Rand Paul speaks at CPAC last year. (photo: file)
07 March 14
ou
have to hand it to the conservatives here at CPAC. They're a forgiving
lot. They believe in second chances, even for felons. Why, just this
morning, I heard a speech by a guy who sold missiles to a government
that sponsored terrorism, lied about it, got convicted, and then dove
like a scalded rat through a loophole. I watched a panel including a guy
who, while working as police commissioner in New York, entangled
himself in such baroque corruption that he ended up in the federal
sneezer for 36 months. And, this afternoon, on a panel entitled "After
Obama," we will be treated to the views of a guy who helped out a covert
CIA agent, lied about it, got convicted, and then got pardoned.
There is no crime on the Right that cannot be forgiven
-- except, maybe, supporting something this particular president
proposes.
There is nothing more hilarious in public life than
watching Ollie North give a speech.
Truly, it's a wonder to behold,
because everything he says comes with its own mental subtitles if you
remember what an absolute weasel the guy was the last time he got close
to an actual center of power. Yesterday, he got in some discreet
fag-baiting -- "Our armed forces and their families deserve better than
to be treated like laboratory rats in some radical social experiment.
The people of Ukraine are now paying the terrible price for America's
leadership deficit disorder. We don't need a head of state that guts our
defenses and draws phony red lines with a pink crayon. Yeah, I said
that." Nice. Are you 12? -- he got around to talking about things that
set the subtitles echoing.
"We need a congressional majority that will insist on the rule of law in Washington."
(The rule of law? You mean like when Congress forbids
arms shipments to guerrillas and you find a way to fund it by soliciting
money from Brunei, and from selling advanced weaponry to the mullahs in
Tehran? That rule of law, or another one?)
"We The People can demand accountability for a string
of horrendous scandals and coverups starting with Benghazi, the IRS
enemies lists, and government spying on the American people and
reporters."
(From North's testimony before Congress in 1987,
according to then-Congressman Jack Brooks of Texas: "I was particularly
concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several
others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a
contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the
American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered
if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I
wanted to get his confirmation.")
"The president I was blessed to serve told us that we had a rendezvous with destiny."
(The president you were blessed to serve is the same
president you sold out at your trial in order to stay out of jail and to
the point that the wife of the president you were blessed to serve went
out of her way to point out what a liar you are.)
After North drifted off the stage to wild applause,
there was an extended panel session regarding a conservative response to
the issue of prison reform. It was moderated by old pal Goodhair Perry
from Texas - who earlier had wound some stems and burned some barns with
his address to the faithful in which he proposed rolling the national
government back to the Articles Of Confederation -- and it included
Grover Norquist. To be completely fair, it was the most interesting
panel of the weekend so far, even though it glided over the problem of
how conservatives can pitch themselves as criminal-justice reformers at
the same time that demagoguing criminality -- especially black
criminality. See LaPierre, Wayne. -- still raises so much money and wins
so many elections, especially at the local level. One of the other
panelists was Bernard Kerik, whom Rudy Giuliani wanted to make the
country's director of Homeland Security, but who wound up in prison for
financial hocus-pocus that included improvements to his home. Kerik spoke from his experiences as a federal convict.
"A 21-year old black kid gets arrested in Baltimore
for simple possession," Kerik said. "He gets tied into a conspiracy and
gets 10 years. He's sent to prison for 10 years. During that time in
federal prison, he really gets no education, no life-improvement skills.
He learns how to lie, steal, cheat, gamble and fight. That's what
they're taught. Then, by some illusion, we believe he's ready to go back
out into the world.
"I taught a class. You gotta get your GED. You got to
get an education. That kid looked at me and said, 'I'm black. I'm a
convicted felon. That GED isn't going to help me ever.' There are guys
in prison for minor whitecollar crimes. There are doctors. They have
Masters. They have Bachelors. They can't get hired. If they can't hired,
what chance does that 21-year old kid have? And the problem with that
is that there are thousands upon thousands of men in prison. It's wrong
for this country. It's wrong for this party."
This, at least, is somebody who has learned something
from his own past. And, this afternoon, we get to hear Scooter Libby
speculate on life after Obama. There are no crimes on the Right beyond
forgiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment