The effort of the GOP to bring down President Obama is an obsession that is literally consuming their political viability. Never before in the history of the party has the GOP looked so weak, so ineffective, and so lacking of good leadership. With their obsession to push President Obama over the racial cliff (a term I use in my book, “Whom God Has Blessed, Let No Man Curse”) the GOP has undermined the democratic process that has served this country so well. Shutting down the government, ignoring President Obama’s election mandate for a second term, and their obstructionist efforts are not only bad for the country they are bad for democracy because they have set a precedence that might be difficult to reverse.
Like the gladiators of ancient Rome who suffered defeat in the arena and was easily replaced with another gladiator, the GOP keep sending their gladiators to destroy President Obama. Those like Senator Cruz that have failed are quickly replaced. The current gladiator is Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-CA) the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. This is not the first attempt by Chairman Issa to damage the President. Since President Obama became president in 2008, the Chairman has led the following investigations against his administration: 2012 attack on the Benghazi consulate, politically based targeting by the IRS, the fast and furious scandal and now the Obamacare website.
When a person is overzealous in their efforts to destroy another person who has better character and integrity than them, they usually go about it in a manner that lacks credibility and with manufactured accusations. This has been evident in all the hearings that Chairman Issa has initiated against President Obama’s administration. It is no wonder then that these investigations fizzle out as they fail to prove any wrongdoing.
During the House Oversight hearing about the Obamacare website (Wednesday, 11-13-13), Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pennsylvania 17th District) said that the hearing was one of political gamesmanship and that its objective was not to help to fix the problems affecting the website. Rep. Cartwright hits the nail on the head because this hearing is a farce and it is simple a continuation of the effort to bring down the president. From day one of President Obama’s first term in office, the GOP and right wing media embarked on a strategy designed to demonize, undermine, and delegitimize the president. What they hoped this strategy would accomplish was to bring down the president.
Chairman Issa’s actions in holding politically motivated hearings (or as referred to by some as a Kangaroo court) against anything that has a scintilla of controversy from president Obama’s policies or actions is nothing more than tilting at windmills. Like Don Quixote, who fought windmills that he imagined to be giants, Chairman Issa sees President Obama as a giant who he believes is an easy target (most likely because of his race). He thinks and perceives things like Don Quixote who when he and his squire came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire,
“Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless.”
“What giants?” asked Sancho Panza.
“Those you see over there,” replied his master, “with their long arms. Some of them have arms well nigh two leagues in length.”
“Take care, sir,” cried Sancho. “Those over there are not giants but windmills. Those things that seem to be their arms are sails which, when they are whirled around by the wind, turn the millstone.”
Take care Chairman Issa, the scandals that you are trying to find to use and bring down President Obama do not exist. Perhaps the Chairman is just following his party’s playbook on how to bring down the president. By now, he and the rest of the anti- Obama crusaders should realize they are not going to succeed at doing this. The President is not a perfect man but he is more honorable than those who seek to bring him down. He also has more integrity than many of his detractors. In my book, “Whom God Has Blessed, Let No Man Curse,” (http://www.jermelshim.com), I explain why the forces that confront President Obama will fail to bring him down.