Of all we have heard at the hearings of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, Judge J. Michael Luttig’s testimony on Thursday stands out. Luttig is a leading conservative thinker, a giant in Republican legal circles, who worked in the Reagan administration, was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to a federal judgeship, and was on the short-list for a Supreme Court seat during President George W. Bush’s term. In January 2021, then–vice president Mike Pence’s staff turned to him for support to make sure Pence didn’t agree to count out electors; Luttig opposed the scheme absolutely.
Thank you Heather, thank you President Abraham Lincoln and thank you Judge J. Michael Luttig.
“I wanted to do this for America and I understood I had an obligation to do it for America. It was my ‘moment’ in my life to stand up, step forward, and bear witness to what I believe and what I do not believe.”
[The Texas Republican Party today approved a platform plank] "calling for a vote “for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”
Good riddance. When and if Texas withdraws from the Union they will find some dazzling challenges ahead of them. Services provided or subsidized by the federal government would be withdrawn. Federal monies and subsidies would cease to flow to Texas. Frankly, I think "TEXIT" is just what the people of the United States need to see. I'm fairly certain any number of large and small business would pull up stakes and move elsewhere. TEXIT would leave Texas a pathetic cross between the societies described in The Handmaid's Tale and the Hunger Games. I hope clear thinking Texans have the gumption and financial wherewithal to pull up stakes and relocate as well.
Judge Lettig’s stark and accurate assessment will not, tragically, sway Republican leaders to change their ways. They appear beyond redemption. If so, they are tacitly embracing efforts to end democracy.
As for the Texas GOP, they have declared in essence that if they remain in power the state will go rogue and declare its independence. Only the influence of powerful corporate interests there can stop this madness.
When I vowed a few weeks ago never to vote for any Republican for any office at the local, state and federal level, I still would have not have anticipated such a deplorable platform for the RPINO (Republican Party in Name Only). It horrifies me that there are 5,100 delegates and alternates who would vote for such an abominable platform. Please read the two Texas Tribune articles Heather listed above. What a formula for disaster! As a resident of Texas I want everyone to know that the Texas Republican Party does not represent the majority of Texans. I also understand that far right activist Republicans in several states are already disrupting the election process by flooding County officials with FOIA requests simply to disrupt and take up their time. Judge Luttig's speech is may well be the speech of our time that will be studied for generations. It is worth reading the entire speech once again: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/16/j-michael-luttig-opening-statement-jan-6-hearing-00040255 "A stake was driven through the heart of democracy on January 6th..." We must give the election officials and workers all the support and protection we can. We need to get out the vote. We need to tell Republicans - all of them - that they are being held accountable for the dismantling of democracy and the criminal conspiracy driving their "party". We must encourage the DOJ to hold the conspirators criminally accountable starting at the top with Donald J. Trump. We must go forward with determination and non-violent action to assure our unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are at a cusp point of history and we are fully in control of bending it toward a new democracy that truly sheds the flaws of the original Constitution which allowed the inequality and cruelty of slavery to thrive. This is our moment whether we chose it or not to create a special future for all of us, our children and generations to come. Let's make them proud to stand on our shoulders!
We the People, All of Us Equal this time!
¡Nosotros la gente, todos nosotros iqual esta vez
The Chilean Revolutionary song ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!
The people united shall never be defeated! fits this moment.
I think the Texas GOP has declared what they are. They aren't any different than those who left the USA, formed the Confederacy, used a military operation to murder how many people, and were for the assassination of the US President Lincoln.
The Jan. 6th committee is effective because all its witnesses are Republicans. Luttig, Trumps inner circle of enablers like Barr, The Lincoln Project, Cheney, Kinzinger, Raffensperger et al...and Republicans yet to emerge are our only hope if our democracy is to be saved. Only Republicans themselves can 'right the ship' of their party and stop sinking our Democracy. Just as in Watergate, Nixon was not finished until Republicans emerged in the administration and Congress who decided it was so. THIS scares me, I have little faith in the current GQP.
It seems as if, with that long list of complaints and demands, the Texas Republican Party could start with the last item first and try to persuade the people of Texas to secede. That way, you see, whether they accept that Biden is president, and whether they can limit the number of Supreme Court justices to nine in perpetuity, and whether they get their way on all the other measures, it wouldn't matter. They could just check out and leave running the country to the rest of us.
"Luttig’s words carry weight among Republican lawmakers."
It remains to be seen whether that statement remains true, or should read "Luttig's words used to carry weight among Republican legislators."
If the latter statement turns out to be true, it remains to be seen what Judge Luttig, and any Republicans who agree with him, are going to do about it. They are the critical weight needed to tip the political scale toward the preservation of our democracy, or do nothing and watch it die.
The rogue racist psychotics of today’s Texas Republican Party make it easy. Fascism or freedom, racism or tolerance, civilization or nihilism, backwards or forward, Blacks destroyed or loved, a republic if you can keep it: Common Sense akin to Thomas Paine.
We face what President Abraham Lincoln faced with slavery spreading: stop it and go to war, or witness the banality if evil moving west.
Texas Republican rogues are the GOP of Trump and enduring fascism..
Judge Michael Luttig at 68 has decided to lead us to the promised land of brotherhood and decency, of federalism and fealty to our constitution. Luttig rejects Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Greg Abbott, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and the Big Lie.
Judge Luttig asks Americans to vote, to fight to save our struggling democracy, and he rejects today’s racist radicals of the Big Lie.
Justice John Michael Luttig joins with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in freedom’s march.
It’s a time for love, not hate, for tolerance not fascism. Luttig stands for the Golden Rule. He stands for Christain values, for Jewish values, for American values as spoken by Abraham Lincoln.
It’s simple. Good or evil. God is testing us, the Devil is testing us. The Book of Job lays it out.
Stand and Deliver, it’s show time, this isn’t dress rehearsal. We can do it. Let’s roll.
To Judge Luttig. To Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Thank you for your clear-sighted commentary and analysis. One of the most important things to remember now and until the Republican Party resumes some semblance of ethical comportment—All Republicans are complicit, unless they speak up. While I’m not a great fan of Cheney and Pence. I acknowledge their efforts. it’s also true that we shouldn’t have to praise people for doing the right thing. Thank them yes, but let’s not fetishize them.
“On Thursday, Judge Luttig examined the ongoing danger to democracy and located it not just on former president Donald Trump and his enablers, but on the entire Republican Party of today, the party that embraces the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 election, the party that continues to plan to overturn any election in which voters choose a Democrat.”
Today and probably for the rest of this year the political momentum is with the Republicans. That will probably change a little less than a year from now once the newly elected members of the Republican lunatic fringe start passing insane laws like the ones you've pointed out in Texas.
But the real turning point will be the impeachment of President Biden. Why will he be impeached? I can sum it up in three little words - Tit for Tat.
There was no chance that Trump was going to be removed from office but both times he was impeached for serious reasons.
There is no chance that Biden is going to be removed from office but he will impeached for spite.
Proving that the Texas Republican Party has been insane since back when "White Texas Democrats" ran the state - then they brought their "White Texas Democtacy" to the party in the 80s. But they were this nuts 50 years ago. I'm surprised they aren't still calling for a return to the Gold Standard.
And this native Texan would be just fine with turning that place into "A Whole Other Country," (so long as all the good people could be evacuated first since "Texas Good People" are *really* good) and then we build a 20-foot high wall around it.
Another marvelous essay. But why oh why should it take a Judge Luttig in 2022 to say what was clear as day back in 2016? And why is Judge Luttig or any non-Republican still clinging to the notion that a Party now operating as a personality cult can ever come to its senses? ("Luttig said that Republicans must start speaking to Democrats as ”fellow Americans that have a shared destiny and shared hopes and dreams for America.") The virus that has overcome the GOP was already deep in its DNA. Dr. Richardson reminded us of that in yesterday's excellent Watergate summary. And it is working with cunning to infect us all.
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is a marvelous ‘Tonto’ for Lone Rangers Thompson/Cheney/Raskin on the House 1/6 Committee. Republican legal giant Judge Luttig said “The former president and his party are today a clear and present danger for American democracy.”
Woozer doozer, straight from Tom Clancy’s best Selling Clear and Present Danger and from the movie when Harrison Ford (CIA’s Jack Ryan) closed the net on a duplicitous and rotten American president.
Let CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER ring across our nation—even some Trumpies would get this message.
At least one Republican recognized the need to wake up from a very bad dream. Now I see why the mafia wing of that party hate "the woke." They want all of us to live in their nightmare.
I read a number of political blogs written by very smart journalists who are extremely well "plugged in." When I complain to them that they are too hard on Biden for not doing enough on this or that, especially when the Republicans have sinned against the very soul of America, they alway retort the same way, "go read HCR," and I do. And I feel in that we will somehow be fine. Thank you dear lady.
Thank you Heather, thank you President Abraham Lincoln and thank you Judge J. Michael Luttig.
“I wanted to do this for America and I understood I had an obligation to do it for America. It was my ‘moment’ in my life to stand up, step forward, and bear witness to what I believe and what I do not believe.”
[The Texas Republican Party today approved a platform plank] "calling for a vote “for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”
Good riddance. When and if Texas withdraws from the Union they will find some dazzling challenges ahead of them. Services provided or subsidized by the federal government would be withdrawn. Federal monies and subsidies would cease to flow to Texas. Frankly, I think "TEXIT" is just what the people of the United States need to see. I'm fairly certain any number of large and small business would pull up stakes and move elsewhere. TEXIT would leave Texas a pathetic cross between the societies described in The Handmaid's Tale and the Hunger Games. I hope clear thinking Texans have the gumption and financial wherewithal to pull up stakes and relocate as well.
Judge Lettig’s stark and accurate assessment will not, tragically, sway Republican leaders to change their ways. They appear beyond redemption. If so, they are tacitly embracing efforts to end democracy.
As for the Texas GOP, they have declared in essence that if they remain in power the state will go rogue and declare its independence. Only the influence of powerful corporate interests there can stop this madness.
When I vowed a few weeks ago never to vote for any Republican for any office at the local, state and federal level, I still would have not have anticipated such a deplorable platform for the RPINO (Republican Party in Name Only). It horrifies me that there are 5,100 delegates and alternates who would vote for such an abominable platform. Please read the two Texas Tribune articles Heather listed above. What a formula for disaster! As a resident of Texas I want everyone to know that the Texas Republican Party does not represent the majority of Texans. I also understand that far right activist Republicans in several states are already disrupting the election process by flooding County officials with FOIA requests simply to disrupt and take up their time. Judge Luttig's speech is may well be the speech of our time that will be studied for generations. It is worth reading the entire speech once again: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/16/j-michael-luttig-opening-statement-jan-6-hearing-00040255 "A stake was driven through the heart of democracy on January 6th..." We must give the election officials and workers all the support and protection we can. We need to get out the vote. We need to tell Republicans - all of them - that they are being held accountable for the dismantling of democracy and the criminal conspiracy driving their "party". We must encourage the DOJ to hold the conspirators criminally accountable starting at the top with Donald J. Trump. We must go forward with determination and non-violent action to assure our unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are at a cusp point of history and we are fully in control of bending it toward a new democracy that truly sheds the flaws of the original Constitution which allowed the inequality and cruelty of slavery to thrive. This is our moment whether we chose it or not to create a special future for all of us, our children and generations to come. Let's make them proud to stand on our shoulders!
We the People, All of Us Equal this time!
¡Nosotros la gente, todos nosotros iqual esta vez
The Chilean Revolutionary song ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!
The people united shall never be defeated! fits this moment.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bH1B-Th813Q
(The Texas flag with the lone star looks so similar to the Chilean flag.)
Here are the English lyrics:
The people united will never be defeated,
The people united will never be defeated...
Arise, sing we are going to win.
Flags of unity
are now advancing.
And you will come
marching together with me,
and so you'll see
your song and your flag blossom.
The light
of a red dawn
already announces
the life to come.
Arise, fight
the people are going to win.
The life to come
will be better.
To conquer
our happiness.
and a clamor
of a thousand fighting voices will rise,
speaking
a song of freedom.
With determination
the fatherland will win.
And now the people,
who are rising in struggle
with a giant voice
crying out: Forward!
The people united will never be defeated,
The people united will never be defeated...
The fatherland is
forging unity,
from north to south
they're mobilizing.
From the salt mines
burning and mineral
to the southern forests.
united in struggle and labor
they go
covering the fatherland.
Their steps already
Announce the future.
Arise, sing
the people are going to win
millions now
are imposing the truth
Their steel battalions
are on fire,
taking in their hands
justice and reason.
Woman
with fire and courage
is already here
Along side the worker.
I think the Texas GOP has declared what they are. They aren't any different than those who left the USA, formed the Confederacy, used a military operation to murder how many people, and were for the assassination of the US President Lincoln.
The Jan. 6th committee is effective because all its witnesses are Republicans. Luttig, Trumps inner circle of enablers like Barr, The Lincoln Project, Cheney, Kinzinger, Raffensperger et al...and Republicans yet to emerge are our only hope if our democracy is to be saved. Only Republicans themselves can 'right the ship' of their party and stop sinking our Democracy. Just as in Watergate, Nixon was not finished until Republicans emerged in the administration and Congress who decided it was so. THIS scares me, I have little faith in the current GQP.
It seems as if, with that long list of complaints and demands, the Texas Republican Party could start with the last item first and try to persuade the people of Texas to secede. That way, you see, whether they accept that Biden is president, and whether they can limit the number of Supreme Court justices to nine in perpetuity, and whether they get their way on all the other measures, it wouldn't matter. They could just check out and leave running the country to the rest of us.
"Luttig’s words carry weight among Republican lawmakers."
It remains to be seen whether that statement remains true, or should read "Luttig's words used to carry weight among Republican legislators."
If the latter statement turns out to be true, it remains to be seen what Judge Luttig, and any Republicans who agree with him, are going to do about it. They are the critical weight needed to tip the political scale toward the preservation of our democracy, or do nothing and watch it die.
Liz Cheney cannot carry the weight by herself.
The rogue racist psychotics of today’s Texas Republican Party make it easy. Fascism or freedom, racism or tolerance, civilization or nihilism, backwards or forward, Blacks destroyed or loved, a republic if you can keep it: Common Sense akin to Thomas Paine.
We face what President Abraham Lincoln faced with slavery spreading: stop it and go to war, or witness the banality if evil moving west.
Texas Republican rogues are the GOP of Trump and enduring fascism..
Judge Michael Luttig at 68 has decided to lead us to the promised land of brotherhood and decency, of federalism and fealty to our constitution. Luttig rejects Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Greg Abbott, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and the Big Lie.
Judge Luttig asks Americans to vote, to fight to save our struggling democracy, and he rejects today’s racist radicals of the Big Lie.
Justice John Michael Luttig joins with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in freedom’s march.
It’s a time for love, not hate, for tolerance not fascism. Luttig stands for the Golden Rule. He stands for Christain values, for Jewish values, for American values as spoken by Abraham Lincoln.
It’s simple. Good or evil. God is testing us, the Devil is testing us. The Book of Job lays it out.
Stand and Deliver, it’s show time, this isn’t dress rehearsal. We can do it. Let’s roll.
To Judge Luttig. To Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
To President Joe Biden.
Joe Knows Us. All of us.
Thank you for your clear-sighted commentary and analysis. One of the most important things to remember now and until the Republican Party resumes some semblance of ethical comportment—All Republicans are complicit, unless they speak up. While I’m not a great fan of Cheney and Pence. I acknowledge their efforts. it’s also true that we shouldn’t have to praise people for doing the right thing. Thank them yes, but let’s not fetishize them.
“On Thursday, Judge Luttig examined the ongoing danger to democracy and located it not just on former president Donald Trump and his enablers, but on the entire Republican Party of today, the party that embraces the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 election, the party that continues to plan to overturn any election in which voters choose a Democrat.”
Today and probably for the rest of this year the political momentum is with the Republicans. That will probably change a little less than a year from now once the newly elected members of the Republican lunatic fringe start passing insane laws like the ones you've pointed out in Texas.
But the real turning point will be the impeachment of President Biden. Why will he be impeached? I can sum it up in three little words - Tit for Tat.
There was no chance that Trump was going to be removed from office but both times he was impeached for serious reasons.
There is no chance that Biden is going to be removed from office but he will impeached for spite.
Proving that the Texas Republican Party has been insane since back when "White Texas Democrats" ran the state - then they brought their "White Texas Democtacy" to the party in the 80s. But they were this nuts 50 years ago. I'm surprised they aren't still calling for a return to the Gold Standard.
And this native Texan would be just fine with turning that place into "A Whole Other Country," (so long as all the good people could be evacuated first since "Texas Good People" are *really* good) and then we build a 20-foot high wall around it.
And then we nuke it.
Another marvelous essay. But why oh why should it take a Judge Luttig in 2022 to say what was clear as day back in 2016? And why is Judge Luttig or any non-Republican still clinging to the notion that a Party now operating as a personality cult can ever come to its senses? ("Luttig said that Republicans must start speaking to Democrats as ”fellow Americans that have a shared destiny and shared hopes and dreams for America.") The virus that has overcome the GOP was already deep in its DNA. Dr. Richardson reminded us of that in yesterday's excellent Watergate summary. And it is working with cunning to infect us all.
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is a marvelous ‘Tonto’ for Lone Rangers Thompson/Cheney/Raskin on the House 1/6 Committee. Republican legal giant Judge Luttig said “The former president and his party are today a clear and present danger for American democracy.”
Woozer doozer, straight from Tom Clancy’s best Selling Clear and Present Danger and from the movie when Harrison Ford (CIA’s Jack Ryan) closed the net on a duplicitous and rotten American president.
Let CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER ring across our nation—even some Trumpies would get this message.
At least one Republican recognized the need to wake up from a very bad dream. Now I see why the mafia wing of that party hate "the woke." They want all of us to live in their nightmare.
I read a number of political blogs written by very smart journalists who are extremely well "plugged in." When I complain to them that they are too hard on Biden for not doing enough on this or that, especially when the Republicans have sinned against the very soul of America, they alway retort the same way, "go read HCR," and I do. And I feel in that we will somehow be fine. Thank you dear lady.