For Shame, America, for Shame
By Bob Gaydos
“Slime ball.”
That’s how the man with all the ‘‘best words,” the man who “know(s) words” replied when a man he had once fired called him a liar and compared him to a mob boss.
The man who had been fired, James Comey, also happened to be the former director of the FBI and also happens to have written a book in which he says the man who fired him was overly concerned with proving that he had never been involved in a situation that included Russian prostitutes and people urinating on each other. “Do I look like a guy who needs hookers?” Can you imagine me in such a situation? the former FBI director says his former boss asked him in the Oval Office.
This is where Donald Trump has taken the office of president of the United States. And, just to get it out of the way, yes, I can imagine Trump in such a situation. That’s the problem, America.
Think about it. If it didn’t happen, then there’s no way for someone to prove it did. And in this country, prosecutors — even special prosecutors — have to prove you did something wrong, rather than you proving you didn’t. It’s called the presumption of innocence, a commodity this administration has flushed down the toilet, along with any semblance of dignity.
There is no shame in the White House. We are reminded of this daily, with lies, big and small. Payoffs to cover up extra-marital affairs. Blatant racism, nepotism and corruption. An aversion to the rule of law and an ignorance of the Constitution. An aura of pettiness, shallowness and vindictiveness. Utter disdain for the poor or disadvantaged. And smiling all the time.
So, too, with the Republican Party as it bows at the feet of Trump, a Russian puppet now clearly its leader. There is no shame. No sense of decency. “At long last,” I find myself asking rhetorically of the Republican Party, “have you no sense of decency?
Well … history offers an answer.
Those words were first uttered in 1954 by Joseph Welch, a Boston lawyer hired by the Army — the U.S. Army — to defends itself from charges by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, of lax security at a secret Army facility. McCarthy had used his position as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to intensify his ongoing crusade to weed out what he claimed were hundreds of Communists working in the State Department and other federal agencies as well as in private industry, notably entertainment and the arts. During an endless round of hearings brutally conducted by McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn (remember that name), witnesses were accused, insulted and relentlessly grilled. “Red-baiting.”
Finally, during the three-month-long, televised Army-McCarthy hearings, the senator charged that one of Welch’s young lawyers, who was not working on the case, at one time had ties to a Communist organization. He pressed the issue. Welch had had enough. “Until this moment, senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness,” he said. As McCarthy tried to continue, Welch interrupted: “Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
McCarthy, finally, was done. Someone had called him a bum to his face. He was eventually censured by the Senate and scorned by his own party. But careers were destroyed, lives ruined, families and friendships broken because of an unfettered campaign of reckless accusation and fear-mongering conducted by a publicity-hungry politician being advised by a ruthless lawyer, Roy Cohn, for whom nothing — facts, lives, careers … decency — mattered.
Roy Cohn, it turns out, was a younger Donald Trump’s lawyer, confidante and social secretary for many years in New York City. “If you need someone to get vicious toward an opponent, you get Roy,” Trump once said.
The student learned from his mentor. Trump testified as a character witness at Cohn’s disbarment hearing in the ‘80s (they got him), but eventually dropped him as his lawyer on discovering Cohn was dying of AIDS. People are dispensable.
More history. In 1972, Sen. Edmund Muskie, one of the most-decent people to ever run for president, had the misfortune to weep during a speech in snowy New Hampshire in which he was defending himself and his wife from accusations from William Loeb, conservative publisher of the Manchester Union Leader. An editorial accused Muskie, a Democrat, of using an ethnic slur against French-Americans, a large voting bloc in the state. The charge was based on a letter from a Florida man that was later shown to be a hoax planted by the dirty tricks division of the Nixon White House, another time when Republican shame took a holiday. Loeb also made a not-so-subtle suggestion that Muskie’s wife enjoyed drinking too much.
In defending her, Muskie spoke during a snowstorm, calling Loeb a “gutless coward.” But the senator’s voice broke and tears appeared to roll down his face. His aides later said it was snow because, apparently, decency in a presidential candidate was unacceptable. Voters agreed. Muskie eventually dropped out.
One more lesson on Republicans and shamelessness from history: Swiftboating.
The phrase was born during John Kerry’s run for the presidency in 2004. The Democratic senator from Pennsylvania was subjected to a relentless campaign in TV ads and even a book questioning his claimed military service and the circumstances of his combat medals.
A Navy veteran, he was commander of a swift boat, used to patrol the waters in Vietnam. A group calling itself Swift Vets and POWS for Truth attacked Kerry’s record as false and his medals as undeserved. The well-funded campaign dealt a serious blow to his campaign, leading to the re-election of George W. Bush. The Swift Vets claims were eventually determined to be unfounded, with virtually none of the veterans in the group having served on a boat that Kerry commanded.
“Red-baiting,” “dirty tricks, “swiftboating.” The terms live on today as examples of lying in politics and shameless disregard for the impact on people’s lives. All by Republicans in the pursuit or defense of power. It wasn’t always so with the party, but now it is. Trump, the proud ignoramus, gets a free ride from a shameless Republican Congress that has abandoned all pretense of decency. We’ve got ours, they smile.
Well, I for one am ashamed, America. At long last, I wish more of you were, too.
rjgaydos@gmail.com
Tags: AIDS, Bob Gaydos, Comeey, communiust, FBI, Kerry, McCartthy, Muskie, Republican, Roy Cohn, Russian, Senate, trump, Vietnam, Welch, White House
April 20th, 2018 at 5:17 pm
You might be surprised, Bob, at the enormous number of Americans who are indeed deeply ashamed of their country’s leadership. Virtually everyone of my acquaintance — whether during my half-years in the Catskills, or my half-years in Arizona — feels both shame and ever-growing alarm, yet those same folks have not yet found a valid outlet for their unsettling sentiments. Where are the magnetic public personalities? Where are the powerful political personalities? Where are the marchers, screamers, and pitchfork-toting patriots? Just give us one strong leader…and we will all become loyal followers!
April 20th, 2018 at 11:12 pm
Robertand Zunliang Chu Warden (The Thom Hartmann Group): Good job, Robert. 🙂 I have been thinking the same thing myself, that these people have no shame — but you give a historical perspective and illustrate it so well.
April 21st, 2018 at 10:41 am
Debra Conway: Wow, Bob. I had no idea of the Roy Cohn history.
April 21st, 2018 at 10:47 am
Too Informed To Vote Republican: They look like a couple of hoods.
April 21st, 2018 at 10:49 am
Jules Elbeshausen: Love it Robert J. Gaydos…as you knew I would…a Brilliant Job! has just the right amount of zest…:)
April 21st, 2018 at 10:50 am
Jules Elbeshausen at The Thom Hartmann Bloggers Group: “…another time when Republican shame took a holiday.” ~ Lovely turn of phrase Robert 🙂
April 21st, 2018 at 10:52 am
Rudy Garcia: Mostly he was a rich bore who kept calling Lorna Luft “Myrna Loy” and complained ceaselessly about all the “fags at Studio 54”. Ugh! Roy Cohn.
April 21st, 2018 at 5:27 pm
This brand of kaka is still on sale. Try
• Willie Horton
• Vince Foster
• birtherism
• FEMA death camps
• Benghazi (as a political weapon)
• Uranium (debunked but the rednex won’t believe that)
• But her Emails
• Seth Rich, … …
Add the manifest lies spread by
• Fox “News”
and
• Breitbart
… and that’s just the acknowledged “friends” of today’s Creepthuglicans.
Then add unrepudiated crazies like Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, NRA bull??hit, various Evangelical, Dominionist, mega-moneyist “pastors” plus their amoral acolytes,
and self-interested big-money disinformation centers like
• Heritage Foundation
• Americans for Prosperity
and
• fossil energy companies’ public relations arms
and you begin to get an idea of the ??hitstorm of corrupt lies that this party has contributed to our political discourse.
Don’t forget the Russians.
Not saying the Dems don’t try, but by comparison they’re whelks in the supernova (h/t Douglas Adams (OBM)).
April 21st, 2018 at 8:53 pm
Ria Zsigmond: An informative, intelligent perspective Robert. Excellent writing, well done.
April 21st, 2018 at 8:54 pm
Rudy Garcia: Bravo! I was raised in a household where Nixon was despised and yes, we had a portrait of President John F. Kennedy in the living room.
April 22nd, 2018 at 6:03 am
Well said; as usual. There will never be an end to sociopaths, narcissists, and the like. It is one of “our” faults that we always try and see the good in someone which gives them the edge. I still get blindsided by the borderline personality. I am getting better at it though! Fun Fact: Roy Cohn was related to Joshua Lionel Cowen and the Lionel train company was briefly in Roy’s hands when Joshua was aging.
April 22nd, 2018 at 11:20 pm
Tyrone Speight: Shameful…:Roy Cohn.
April 22nd, 2018 at 11:22 pm
Sharon Goldstein: Sing away Michael!! Take this degenerate sc**bag down!! You will have a parade! Hahaha!
April 23rd, 2018 at 10:14 am
Amanda J. Luke: Every time we think, that’s the line, it moves. Can’t believe this is what it has come to.
April 23rd, 2018 at 10:15 am
Randy Rose: It’s disturbing and tragic. I am not sure how the country will recover at this point.
April 26th, 2018 at 11:18 pm
Judith Collins: Amen …
April 28th, 2018 at 6:53 am
Sad but true. Just don’t compare Trump to Mussolini. He hates being compared to someone named after a Mexican.