If ever there was a time for a Senate, and a House, Investigative Committee on anything, it’s now. The Nation needs, the world is waiting, history is begging, for such. This Nation, the world, wants and needs to know, to understand, what happened, how did it happen, and what should be done to prevent its happening ever again? What in the hell is going on in America? Oh ‘twould be nice to find another Senator Sam Ervin, a Lowell Weicker, … before beginning the hearings. Nice, but it’s not at all necessary. Senators Whitehouse, Durbin, Klobuchar, Blumenthal, et al will do nicely, and, anyway, the both, Ervin and Weicker, will be there in spirit; wouldn’t miss it for anything. As for the House Committee, who can ever forget Barbara Jordan? Peter
Topics:
Ken Melvin considers the following as important: history, Hot Topics, politics
This could be interesting, too:
Peter Radford writes Election: Take Four
Bill Haskell writes Review of the Tax Code and Who Benefited the Most from the Breaks in It
Bill Haskell writes Lawler: Early Read on Existing Home Sales in October
Bill Haskell writes Healthcare Insurance in the United States
If ever there was a time for a Senate, and a House, Investigative Committee on anything, it’s now. The Nation needs, the world is waiting, history is begging, for such. This Nation, the world, wants and needs to know, to understand, what happened, how did it happen, and what should be done to prevent its happening ever again? What in the hell is going on in America?
Oh ‘twould be nice to find another Senator Sam Ervin, a Lowell Weicker, … before beginning the hearings. Nice, but it’s not at all necessary. Senators Whitehouse, Durbin, Klobuchar, Blumenthal, et al will do nicely, and, anyway, the both, Ervin and Weicker, will be there in spirit; wouldn’t miss it for anything. As for the House Committee, who can ever forget Barbara Jordan? Peter Rodino? For sure, no one who ever heard and saw them. The likes of those two will be difficult, maybe impossible to find in the House in this year of our world. But, the both, too, for sure, will be there in spirit.
Recall the drama of it all. Snatching a glimpse of the headlines, catching a bit of news at work, hurrying home to check the evening news, … . Now, of course, we’ll be checking our phones, …, checking our phones. A much-needed catharsis for the Nation. Be unifying? You betcha. Educational? History and government teachers’ dream. Heck, who knows, might even provide, at least help identify, this they call unity? Sure to help take our minds off the pandemic. What’s more, what’s more important, it is something that really, really needs to be done.
This time, we would get to hear, under oath, from Fox News, Mitch McConnell, Donald J. Trump, The Family, Steve Bannon, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, Mark Zuckerberg, Jerry Falwell, Jr., QAnon, … ; from former staff members, from deep within the religious right. By this summer, maybe fall, Vladimir Vladimirovich himself might well be available, and willing. Imagine waking up every morning and checking your phone for any breaking news. Grabbing a cup, then checking your computer.
Those days, the House and Senate Watergate Committees hearings provided high drama; were entertaining. But, their seriousness was lost on no one. Not even on the public. Least of all, on the committee members. The people had the right, a need, to know. Back then, Congress stepped up. Will it this time?
Now, as then, nothing is more important than for the Nation to get a handle on what happened, on what almost happened, on what is going on in America? How did we come this close to losing our democracy? This time we came too close to becoming an Autocracy ran by Donald J Trump & Co. A fate too awful to countenance. If we don’t find out the causes, what needs to be done to prevent something like this reoccurring, it will reoccur. There mustn’t be a next time. Congress! You’re on.
Senate Watergate Committee, February 7, 1973 to June 27, 1974.