It's hard to imagine a clearer demonstration of how whacked out the Republicans have gotten under tea party tutelage than the performances of Ted Cruz and James Inhofe during hearings to confirm Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense.
What planet are they from? Not since the last days of the booze-besotted, red-baiting Joe McCarthy has the Senate witnessed performances so wild, careening and conspiracy-minded that they wouldn't even make the final cut of The Manchurian Candidate.
As Foreign Policy aptly put it today: "Has freshman Ted Cruz jumped the shark already?
"Yesterday he stunned Democrats by saying that Hagel's confirmation as Pentagon chief 'will make military conflict in the next four years substantially more likely,'" FP wrote.
A Hagel-led Pentagon, the tea-addled Texan sputtered on, would "encourage" Iran to speed up its nuclear program. That, in turn, would require the U.S. to put troops "in harm's way" to stop Tehran," FP's Kevin Baron reported.
"Cruz also complained Hagel would not answer additional questions about income from foreign governments," Baron wrote.
Then it was his sidekick Inhofe's turn. The Okie from Muskogee "reiterated his concerns about Hagel," Baron wrote, "saying that Iran had essentially supported Hagel's confirmation."
"You can't get any cozier than that," Inhofe declared.
Message, not that you could possibly miss it: Hagel, the honorable former Republican senator from Nebraska and a heroic Vietnam veteran, was a tool of Iran, at best, and at worst, a traitor.
(By the way, Inhofe's solution to Iran? More U.S. nukes. Apparently 1,000 nuclear warheads sitting atop ICBM's armed with unchallenged technology superiority is not enough to deter Tehran. He favors keeping the number at 1,700.)
But back to our Cruz: No matter what you think of Hagel's views or unsteady performance in his confirmation hearing, the Texan's venomous insinuations about the nominee's loyalties were way, way, way "over the line," as Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., put it. "He basically impugned the patriotism of the nominee...about being cozy with Iran."
Cruz's sniveling response: "In no way shape or form have I impugned his patriotism... his answers could be entirely truthful... my point is not that he has lied, it is that he refused to answer additional questions."
Right. A coward's first defense is always that he's been misunderstood.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., was likewise appalled at the remarks of that Republican giant Jimmy Inhofe, the senator from Exxon-Mobile.
Evidently, however, the tea-fueled Republicans, are determined to make more of a spectacle of themselves on the Senate floor, carping about Hagel and Obama one last time before a foregone approval of his confirmation.
One can only hope such performances will lead them to the same ignoble ending as their despicable inspiration, Joe McCarthy.
What planet are they from? Not since the last days of the booze-besotted, red-baiting Joe McCarthy has the Senate witnessed performances so wild, careening and conspiracy-minded that they wouldn't even make the final cut of The Manchurian Candidate.
As Foreign Policy aptly put it today: "Has freshman Ted Cruz jumped the shark already?
"Yesterday he stunned Democrats by saying that Hagel's confirmation as Pentagon chief 'will make military conflict in the next four years substantially more likely,'" FP wrote.
A Hagel-led Pentagon, the tea-addled Texan sputtered on, would "encourage" Iran to speed up its nuclear program. That, in turn, would require the U.S. to put troops "in harm's way" to stop Tehran," FP's Kevin Baron reported.
"Cruz also complained Hagel would not answer additional questions about income from foreign governments," Baron wrote.
Then it was his sidekick Inhofe's turn. The Okie from Muskogee "reiterated his concerns about Hagel," Baron wrote, "saying that Iran had essentially supported Hagel's confirmation."
"You can't get any cozier than that," Inhofe declared.
Message, not that you could possibly miss it: Hagel, the honorable former Republican senator from Nebraska and a heroic Vietnam veteran, was a tool of Iran, at best, and at worst, a traitor.
(By the way, Inhofe's solution to Iran? More U.S. nukes. Apparently 1,000 nuclear warheads sitting atop ICBM's armed with unchallenged technology superiority is not enough to deter Tehran. He favors keeping the number at 1,700.)
But back to our Cruz: No matter what you think of Hagel's views or unsteady performance in his confirmation hearing, the Texan's venomous insinuations about the nominee's loyalties were way, way, way "over the line," as Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., put it. "He basically impugned the patriotism of the nominee...about being cozy with Iran."
"There's a certain degree of comity and civility that this committee has always been known for," Nelson continued. "And clearly, in the sharpness of difference of opinion, to question, in essence, whether somebody is a fellow traveler with another country, I think, is taking it too far."
Cruz's sniveling response: "In no way shape or form have I impugned his patriotism... his answers could be entirely truthful... my point is not that he has lied, it is that he refused to answer additional questions."
Right. A coward's first defense is always that he's been misunderstood.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., was likewise appalled at the remarks of that Republican giant Jimmy Inhofe, the senator from Exxon-Mobile.
"As much as some people in this room don't like it," McCaskill said, Barack Obama "was elected president of the United States by the American people. And he has selected an honorable veteran, a Republican who has served our country in various capacities, including this body."
Evidently, however, the tea-fueled Republicans, are determined to make more of a spectacle of themselves on the Senate floor, carping about Hagel and Obama one last time before a foregone approval of his confirmation.
One can only hope such performances will lead them to the same ignoble ending as their despicable inspiration, Joe McCarthy.
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5 comments:
I hope that this site does not become a soapbox for the likes of Stein to promote his columns.
Well, Frank, I'm not often given to full-throated denunciations like the one I dealt to the bomb thrower Ted Cruz, but since it's my site, I guess I can put anything I want on it.
BA from Princeton, J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law? Clerked for Rehnquist?
How can someone so presumably smart be so stupid? It defies logic. Seriously.
It is an abuse of the McCarthyism term to apply it as it is done here to asking tough questions when screening someone for a very powerful position. Cheers to Cruz for not being a careless "rubber stamp".
Cruz's arch-reactionary opinions and reptilian tactics puzzle me, too. One has to consider that he's just executing a breathtaking pander to the rightwing Texas electorate, but still...
dmarks: Need more evidence that such tactics are indeed McCarthyist? Consider his doubling down this week on allegations that Harvard Law School had 12 "communists" on the faculty during his time there in the 1990s who "believed in the overthrow of the U.S. government." http://tinyurl.com/b762e3g
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