If I were a Republican, I'd be really disappointed in the fact that the party leadership can't come up with anything more than the name "Hunter Biden" every time indictments rain down on Trump. To have as little as they do for all of the noise they've made over it has to be a huge disappointment, especially when it no longer gets nearly the kind of attention the coverage of the Trump indictments is getting. If that's all they've got, and we know that if they had anything else we'd have heard about it a long time ago, it's going to be an uphill climb to convince any voter who isn't a hard core Trump supporter to make much of an issue out of it.
So Hunter Biden may have benefitted from his family name, due to his father's being a Senator and Vice-President of the United States while he worked for Burisma which had dealings with Ukraine. Other than a few tax oversights, there's nothing criminal in anything he did. There's some immoral behavior, and bad judgment on his part, milquetoast stuff, really, compared to the morality and misbehavior that the Republicans have completely ignored and excused and makes them hypocrites in this matter.
So, is it Possible That Someone in the Trump Family Benefitted From His Presidency, During His Presidency
In the middle of hundreds of sound bytes from media during the course of the day, there are some things that catch your attention and then, sink in. It took just about ninety seconds of the Thom Hartmann program today to connect the dots for me and compare Hunter Biden to Jared Kushner, not in any way except in the fact that they may have something in common that, if Republicans are to avoid appearing politically motivated, and like hypocrites, needs to happen. And that's the fact that the former failed President's son-in-law, somehow managed to reverse his troublesome financial situation by benefitting from his in-law family name while his father-in-law was President of the United States.
Please excuse my simple-mindedness, but isn't this what has made the Republicans so hopping mad about Hunter Biden? That he may have financially benefitted from his family name when his father was Vice-President? If they weren't political hypocrites, then they wouldn't object to Congress launching an investigation, compete with special counsel, into these activities to make sure there was no criminal activity involved.
Granted, though the appearance may be that these two issues are similar, to be fair, they really aren't. Hunter Biden has disclosed all of the financial records involved. We know nothing about how Jared Kushner acquired $3 billion, from mostly foreign sources, whether he paid taxes or evaded them, or any details at all about the business dealings that produced it. We do know the most finite details of Hunter Biden's finances. The President hasn't fired the justice department special prosecutor on his son's case, appointed by his predecessor, though he certainly could. He's not using the powers of his office for personal benefit, as his predecessor did.
So If Congress is Willing to Waste Its Time on This Kind of Investigation, Shouldn't They Open an Investigation on Jared Kushner?
I'm not convinced we will ever have a Congress that will be genuinely interested in fairness, openness, or honesty. But that being said, it would seem to me that to avoid being labelled as politically motivated and hypocritical, the members of Congress should be as interested in where Jared Kushner got his $3 billion during his father-in-law's Presidency as they are about where Hunter Biden got his much, much smaller income during his father's Vice-Presidency.
Since the Republicans are not interested in avoiding those labels, or flatly don't care right now, and they control the house, they're not going to launch an investigation. They do not, however, have control of the Senate, and Senator Schumer most definitely could launch an investigation which, like other Congressional "investigations," would likely not lead to much more than making headlines. Except, Democrats are in control of the Justice Department, and uncovering and exposing evidence through hearings that Merrick Garland could use to justify seating a grand jury and getting to the bottom of the business dealings that led to such copious amounts of cash flowing from Saudi Arabia to Mr. Kushner during his father-in-law's Presidency.
Thanks to Thom Hartmann for mentioning this today. It's tempting to call Senator Schumer's office and leave a message supporting the launching of an investigation into Jared Kushner's business dealings as the former failed President's son-in-law.
The Party of Decency, Integrity and Honesty
Sometimes I get frustrated with what I see as an unwillingness on the part of Democratic politicians to engage the Republicans with their own ground game, so to speak, and fire back at them at point blank range. We are, after all, fighting to save our democracy. But the dirty, corrupt manner in which Republicans are subverting American patriotism, and undermining democracy, is something that underlines the lack of integrity that grips their party.
Democrats are not perfect people and everyone makes mistakes when their motivation and ambition becomes a driving force in their life. But, the contrast between the Presidency of Joe Biden, and that of his predecessor, with this particular issue serving as an example of the standards of conduct, it's no contest. President Biden hasn't used the powers of the Presidency on behalf of his son, something which, considering what he's been through in his private life, is an exercise of amazing restraint. Republicans wouldn't criticize one of their own who did this, so they have no valid complaint about this President or his children.
But the decency, integrity and honesty exhibited by most Democrats, and particularly by the President, stands in contrast to the opposition party, which talks a lot about it, but doesn't exhibit any of it. That's not painting with a broad brush either. I'm willing to acknowledge Republicans who are still people of integrity, aside from their political views. Well, go ahead, I'm waiting........
It will be very difficult to put this genie of political threats, animosity, and hatred, back into the bottle. And that's one reason I'm glad Democrats aren't giving in to the temptation to get down on the level of the opposition party and lose the integrity that they have in order to do it. We can win, and have won, without having to do that. We are good at grumbling, at complaining about and criticizing our party leadership, and we have a tendency to spend a lot of time justifying our position with endless minutia, which sometimes misses the point and allows the other side to control the agenda. But we are still the party of decency, integrity and honesty, and we are the best hope America has for staying free and democratic.
No comments:
Post a Comment