inflicted wounds, and from an unlikely source; that evil of all evils, Darth Vader to Democrats everywhere, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney, pedigreed with a genetic talent for making Democrats insane, appeared on a CNN Sunday talk show. Defending the Bush administration, Cheney, posited a good question; how does the Obama administration’s releasing of torture photos, and closing Guantanamo prison make America more safe? This ignited the intended firestorm among the Dems., and main-stream media.
With evidence mounting against the Speakers assertions, the torture debates have taken an ironic turn. What caused Democrats to salivate; being “that close” to hoisting Bush and Cheney’s heads upon pikes, now has Republicans doing a Snoopy dance over Pelosi’s self inflicted woes.
The chances of Pelosi loosing her speakership are rather remote, as the Democrats control both houses of congress. Also, Republicans are more than happy to keep a wounded, gaff prone opponent around. But, what Republicans are really looking for is a way to cut off torturous torture debates and “truth commissions,” as well as silence future Democrat accusations regarding the Bush administration’s handling of the war.
The French Revolution was a death-knell for their Monarchical system of government. Unfortunately, the revolution to replace it turned out to be far worse, leaving blood soaked streets, devouring not only King Louis, but his executioners as well.
Speaker Pelosi, and her neo-Jacobins, have come to ascension waving the banner of “change.”
Miss Pelosi when sworn in as speaker, promised to lead the “most honest, most open, and most ethical congress in history.”
Robespierre, promising much the same, wielding almost total power at the Revolution’s apex, ended up going to the guillotine with a literal self-inflicted gunshot wound to his jaw. Pelosi, now, with her own self-inflicted wound, might not be heading to the guillotine just yet, but her overreaching has taken her one step closer. Slink –chop!
