Misgiving #3 - Bipartisan politics: The Defenders of Democrats(cy)?

"I believe after 10 years and the expense of $22 million, the public has the right to see the entire report and make their own judgments."

If you agree with the basic tenets of this statement, then you should be equally sure about your position regarding the efforts by the Senate Judiciary Committee to slice up and deliver the most diplomatic representation of a potentially explosive report.

This is my misgiving: That American leaders with enough cash can silence the mouths of accountability; and as long as the junk-science of "politics" continue, we can never be assured of absolute improvement of Government.

1995 - The Year of the Scandals
The final report of David Barret, an independent counsel appointed in 1995 to investigate potential felonies committed by one-time Clinton administration Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, is scheduled for release on Jan. 19. Barrett is the last remaining Independent Counsel of the Clinton years, spawned by numerous scandals that began to hit the fan beginning in 1995. However, it appears "as it currently stands, the report will not be released in its entirety," said Barrett. "One decade and some millions of taxpayers' dollars later, [I am] disappointed that the report may not reflect [our] careful and diligent efforts." A maverick Republican Senator from Iowa and David Barrett himself are now fighting for it's life, and trying to assure the report will not be shelved for good.

David Barret was hired back during the Clinton presidency to investigate allegations that then Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros lied to FBI investigators and committed tax fraud in attempting to conceal money he had paid a mistress. Cisneros pled guilty back in 1999, and that would have been the end of the investigation; but Barrett and his team of investigators found serious problems in their findings, and were tipped off to possible criminal behavior in the Justice Department and in the IRS in relation to Cisneros' case.

It started with this man, and his "indescretions"; sound familiar?

Just Another Illicit Affair?
This seems at the outset to be merely an investigation into the illicit love life of a public official; certainly not the only one of the Clinton Presidency. However, as most Independent Counsels end up going, more has been uncovered than a simple payoff to keep a mistress' mouth shut. Barrett would have ended his operation long ago had that been the only conclusion. But no, according to leaks, an IRS whistle-blower told Barrett of an unprecedented cover-up. This informant said a regional IRS official had formulated a new rule enabling him to transfer an investigation of Cisneros to Washington to be buried by the Justice Department. Barrett's investigators found Lee Radek, head of Justice's public integrity office and questioned him thoroughly, but Radek seemed determined to protect President Bill Clinton and gave up nothing, niether conclusive or otherwise.

David Barrett's report has been completed and ready for release since August 2004, however David Kendall, Bill Clinton's top lawyer-dog immediately jumped on the report by either trying to gut it with nearly 140 redactions - leaving it virtually inconclusive and vague - or by trying to avoid it's release altogether. Because of the delays related to the legal proceedings brought on by the Clinton Administration during the investigation, and now during the final days of the Independent Counsel, the price tag of $22 million is being decried as government waste and Kendall is saying it should be stuffed in a box to be forgotten.

Such tactics have been used for years by the Clinton Administration to delay document release or to discredit officers of the court. But now, a bipartisan panel lead by a Republican Senator have conceded to the legal efforts and it is now apparent that the report may never be released at all.

The Defenders of Democrats(cy)
Senator Byron Dorgan (D-South Dakota) has lead the charge, along with Sen. Carl Levin and House Rep. Henry Waxman agaist the release of these documents, and Senators Kit Bond (R-Missouri), a 4 term Missourian and Joe Knollenberg (R-Michigan) have agreed to the amending of the report before release.

In one light of hope, Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa is spending his hours seeing that the unamended report sees the light of day, but his battle is an uphill one as the majority of the Republican-controlled Senate JC have sided with David Kendall and his team of legal dog-fighters. He will not be easily disuaded, however. "Chuck Grassley is a stubborn Iowa farmer who often drives the White House and Republican leaders to distraction," wrote Robert Novak in a recent column.

Will Grassley be successful? One can only assume that the final days leading up to the tentative release will see throngs of government watchdogs and open-meetings advocates pounding on the doors of both Parties on the Hill, demanding that the political masquerading and back-scratching come to an end. And one can only assume that something of a political compromise was made to the Republican leaders so they would bow down and allow the amendment to go forward.

The Straight Skinny of the Report
The 120 page report, followed by 500 pages of appendices and footnotes will be potentially damaging to the reputation of both the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service for allegations of abuse of power and harrasment against individuals during the Clinton Presidency. Apparently, Section B of the report contains conclusive findings that such abuses did occur and that top administration officials were involved. It is true that no one really knows just how damaging the report may be, except for Barrett and those on the 3 judge panel overseeing the process and the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, Robert Novak writes, "while the investigation would be a long walk into the unknown with possibly far-reaching consequences, prominent Democrats in Congress have spent much of the last decade in a campaign, successful so far, to suppress Barrett's report. Its disclosures could dig deeply into concealed scandals of the Clinton administration. These vital considerations, not the mere continuation of a $58-an-hour independent counsel position, is why Republican lawyer Barrett for a decade would not close down his prosecutor's office."

Where's the ACLU?
Civil libertarians concerned about the heavy-handedness of the IRS and its use as an instrument of political repression by the executive branch of the government know that this is very important. The reports of every other Independent Counsel have been released to the public in full, with only minor redactions where classified material might be revealed. I wonder aloud why the ACLU has not been pursuing this, armed with the Freedom of Information Act to make sure that government responsiblity remains in the hands of the people. Maybe they're too busy litigating the 20+ cases in the courts regarding the use of the word "Jesus" in public office displays? I'm sure that Government endorsement of Jesus Christ amounts to a much greater national security threat than NSA leaks and Independent Counsel cover-ups!

Tony Snow offered some interesting perspective as to why this effort is being given such attention in the back halls of the Senate: "By all accounts, the 400-page Barrett report is a bombshell, capable possibly of wiping out Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential prospects," writes Snow. "At the very least, it would bring to public attention a scandal that would make the Valerie Plame affair vanish into comical insignificance."

Writes a participant on FreeRepublic.com, where several comments recently have been posted: "They should just leak [the report] to the public. It seems to work for the New York Times and they never face any consequences."

I am absolutely disturbed by the potential windfall that may occur if this cover-up allowed to succeed. Corrupt administrations in the future will have a free hand at playing politics the way they are played in a banana republic... or 20th-century Arkansas. And the most fearful fact of this scenario is that the freedom of Americans can be infringed upon, investigated, and then covered up in the most stealthy of fashions. That is why I am posting this article and have spent so much of the last three weeks pondering it's release. I have researched, verified and thought about the consequences of such abuse of power, and I am more sure now than ever before that we live in unprecedented times where sometimes starting from the ground up is the only way to expose a fraudulent system. That's who we are, the "grass-roots."