Forward Into The Past

Ron Suskind, writing in the Washington Post, gives the incoming Democratic Congress advice. He starts out by saying there are two schools of thought right now. One is to actually try and lead, the other is to look into the past. Suskind, while giving lip service to the idea of actually trying to govern, focuses almost exclusively on how to lead boldly into non-stop, endless investigation. Damn the idea of actually governing, attack!

First, the Democrats must broker a separation of powers. The show horses are their putative candidates for president, especially in the Senate, and the party's leadership in both chambers. Keep them above the fray, focusing on proposals for the future and the new "action plans," especially in foreign policy. But unleash the pit bulls: the committee chairs, their seconds and investigators who will dig relentlessly, identify targets and thus, inevitably, leave themselves vulnerable in their next reelection campaigns.

I've spent the past several years investigating various aspects of the Bush administration — including economic policy and the battle against terrorism — so I know there are so very many targets for the Democrats to choose from. However, there is not unlimited public patience for such efforts. The Democrats should therefore start with the freshest data: Exit polls from the midterm elections showed that concern about Iraq was matched by broader concerns about terrorism and, surprisingly, government corruption.

Suskind, is one of the sources of a number of the memes that circulate freely on the left, of course. He's been after this administration for years, so this is hardly a surprise. His advice to try to separate leading from attacking rings quite hollow. He wants everyone in the world subpoenaed, sooner rather than later. He also has one extraordinary piece of advice on how to destroy enemies:

Some Republicans would disagree. The goal of an investigation, and public hearings, they argue, is to destroy the targets. Ruin them, and whatever public purpose they champion is ruined as well. You have to make it personal. That's what people understand — and that's what will create a public "moment" at a hearing table, one that will echo forward, even if the events in question are long passed.

Over in the people's chamber, some House investigators are quite clear on how to make things personal: Force administration officials to say that they lied or to take the Fifth Amendment.

That last sentence kind of says it all. There is no agenda to actually investigate to reach the truth. This is advice to force what are no more than show trials with predetermined outcomes. After years and years of denouncing McCarthyism, this is exactly what is being promoted. Perhaps it would be a good thing to remember that show trial moments can backfire rather badly. One only has to look at how the McCarthy investigations ended.