Hearings Quotes
The reason this quotation is famous is that Clapper answered “No, Sir”. 3 months later Edward Snowden disclosed the fact that the NSA was collecting some information from EVERY telephone call and e-mail made or sent in the United States. The colloquy became famous when the government tried to capture Snowden and try him for illegally revealing classified information when others saw him as a whistle blower who had told the truth and the guys who lied to Congress and the American people wanted to prosecute him.
In 2015, a group of hyper-partisan Republicans initiated yet another investigation of the attack on an American Consulate in Libya where the U. S Ambassador was killed. The incident had occurred when Hilary Clinton had been Secretary of State some time earlier. However, she was then the leading Democratic Candidate for President, and some Republicans wanted to question her under oath in the hopes that they could find something to embarrass her and derail her surging campaign. Hanna and a few other Republicans admitted the truth as they were opposed to the abuse of the Congressional power to investigate for partisan purposes. However, the reaction against Hanna by some members of his own party was extremely harsh. The theory of the Hanna critics was that telling the truth was in this case highly embarrassing to the Party and damaged the credibility of many accusations made against Mrs. Clinton who turned the tables on the investigators in when they questioned her for over 11 hours straight, and despite the total absurdity of the hearing and the questions—all of which had been asked before, she comported herself with Presidential dignity and pretended to take the hearings very seriously and answered the same loaded questions repeatedly. See {582957} for his earlier statements.
The reason that this quote is important is that during the time that Graham served in the Senate, most of his Republican colleagues had evolved a political style where they just criticized everything the Democrats did or advocated. They would outdo each other to characterize problems more dramatically. They would even vote against legislation that they had supported earlier and in some cases, that they had even sponsored. They generally never made any specific suggestions or offered specific legislative options as once they did, there would be something that some might criticize them for. The tactic was reasonably effective in the short run, but a few Republicans, like Graham, felt that it was their duty to try and legislate solutions to national problems and not just uncover, describe or harp on what is a problem and attack Democrats.
Americans had never had the opportunity to see this committee in action before. While many Americans were intimidated, many were also very distressed to see how a Congressional Committee was abusing its power. And although the frightened Hollywood and network executive executives were intimidated into blacklisting Lawson and others, more and more Americans were lining up against this committee and Senator McCarthy’s committee in the Senate. This culminated in the Senate sanction of McCarthy and the discrediting of HUAC which never again had the influence that they had before this hearing.
This was written when Wilson was a Professor. When he became President, his view of the importance of Congress and Congressional oversight diminished.
Galloway, a witness before the committee who had always criticized the American and British Policy of Iraq invasion to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, had also predicted the insurrection and resistance to the American and British occupation had been attacked by Coleman for taking campaign contributions from British Islamic terrorists—see {616260}. Coleman expected the typical American hearing behavior where Senators can berate witnesses who generally behave docilely in defending themselves. He was not used to the English style of political debate which is much more aggressive and Colemen was nonplussed when Galloway came up with this put down.
It is particularly humorous to consider Hanson’s quotation vis a vis Congressional Hearings.
Prior to this policy change, the Port Authority made and started to implement decisions and THEN held public hearings. The Port Authority is a bi-state organization that is the largest building authority in the country. It has built and operated all the bridges and tunnels connecting New York City Boroughs and the City with New Jersey and Long Island. They also have built and operated many of the major highways and recreation centers in New York City and Long Island. Additionally, it erects large buildings and other facilities like the World Trade Center. It’s funding comes directly from tolls, rents and other income from its facilities and the bonds that it floats, and so does not need any funding from either state. It actually makes a huge profit. It was started by Robert Moses, who wanted Independence of operation from the States of New Jersey and New York and the New York City Government. Moses was known for his authoritarian, non-consultative style, and subsequent Chairman tried to maintain that. Moses and the Port Authority had stayed clear of political influence and corruption. However, gradually the appointees were more and more beholden to the Governors of the two states and in 2014 a major scandal erupted where the New Jersey Governor’s staff was using the Port Authority to punish communities what did not support the Republican Governor Christie. This triggered calls for reform of which this new policy was one of the first.
