Here they go again
by digby
Maybe I’m missing something, but the hazard of an omnibus document demand by House judiciary versus discreet, serial ones is that, however legitimate the areas of inquiry, the wide-ranging nature of it is too easily plays into the “witch-hunt” meme.— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 4, 2019
MORE from @bfouhy on the new House Judiciary investigation: “It feels like it is setting up a situation where the president’s defenders, his media defenders, can just blast this as purely political.” #MTPDaily https://t.co/iJphb3xpxR— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 4, 2019
I’ve often used this famous Yiddish joke to describe certain events in Democratic politics:
There were these two Jewish men standing before a firing squad in Czarist Russia. Their crime? Being Jewish. So the Cossack captain heading the firing squad looks at Abie and Yankele and shouts, “Jews, take off your hats.” Abie takes off his hat. But Yankele says, “No, I won’t take off my hat.” So Abie leans over to Yankele and whispers, “Yankele, don’t make trouble.”
(There are hundreds of versions of that joke out there. This one comes from a retired professor from San Francisco State named Ralph Beren who now leads seminars at synagogues about Jewish humor and how it’s gotten the people through rough times for millenia.)
I am glad to see that the House Democrats are not listening to this utter bullshit. We have a monster in the White House and the people have a right to know the details of just how bad it really is. If there is no proper accounting for all of this, we are doomed.
I’m sure these people believe the Democrats should just make nice and talk about health care so they don’t have to face any possible blowback. But that is not only an abdication of duty it’s a fools game. Trump has been calling it a witch hunt for two years. The people who don’t believe this are not likely to be dissuaded by congressional hearings and the people who do believe it will continue to do so regardless of what the Democrats do.
This is a depressingly old story in Democratic politics. I think most Dems have learned there’s no margin in being timorous about this fight. Obviously, some have not and some in the media are happy to follow this old frame.