Senator Roberts (R-Kan): Liar, Coward, Friend of Tyranny

At the Daily Doubter, Hume's Ghost recently posted a critique of Senator Pat Roberts' (R-Kan) opening statement at General Hayden's confirmation hearing yesterday.

Lies

In it, Hume pointed out that Roberts' statement is a flat-out lie that seeks to condemn, and even suggest that harm be done to others for wrongdoing and crimes that Roberts simply made up.

Specifically, Roberts said,

The National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program became public last December as the result of a grave breach of national security. A leak allowed our enemy to know that the President had authorized the NSA to intercept the international communications of people reasonably believed to be linked to al Qaeda people who have and are trying to kill Americans.

Hume's Ghost satirically points out that Roberts, quite simply, is lying. The statement is so insanely stupid that either Roberts is an idiot of the first order and actually believes this statement, or he knew that his claim was misleading and deceptive before he uttered it.

The "insanely stupid" option is found in the fact that Roberts' statement is no different than saying that, The New York Times' is responsible for aiding the terrorist because they published an article that revealed that the sum of 2 + 2 = 4.

The lie option rests in the fact that Roberts' must have known that he is giving a malicious and deceptive interpretation of what the Times actually did -- and did not care if that lie (deceptive interpretation) was insanely stupid.

My question is: Why do we, the American people, put up with this garbage? Roberts is lying to us. He is trying to mislead and misdirect the attention of the American people. Furthermore, he is doing so in order to defend people who have committed crimes against the American people. In this case, he is lying to defend actions that violate the 4th Amendment to the Constitution and the FISA courts.

(Of course, Bush says these things are legal and he should not be punished. About the only time a criminal can be pressured into actually pleading guilty is when he faces some sort of reduction in punishment. Bush, facing no reduction in sentence with a guilty plea, is of course going to plead that he is innocent.)

There is only one way that we, the American people, are ever going to get honest representation from our elected representatives. This is if we start taking steps to make sure that dishonest politicians pay a price for their dishonesty. This will only happen if statements, such as this insanely stupid lie from Roberts, is met with harsh punishment in terms of polls, volunteer assistance, and campaign contributions.

We need to start to pay attention to the fact that those who contribute money to Roberts are people who are funding and promoting the art of lying to the American People and fundamentally misrepresenting the facts of issues that are vitally important to all of us. Sure, the deceiptful politician deserves a fair share of the blame. Those who put them in office and support their campaigns deserve more.

Those who volunteer to get somebody such as Roberts elected are volunteers in an army fighting for deceipt and misrepresentation.

And those who vote for somebody such as Roberts are people who cast their vote in favor of a culture within which 'bearing false witness' is not only permitted, but to be encouraged and rewarded.

Unfortunately, when we encourage and reward moral shortcomings such as this, we can expect nothing but to be made to suffer for our short-sightedness.

Cowardice

Senator Roberts also used a line that I have criticized a couple of times:

I am a strong supporter of civil liberties. But, you have no civil liberties if you are dead.

This is not the first time he said this. A couple of months ago in a post called “Civil Rights and Death” I wrote that I would like to see a cartoon (or an advertisement) created that has Roberts making this claim to the soldiers of the Continental Army as they prepare to fight the British.

There is nothing that a person can say that more dishonors George Washington and those who fought under him in the Continental Army – and any who fought in the armed forces of this country -- than to assert that liberty is not worth fighting – and possibly dying – to protect.

There are few things that I would say should automatically disqualify a person to be a leader of a free people. Holding this standard of values is on that list.

If people such as Senator Roberts had been leading this country 230 years ago, we would have surrendered to the British as soon as they started marching on Lexington and Concord. Roberts and those like him would have been right in front, waving the white flag, asserting, that the fight for liberty is foolish because, “You have no civil liberties if you are dead.”

Roberts’ deserves the same consideration as we would give those who would have thrown up a white flag at the first sign on British troops 230 years ago.

More importantly, we should treat those who work for, contribute to, and vote for Senator Roberts the same way that we would have treated those who worked for, contributed to, or otherwise supported the British cause 230 years ago. They are, at heart, the same type of people. At heart, they have the same values.

And they are NOT the values upon which this country was founded.

Summary

Senator Roberts is a liar, a coward, and a firm supporter of an autocratic Presidency who faces no checks and balances on his arbitrary decisions and who answers to nobody but himself.

And he wants to be our President.

He does not even deserve to be a House page. No decent American congressman would have him.