They’ll Say Anything

I get the feeling that God is minding some other Solar System at the moment because this happened and there has so far been no obvious divine retribution for it.

[Rep. Darrell] Issa warned that the country’s democracy will only survive if a press is willing to undertake investigative reporting and work with whistleblowers, crediting journalists like [Sharyl] Attkisson as the only way his committee “has been able to succeed at anything.”

“My [Government Oversight] committee is a desert island if not for a press that will look at something fairly, scrutinize it, but if they see a there, there, report it,” he said. “When an administration says ‘no,’ it’s no different than when Andrew Jackson marched Indians down the Trail of Tears, to their death.”

If I were the Creator of the Universe, there would be scorched Earth wherever Darrell Issa was standing when he made these remarks. And Issa would be a smoldering husk.

But maybe we should talk about Andrew Jackson a little bit. His face is still on my $20 bill and he’s honored at countless Jefferson-Jackson dinners held by Democrats all over this country. I am forgiving of people who came of age in different times with different moral standards and vastly different circumstances, but there’s a line there that I think Jackson crossed with Native Americans. Personally, I find it easier to look beyond Jefferson’s transgressions against modern Democratic Party values than Jackson’s.

Author: BooMan

Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.