The Enemy of my Enemy Isn't Always a Friend.

In the Torah, Noah is called an Ish Tzaddik, a righteous man.  But the Torah modifies it to complete the line saying he was "blameless in his age".  His age was the age of the people who were lawless  and corrupt.  The ancient rabbis took note and suggested that Noah was righteous, only when measured against those of his age.  Further commentary and even the Torah reveals that Noah was far from perfect.  

I think of this when I hear people speak of Liz Cheney.  Cheney is an arch-conservative whose father was once referred to as Darth Vader.  Cheney has a history of voting against virtually everything Democrats hold dear.  In fact, when she first ran for Congress she made anti-gay statements despite her sister being a lesbian.  Cheney is not a friend of the left, or Democrats or even moderates.  But after she lost her primary to a Trump supported candidate who is less than qualified to serve in the Senate, a number of voices on the left were praising her.   Praising her for the simple fact that she is one of the few Republicans who are publicly denouncing the former President's complete and utter lie about the 2020 election and helping to investigate the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and by extension our very Democratic government.  An attacked by people called to Washington D.C. by the former President and ginned up by many of his most ardent supporters.  

The old adage that politics makes strange bedfellows was used to describe this situation but I would argue this is not about politics.  It is about embracing the reality that the 2020 election was fairly won by President Biden or the fantasy of wild conspiracies that somehow an elaborate system of cheating took place.   I do have respect for anyone on the right who stands up to Trump and is criminal and antidemocratic attempts to hold on to power or regain it.  Early on there were many who found Trump to be unfit to serve as President.  Reince Pribris famously said early in the 2016 election season, as then chair of the Republican party, that as Trump gained ground on the primary field he was pouring Bailey's on his breakfast cereal.  He then went on to be his Chief of Staff.  Only to be neutered by Trump and eventually forced out.  Many on the right called themselves never Trumpers who know support him and what we are calling Trumpism, the authoritarian effort that is reshaping our system of government.  So Cheney, who loses her seat in Congress, should be seen as a profile in courage.  She could have denounced the investigation on January 6th instead of joining it.  But she did what so few others have, put country over party or power.  

As we watch the 2022 election cycle we have seen candidate the GOP, through the former President has promoted more candidates that have no business anywhere near making our nation's laws.  In Georgia, Hershel Walker, a man with a violent domestic violence past and seems to understand little of how government works and has trouble with complete thoughts even in his own ads.  In Pennsylvania, a famous quack doctor who actually lives in New Jersey is running on his celebrity but a recent attempt to attack the high cost of food and blame the President.  It was so cringe from his misnaming the store, to him saying the wrong prices while attempting to buy items for crudités.  Also in Pennsylvania there is a candidate who has someone working for his campaign who doesn't want, even if conservative, Jews in the campaign.  Because all over the country the Republicans are embracing Christian Nationalism.  One currently sitting member of Congress has suggested we should do away with the the separation of church and state.  These are just a few of the highlights that have gone so far as the calling the execution of people who oppose Trumpism. 

I understand the desire and comfort one might have to embrace Representative Cheney as she stands in a small group of conservatives who haven't fallen under the spell of Trumpism.  But we should be aware of who she is and not put all our faith in the standing up against those who have decided to jettison the values of the party and in fact the country.  We can feel bad that a person who continues to live in reality is no longer going to serve.  But the idea that she should serve in the Biden administration or be on the next Democratic ticket is nonsense.  We can support her in her efforts to find the truth.  We can admire her efforts to maintain her values in the face of the  rotting of party that she grew up in.  But lets be careful how close we get to what we have always fought against.  As in everything, the enemy of my enemy isn't always a friend.  

Criminal Behavior Has Consequences

 Yesterday, the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-A-Lago, the current home of former President Trump, in what is reported an investigation of him taking documents with him when he left office.  The FBI, headed by a Trump appointed director, organized evidence of crime to bring before a Federal Judge, appointed by former President Trump, to obtain the warrant.  This is not something that we have seen in our history but that doesn't make it wrong or unAmerican.  For all those saying this is somehow us devolving into a third world country or a banana republic I would say this is the most American thing that could happen.  

The former President was accused of taking Presidential records to his home at Mar-A-Lago and the National Archives asked the FBI to investigate when they weren't returned.  There is some reporting that some of the records may contain highly classified documents that could damage our national security if they fell into the wrong hands.  Others are just normal records that by law must remain in the custody of the Federal government.  Since there has been little to no effort to return all the documents intact the FBI collected evidence and filed an affidavit with the court to obtain the warrant it executed.  That is the process and what is good about it is that even a former leader is not immune from the rule of law.   

We have never been to this place because we have never had a President who so brazenly flouted the rule of law both before, during and after his time in office.  In fact we never had a President call a gang of supporters to Washington DC to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.  This is not a typical thing, that doesn't make it a politically motivated investigation.

For months, a lot of people on the left have been asking why the Attorney General is not moving faster to prosecute Donald Trump for what they see as obvious crimes.  The response from many on the right is the reason why.  When you are in power and your political opponent is under investigation it gets tricky because it has the appearance of being political.  The Department of Justice has worked really hard to not appear to be doing that and even worse get over their skis in pursuit of a crime.  They knew regardless of how locked down the information was, how damning the evidence is and how many on the right support the moving forward with an investigation or charges the right wing noise machine and the Trump sycophants in Congress will call it retaliation or worse.  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has already threatened the Attorney General is the Republican take back the House.  Some on the right have been more measured. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said "We need to let this play out and see exactly what happens. But we should have been stunned and surprised and shocked with what happened yesterday," That earned him many on the web calling him a RINO, an acronym that used to me Republican In Name Only.  Today for many it means anyone who doesn't give full throated support of Trump.  There are voices on the internet saying they are coming for Republicans who aren't in the streets to Trump.  This is why it is difficult to investigate, charge and convict a political figure when they are of the opposition party and may be the nominee for President.  

Is Trump guilty of violating not only the Presidential Records Act but bringing seriously classified material to his home and out of government control.  No one really knows.  What we do know is that he had a history of destroying documents he was supposed to preserve.  That is played fast and loose with classified information and some reported caused an important human asset in Russia to have to leave the country quickly.  We know that flushing documents down the toilet is part of a new book on the Trump White House (which begins to answer the question why he was obsessed with low-flow toilets).  This execution of the warrant may lead to serious charges.  It may lead to the former President's lawyers turning everything over.  It may go nowhere if the agents, who spent hours at his home, got what they came for.  What I do know is that those screaming about their outrage the loudest don't know either and they are damaging the image of the country almost as much as the fact that the FBI felt the need to issue this kind of warrant on a former President.  

So what I would say is this:  We have a Department of Justice that will move forward with this investigation and I certainly hope that as they do they report appropriately to Congress when warranted.   I hope that if the President is found by a Grand Jury to have committed a crime that a fair and impartial jury will judge him without a lot of noise from those on the right.  I don't expect any of that.  Months ago I told someone when and if the DOJ did make an aggressive move in the investigation of any of Trump's alleged criminal behavior there will be ignorant outrage and threats of violence and that is why they are moving slowly.  I didn't realize just how bad it would be.  But in the words of a man that I fear will probably be retracting them by the time you read this We need to let this play out and see exactly what happens.