Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The Peter King Hearings: Another Republican Fear Tactic

The Republicans are in panic mode.  They don't have a viable candidate for 2012, and the polls are indicating that Obama is unbeatable. So the GOP is doing what it does best: using a little Psy-Op theater to scare the crap out of people and once again, fool them into voting against their own economic interests.

Pew Polls over the past year indicate that while most people feel Islam is a non-violent religion, more and more people are coming to believe the president is a Muslim. So what better way to chip away at his favorables than by changing public opinion about Islam itself?  Why not hold made-for-cable public hearings on the looming threat of Muslim terrorism and home-grown Muslim radicalization? It'll be a circus, and undoubtedly receive all the stenographic mainstream media coverage that politicians have come to expect as their due.

Peter King is a two-bit political hack, a Torquemada wannabe with a dash of Archie Bunker,  and as head of the Homeland Security investigative committee, he is finally getting his moment in the sun.  To get his audience in the mood for the real purpose of the hearings, his cohort Mike Huckabee went on the radio last week and casually mentioned that Obama grew up in Kenya.  He knew it was a lie, of course, but it achieved the objective of casting just a smidgen more doubt on the president's allegiance and bona fides. And it received coverage galore.  Repeat a lie often enough, and the facts don't matter.  Allow the lies to go unchallenged and uncondemned and the truth is no longer important.

The problem the Republicans have with Obama, of course, is that he is not liberal enough. He doesn't attack them enough.  He is way too reasonable and willing to compromise.  Their ideas - cutting the deficit, getting those entitlements on the table, fighting endless wars, kowtowing to Wall Street - are his ideas.  He is really one of them.  He might as well be a Republican.

He is not playing by the rules.  So they have to make stuff up and create problems where none existed before. Investigating American Muslims will stir up the hornet's nest, both here and abroad.  It will take our minds off the real terrorists - the oligarchic cartel that brought down our economy, got rewarded, and continues on its merry way, looting the treasury and destroying what is left of our middle class.

Maybe if President Obama traveled to Wisconsin to show some solidarity with the unions, all the media attention would be deflected away from Peter King's ridiculous, McCarthyesque show hearings. Maybe Obama should give the Republicans something to really sink their teeth into.  Maybe he could turn into a real Democrat.

6 comments:

Draft Spitzer said...

So much for getting a Pecora investigation into the misused TARP funds. Last time I checked, it wasn't Islamists who wrecked the global economy. B of A, AIG, Citi, Goldman, on the other hand....

Anonymous said...

We lived through Rangle, we will live through King too! Why don't you Liberals take the opportunity to showcase the "commitment" of the American Muslim community in keeping the extremists from recruting here in the U.S.? That would be the best way to make King look bad. As to the weak candidate issue Obama is as good a conservative president as was Clinton and little has changed from "W" so let him stay for four more.(think Irony here!)

That brings us to the subject of prosecuting those guilty for the recent home loan crisis. There won't be any investigations in the Democrat controlled Senate ether because they won't investigate their own campaign donors and they sure won't investigate themselves or their friends in the House ether.

Richard

Draft Spitzer said...

Richard,
I'd be first to agree that the economic meltdown was the finest example of bipartisanship ever. And that's no compliment.
As for those of us in the real (non-DC) world, both ordinary Democrats and ordinary Republicans have reason to demand a REAL investigation, and REAL indictments.
Why were AIG's counter-parties paid out at 100% on the dollar? Why did GE get a secret bailout, as was revealed, finally, last December? Why did Harley-Davidson and several European banks get secret bailouts?
It's time for the SEC to initiate REAL civil suits to claw back the misused TARP money.

Anonymous said...

The only thing that comes to mind is this makes Watergate look simple! There is no chance that the A.G. Is going to charge lots of members of his own administration and a number of current and former members of the Congress. This is why some of us have always been against Big Government, because you get really big fleas too! The only people that might not have been on the take are the new members and they don't have the power to do the investigation. Where is Daniel Elsberg when you really need him?

Richard

Karen Garcia said...

Wouldn't it be great if WikiLeaks could provide us with some juicy emails between Congress members and corporate lobbyists, banks and others which own and operate the government? Holder will never investigate anybody. The group of hackers called "Anonymous" may be able to come up with something as well.

Draft Spitzer said...

Karen, that would really help. Weren't there rumors of a big wikileaks "reveal" of either B of A, or Citi?
Was it leaked and we all missed it because of the mideast events?
It seems like the rate of change -not just in the mudeast - is so fast that it's impossible to keep up.