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Monthly Archives

October 2015

BlogFrom the Desk of Bob Barr

Where Have All The Leaders Gone?

by lgadmin October 28, 2015
written by lgadmin

Once upon a time, America valued and produced great leaders. Men who inspired, who rose above the common, who placed country above self, and who understood the importance of honesty as a vivid and very real motivator of personal behavior and public policy.

It was from this milieu that Daniel Webster reportedly answered the question posed him by a mid-nineteenth Century European journalist — “what is America’s greatest gift to the world?” – with five simple words that profoundly encapsulated what had brought a fledgling nation barely able to secure its limited borders, to a nation just 50 years later knocking on the doors of the world’s then-great powers. Webster’s answer to this question to describe why world powers already were looking to America as something truly special and good was simply, “The integrity of George Washington.”

Today, some century-and-three-quarters after Webster shared the secret of America’s growing leadership in the world, our nation is locked in another presidential contest pitting many men and women against each other; all vying to “lead” the United States of America for at least four years through the second decade of the 21st Century. And what do we have in this contest’s crop of front-runners? Certainly no George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or Abe Lincoln.

We have a loud-mouthed bully who delights in insulting his own teammates and anyone else within range of his piercing vision. We have the scion of a recent political dynasty, who is clothed in skin so thin the slightest barb elicits expressions of pain and cries of “foul.” We next have a physician with not the slightest experience in the public policy arenas in which a president necessarily must know to act, and whose presence is so soft one has to strain to hear his words. And finally in the pack at the front of the pack, we have a woman so steeped in scandal and fibs that the modern lie detector would be unable to detect that she even subconsciously perceives the difference between a lie and the truth.

Is this really what American Leadership has become? Has the presidency become nothing more than a scramble not just for the comfort that comes from mediocrity, but one that revels in the basest of human nature? Has it become thus rather than a contest that strives to set a tone and an example born of understanding, respect, strength and vision? Where once our national leaders asked of themselves and their fellow Americans, “what can you do for your country,” leaders in Washington now fight to rise to the top of the heap that is the House of Representatives by asking – nay, demanding – “what can this exalted position do for my career.”

In a prescient essay on “Statesmanship” written shortly before the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998, Mark Helprin eloquently explained that in generations past, men rose as leaders in America – whether in business, the military, or most importantly, in the political arena — by placing their own careers, their own lives, subservient to a higher good. Such people possessed what Helprin identified as the sine qua non of a true statesman – the soul of a Medal of Honor winner; a soul unafraid to die. Sadly now, as Helprin wrote back in those dark days at the turn of this most recent Century, “we have only what we have” — a “political class [that is] in the main, . . . in it for themselves.”

The dangers to rise from this schoolyard mess – though one with serious, even dire consequences for the country depending on who finally emerges – are, or should be clear. Our next president must be a man or woman who truly understands public policy and how to maneuver the levers of power in a complex and uncompromising world arena, but without loosening the bonds of America’s history and values that should bind their soul to the unshakable principle of integrity.

Neither the mega-rich bully Trump, nor the quiet but inexperienced surgeon Carson fit this mold. Certainly, the Democratic front-runner — the scandal-born-and-raised wife of America’s most narcissistic President — would never be able to operate in that arena; at least not in a way that would benefit our country. And the thin-skinned son of a former President and brother of another, seeking desperately to prove he is the equal of his father and his brother, already has shown himself unworthy of such a mantel.

Yet there are, on the Republican side, candidates possessed of the understanding, vision and integrity that so often in the past, but so infrequently in the present, have been characteristics possessed by true American statesmen. Whether they will be able to break the media-constructed fence that has been erected around the other front-runners, in time to present voters with a picture of true leadership, is the question not only for this 2016 election cycle, but for many more to follow.

 

Originally Published here via townhall.com

October 28, 2015 0 comment
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BlogFrom the Desk of Bob Barr

The Benghazi Select Committee – Another Exercise in Republican Ineffectiveness

by lgadmin October 21, 2015
written by lgadmin

A generation ago, it took exactly 506 days between the passage of Senate Resolution 60 establishing the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities to investigate the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters, and the release of an exhaustive 1,250 report that would lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon a mere 43 days later. By comparison, it has been 532 days from the date on which the Benghazi Select Committee was formed; and from all outward appearances, we are no closer to a resolution of anything than when the committee first began.

 

The point? The GOP does not know how to conduct oversight – one of the three key responsibilities of the Congress (along with legislating and appropriating monies).

 

The work of the Watergate Committee forced Nixon to resign as a result of the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. Now, a generation later, with the GOP rather than the Democratic Party in firm control of the House, the on-again/off-again investigation of the Benghazi debacle that resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including a sitting Ambassador, and which has revealed apparent violations of federal record keeping laws, continues to sputter. The contrast between the effectiveness of the two select committees could not be more evident.

 

When the Watergate Committee was convened after a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate, members of the committee were chosen because of their esteem among colleagues from both parties, and because they understood their mission was not to embark on a political witch-hunt, but to find the truth and dispense justice for any discovered law breaking.

 

No such respect or appreciation has been afforded Benghazi Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy’s mission. Despite his competence as a trained prosecutor, Gowdy has had to fight tooth and nail against attacks on his investigation coming from on all sides. Not only have Democrats, and initially even Republican leaders like House Speaker John Boehner, refused to accept the need for congressional oversight into the Executive Branch’s actions leading up to and following the Benghazi attack, but Gowdy has been forced into cleaning up the fallout from Republicans like Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who make foolish comments to the press politicizing the investigation, thus further undermining its credibility.

 

Unfortunately for Gowdy, it is not a fight he can win; not because there is not corruption to uncover, or because he is unfit to lead the investigation. The problem is that Republican leaders in Congress have yet to figure out how to investigate Executive Branch abuse, or even to comprehend why.

 

The Obama Administration, and Hillary as a part of that Administration, is certainly responsible for its corruption and ethical deficiencies. Congress too, however, must shoulder some of this responsibility given its systemic ineffectiveness at holding the Executive Branch accountable for this pattern of misconduct. But why should a Democratic Administration fear an opposition majority party in the House that is busy fine-tuning the art of shooting itself in the foot; and a Senate also in the hands of a GOP majority, whose members are frozen in place and afraid to assert their numerical majority for fear of upsetting Minority Leader Harry Reid?

 

It is easy to blame outgoing House Speaker John Boehner for the pervasiveness of this permissive attitude. However, the problem is far more systemic than it is the fault of any one person. Simply put, Republicans no better understand their oversight powers and responsibilities now than they did when I was in Congress during the Clinton Administration.

 

Fortunately, Boehner’s resignation opens the door for reform of this broken process. The next Speaker of the House needs to be a leader who recognizes the constitutional and procedural sources of congressional oversight powers. If Boehner had better understood all the tools in his arsenal, then perhaps rather than simply empower Gowdy to conduct an investigation via a Select Committee, with its limited jurisdiction, he would have empowered the permanent House Oversight Committee — which has the broadest jurisdiction of any committee of the Congress — to undertake investigations that included, but were not strictly limited to, the Benghazi attack. Unfortunately, this generation of Republican congressional leaders never have exhibited the moxie for substantive, hard-nosed oversight investigations.

 

“It goes without saying that partisanship is at the very heart of the original problem,” the late Sen. Jesse Helms stated during the debate over the formation of the Watergate Committee. “It is all the more important, therefore, that the investigation be conducted in an atmosphere that inspires confidence and betrays no suspicion that less than the truth, and the whole truth, has been found.” If we are to have any hope of returning to our status as a nation of laws rather than of men, the next Speaker of the House must realize the gravity of Helms’ words, and work to reassert Congress as an independent check on Executive power as intended by the Constitution. I have learned the hard way, however, not to hold my breath.

Originally published here on townhall.com

October 21, 2015 0 comment
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BlogFrom the Desk of Bob Barr

House GOP May Be The Majority Party, But It Is Not The Leadership Party

by lgadmin October 14, 2015
written by lgadmin

Since regaining the majority in the House in 2010, the Republicans have resembled less an organized, cohesive team of lawmakers, than the Biblical Hebrews wandering in the Wilderness. Speaker Boehner’s sudden announced resignation demonstrated an unprecedented lack of vision, agenda, and leadership; undertaken without any apparent forethought or responsibility for the future of the Party or the country. The move could hardly have come at a worse time; just as a lame duck president, desperate to cement his “legacy” at any cost, is dragging America into a Black Hole of international recklessness.

While President Obama sits back and plots his next moves — be they unilateral action on gun control, flooding our communities with more refugees, or implementing additional disastrous environmental regulations — Boehner suddenly announces his resignation, with nothing in place for the Party’s “next step.” Then, Rep. Kevin McCarthy leaps forward, apparently also with no plan, only to quickly step aside when he realizes the personal cost to assuming the position. Now, still in the first inning of this comedy of errors, Rep. Paul Ryan coyly dips his toes in the water.

In short, there is no clear, or even close, consensus candidate to emerge from the rumpus. More than just the irresponsibility shown by the so-called House “leadership,” the mess reflects how little the Republican Party appreciates the significations of the post of speaker (not that the Democrats would do any better). The position is not a stepladder to hoist any one individual into the limelight. Rather, it is a solemn, constitutionally-based position of significant national importance – embodying a responsibility that transcends party or personality.

If GOP elders — who are supposed to be mentors to junior congressmen who may not yet understand the importance of a long-term strategy for legislative success — truly understood their position and responsibility, there would have been far more consideration and care devoted to grooming potential leaders. That there was not even a semblance of a succession plan in place, is the height of irresponsibility.

In the world outside the political arena, corporations and charitable organizations, as a matter of standard operating policy, maintain leadership succession plans. They also routinely devote resources to identifying and developing future leaders for their enterprises; much like a baseball’s “farm team.” But in the United States House of Representatives, the GOP will have none of such nonsense as a succession plan, or unselfish development of future leaders. However, it has not always been this way.

Sadly, in the one generation since the GOP captured the majority in the House for the first time in forty years, and within three short years brought us major legislative victories, the Republican Party in the House has devolved into a political assemblage that enjoys majority status, but does not truly deserve it.

Rather than continuing to look within its ranks for a leader who does not appear to yet exist, the GOP should take a historic, but constitutionally permissible step, and consider a proven leader from the outside. As I wrote in September, Republicans not long ago claimed a Speaker who was able to actually accomplish notable goals as Speaker, and in a polarized environment not unlike today. That man was Newt Gingrich. As a direct result of Gingrich’s steadfast resolve to rise above the factional squabbling and forge a working majority, and then convince a Democratic President to work with him, Republicans were able to pass an astounding number of principled, conservative reforms.

Later, with a Republican-controlled White House and Congress, the GOP was unable to accomplish what Newt was able to as speaker; which is why he makes the perfect candidate now, even if on an interim basis, to save the GOP from descending into all-out civil war. Speaker Gingrich alone could rise above the fray, and the picayune and personal motives that appear to be the fuel, which motivates the current crop of potential candidates. He could provide a degree of actual leadership and strength obviously lacking in the current House GOP.

The man or woman who occupies this high post can do more to set the legislative and policy agenda for the country than any other elected official in the country – but only if they understand the power and responsibility of the office. The speaker – that is, a real speaker — must be firmly rooted in a coherent governing philosophy, but at the same time be able and willing to exhibit true leadership to accomplish important legislative goals. If the one question foremost in the mind of a candidate for speaker is, “will this job help or hurt my political future,” that person already has disqualified himself. Tragically, the current crop of potential candidates within the House GOP caucus, all appear to fall into this category.

Bring back Newt!

Originally published here on townhall.com

October 14, 2015 0 comment
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