Well, this ought to frost your Wheaties.
Let’s play a game: I suspect you might have a little trouble guessing the identity of this letter’s author, now that I’ve edited the content enough to mask it and the president to whom he was referring, but let’s see how you do. Now, I’ve got some pretty smart friends on social media. Some of you will guess correctly, I’m sure. Some of the letter’s content that would constitute a dead giveaway had to be deleted in order to maintain our aura of mystery. So, I shortened the original content and changed a few words to hopefully keep you in suspense for a couple of minutes, anyway.
Without further ado (I don’t want anyone thinking too much and guessing before reading the letter), who wrote the following, and about whom?
Mr. President, this is a day of solemnity and awe. I rise humbled that we are participating in a process that was mapped out more than 200 years ago by the Founding Fathers and that the words we say today will be looked upon by historians and future Congresses for guidance. That is quite a responsibility.
I began this process in the House where it degenerated quickly into bitter acrimony. I would like to say to the Majority Leader and Minority Leader, and to my new colleagues who have wrestled with this case, that I deeply appreciate your fairness and patience and the way this has been handled with such dignity in the Senate.
Growing up, our country and its government seemed like a mighty oak — strong, rooted, permanent, and grand.
It has shaken me that we stand at the brink of removing a President — not because of a popular groundswell to remove him and not because of the magnitude of the wrongs he’s committed — but because conditions [today] has made it possible for a small group of people who hate [him] and hate his policies to very cleverly and very doggedly exploit the institutions of freedom that we hold dear and almost succeed in undoing him.
Most troubling to me are the conditions that allowed this to happen, than the small group who precipitated them.
What is so profoundly disturbing is not that this small group of [president]-haters hatched this plan. It’s that this group — or any group equally dogmatic and cunning — came so close to succeeding.
If you had asked me one year ago if people like this with such obvious political motives could use our courts, play the media and tantalize the legislative branch to achieve their ends of bringing down the President, I would have said “not a chance — that doesn’t happen in America.”
But it almost happened. And in the future it could be a right wing zealous organization or another left wing group or some other group with strong narrow beliefs.
We’ve got to understand how we’ve reached the point where any small group could have so much power.
Of course, mechanically, we can point to a myriad of bad decisions that brought us to the brink.
But let’s express some sympathy.
The president is an extraordinary but flawed individual. But so are many other revered leaders, including other presidents. And when we knew about their flaws or suspected as much, we didn’t make that a cause celebre — not because we condoned whatever character flaw they might possess, but because we realize that none of us are superhuman.
We are all flawed. “Let him without sin cast the first stone” is no more a cliche today than it was almost 2,000 years ago.
This democracy would not exist if only the perfect among us were allowed to contribute.
Put yourself, put any of us in the president’s position — where your enemy is trying to expose your most embarrassing private flaw. Where they find a way to use the most public venue to humiliate you. Where they put you in front of a civil court of law in what seems to you to be a bogus, politically motivated case that should have never seen the light of day.
There are many of us in politics and many in the media who carry on and opine as if we and they are perfect.
We’re not.
Maybe we’re seeking an impossible duality. We demand, as we should, that our elected leaders be held to the highest standard. And then we shine the brightest light imaginable to expose those who don’t measure up.
But, of course, no one can meet that standard, particularly under the blinding bright glare of late 20th century light.
There is a fundamental question our society must address — how do we keep our standards high but at the same time accept, as the Founding Fathers did, that our leaders are only human.
Related to this is a second underlying cause that has allowed this small group of zealots to almost undo the President.
It seems we have lost the ability to forcefully advocate for our position without trying to criminalize or at least dishonor our adversaries — often over matters having nothing to do with the public trust. And it is hurting the country; it is marginalizing and polarizing the Congress.
In today’s environment, it would be easy, but wrong, for politicians to lay the blame for this predicament simply on a narrow band of partisan zealots out to destroy the president.
It would be easy, but wrong, for his political opponents to say that the only reason the president survived this scandal is a strong economy.
We are routinely using criminal accusations and scandal to win the political battles and ideological differences we cannot settle at the ballot box.
Both parties are to blame.
<snip>
Wow. Pretty powerful stuff, right? As I read through my sanitized version, I even find myself moved by the eloquent rhetoric, to some degree. But I also know who wrote it.
Okay, but the question is, who did you guess were the author of the letter and the president referenced? It almost reads like something Rand Paul might have written about President Trump’s impeachment, doesn’t it?
Nope. Good guess, though. That was statement for the record by Senator Charles E. Schumer written in 1999, defending Bill Clinton against removal from office for committing perjury in a civil suit.
Naturally, I had to delete references to Ken Starr, Paula Jones, the actual crime of perjury, Trent Lott, Tom Daschle, and any other references that would have tipped my hand prematurely. Skimming over the end result of my edits, it’s stunning to see this glaring hypocrisy from one of the most partisan political hacks in Congress.
Chuck Schumer is a disgrace to the Senate, but he writes a pretty good letter defending a president from conviction by the Senate.
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