Pat Roberts, Sniveling Wimp
Shakespeare’s Sister, among others, reproduces this statement: “I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and civil liberties, but you have no civil liberties if you are dead.” This was said by Senator Pat Roberts [R-Kansas], Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in explaining why he refuses to do anything about the illegal activities of the Shrubbery.
Pat, as many of your chosen pundits would be more than happy to explain to you, the Munich Agreement did not provide Conservative Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, “peace in our time.”
Benjamin Franklin noted: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” And at the conclusion of his best known speech Patrick Henry intoned: “…Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Now that is has been determined by your own words that you feel no obligation to “support and defend the Constitution” as required by the oath you took when you entered public service, why don’t you stick your tail between your legs like the whipped hound you are and crawl home?
In case you don’t understand, Pat, your personal choice about which of your rights you would give up is of no interest to me. You have chosen to represent the interests of the citizens of Kansas and the state that produced Amelia Earhart and Dwight Eisenhower might not share your cowardice.
2 comments
…I almost can’t describe how proud I was of my own Ron Wyden for actually going after Hayden in the confirmation hearings. I was only able to hear the NPR “All Things Considered” after-action report because I was spending the day wandering a mountain pass with a state highway employee marking hazardous trees for felling (I now know how those cameras they mount on the wall at Daytona for those NASCAR “speed shots” feel), but my man stood up for the rights of the people. The rights of the people when it comes to oversight are not served if only a limited few, particularly including an ardent supporter like Roberts, are allowed into that inner sanctum in a supposed effort to redeem the Senate’s oversight responsibility. I didn’t elect Pat Roberts to watch out for my rights and I’m not interesting in a Senator from two time zones away who doesn’t generally represent my values deciding what is good for me, especially when a Senator I DID vote for is part of the committee…
What kind of oversight is possible when everything is classified and you need help understanding the technical aspects of what is going on. As Senator Rockefeller wrote, he didn’t like what he heard in the briefing, but he couldn’t get any help in understanding what was actually occurring because no one else had a clearance to help him.
Telling 8 people who are sworn to secrecy is not oversight, it’s covering your ass.
The rest of the Democrats should back your man and block this nomination.