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When I read this in the NJ…
KUWAIT CITY — The flashy Laila Tower office building in this wealthy oil capital is a world away from the mean streets of Baghdad. But the U.S. government says they are linked by a web of fraud and bribery that stole millions of dollars provided by American taxpayers to support U.S. combat troops in Iraq.
…and I read this in the comment section of Delawareliberal…
After I left you guys I had to laugh to myself when I ran into Carper and Castle walking around together. Ahhh, the Delaware Way.
I can’t help feeling that the items are related in some way. Can it be that we expect so little of our reps in Congress that they can do anything (or nothing) ? And cruise on and on.
There is no grand conspiracy; it is simply that we no longer have any objective perfomance criteria for these guys. They are elected therefore they are re-elected… and on and on.
In a 1982 speech, Cutler’s CCS co-chairman, C. Douglas Dillon, observed, “Today, possibly the most important longer range question facing us as a nation, a question transcending all immediate issues, is whether we can continue to afford the luxury of the separation of power in Washington between the executive and the legislative branches of our government.”
“You may ask,” he continued, “‘What is the alternative?’ The answer could well be…a change to some form of parliamentary government that would eliminate or sharply reduce the present division of authority between the executive and legislative arms of government.”
Professor James MacGregor Burns, a CCS board member, likewise endorsed the “wisdom of constitutional revision.” In his 1984 book The Power to Lead, Burns expressed his frustration and unequivocally admitted the CCS gang’s subversive intent: “The framers have simply been too shrewd for us. They have outwitted us. They designed separated institutions that cannot be unified by mechanical linkages, frail bridges, tinkering. If we are to ‘turn the founders upside down’ – to put together what they put asunder – we must directly confront the constitutional structure they erected.” Burns went on to propose radical constitutional revisions remarkably similar to those put forward by Cutler, Dillon, and other CCS members.
So how did these elite revisionists expect to overcome the framers? shrewd constitutional structures and “turn the founders upside down”? Especially, since they acknowledged that the American public was not exactly keen on following the CCS leadership. In The Power to Lead, Burns gave a clue: “I doubt that Americans under normal conditions could agree on the package of radical and ‘alien’ constitutional changes that would be required. They would do so, I think, only during and following a stupendous national crisis and political failure.”
This notion of taking advantage of a grave crisis to force the desired constitutional restructuring has been a frequent theme in the writings and speeches of the CCS members and their related brethren. A CCS report on the group’s meeting held on April 17, 1986, at Harvard, for instance, provides this summary impression of co-chairman C. Douglas Dillon’s statements: “Some others have been more interested in direct action right away, which he [Dillon] does not favor now. He thinks needed changes can be made only after a period of great crisis. But adequate discussion should be held in advance so that if such a crisis occurs there will be some useful background material available.” (Emphasis added.)
What kind of crisis or emergency might suffice for this great purpose? CCS members opined that a protracted budget crisis might provide adequate impetus. Unfortunately, for those hopefuls, repeated budget crises failed to achieve the fright level necessary to stampede the American public in favor of their subversive schemes. Some hoped that global environmental crises would supply the golden key. Cutler and others, however, correctly recognized that environmental doomsday scenarios were too long-term and probably lacked the oomph needed to do the job.
Carper will be the first to take credit for the investigation into the criminal fraud/corruption surrounding Iraqi war monies. He, as a Senate committee member, was yapping about it months ago (not citing this specific event at the time but it seems that it was in the time period of the suicide, so this was probably what kicked off his antics and investigative journey to the mid-east at the time.
I hope Sen. Carper get’s them in the fraud, and has those responsible prosecuted.