President Trump, like Gaius Julius Caesar, is forcing believers in our Republic to heed the words of George Washington. Our first president saw the danger clearly. Read his Farewell Address. Washington is warning Americans about the difficulty in maintaining a constitutional republic when the leader and his advisers lack a moral code. When they are shameless in their greed. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Let me be clear: As I’ve written before, this moral rot started with President Clinton’s pardon of Mark Rich. A mega rich scammer fugitive who fled the country after indictment. Rich, who had default people of hundreds of millions, Got his pardon on the last day of the Clinton presidency.
Clinton’s DOJ begged him not to do it. Sometime thereafter, friends of the pardoned fugitive gave gobs of money to the Clinton Global Initiative. Thus the toxic brew threatening our democracy – shameless greedy office holders and their family, combined with big business owners who believe they have the right to own the government – is a bipartisan corruption. It must end ASAP for the good of the country.
During World War II, the US Senate set up A Special Investigative Committee to ensure the public no government official, nor business mogul, had been war profiteering while their sons and fathers died fighting our enemies. Missouri Senator Harry Truman got picked to head the committee.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Senate leaders knew it absolutely essential to keep public confidence in our democracy. Back then, presidents appointed men and women who they knew would quit in principle. But given the coverups in the Biden and Trump administration, being a man and woman of principle is evidently now a disqualification.
America is better than this.
Trump’s latest: Have you seen the donor list for his ballroom? Trump and his big business backers were trying to keep it a secret. But the list has been exposed. Now we know the reason. It is impossible to read the list any other way than this: we have a President basically eager to have the powers of the presidency traded for private contributions from wealthy business types who want corrupt favors big from the government. Nobody in government or big business seems to feel this is wrong. Moreover, they don’t care this is draining public confidence in their system of government.
Contrary to popular belief, Washington never delivered an actual speech. The Farewell Address appearing first in the September 19th, 1796 edition of the Philadelphia Daily American Advertiser. Soon afterwards largely ignored until the early difficult days of Civil War. When Congress by resolution urged citizens to read it.
Any honest scholar concedes Washington is the indispensable man in terms of founding our country. Washington, many decades before Lincoln, pointed out the biggest risk to our Republic: leaders without a defensible moral code.
“If…the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers (be required) let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”
Write on, George.
“It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government” President Washington reminded the public. The polls show Mr. Trump‘s strongest supporters are increasingly upset by stories of his financial dealings along with those of his family. So far, most think these stories are fake news. But the truth will be seen in due course.
I believe Democrats will have a comfortable majority in the Senate and the House when Congress convenes in 2027. Democrats in this midterm election are promising to investigate these corruptions.
They will need to create a Truman like Senate Committee.
I read the Democratic Party constituents as expecting the House of Representatives to lead these investigations.
But the House is actually incapable of doing it. Courts have ruled their constitutional subpoena power only extends to the boundaries of the District of Columbia. Thus, for example, Elon Musk and others outside DC can’t be touched.
Fortunately, however, the United States Senate proved smarter, passing a law defining its subpoena power. The Senate does not rely on the Constitution. 28 U.S.C § 1365 gives the US District Court for the District of Columbia nationwide jurisdiction for Senate civil subpoenas. Furthermore, this law explicitly states a Senate subpoena can be served and enforced anywhere in America. No one with information deemed necessary by a Senate committee is beyond their reach unless they flee to a country lacking an extradition treaty with the USA.
Admittedly, the failure to obey a Senate subpoena would require Trump‘s Department of Justice to prosecute. His DOJ will not do it. However, the Senate, in my view, can proceed to file a federal civil suit, urging the court to issue an order requiring the individual to obey the subpoena. If the individual defies this federal court order, the US Marshals are authorized to track down and arrest the individual. Yes, the US Marshall service is part of the Trump administration. But the Marshall’s primary obligation is to enforce court orders. They are therefore the enforcement arm of the judiciary.
Any attempt by the Trump DOJ or FBI to block the Marshals from enforcing a court order would get the Attorney General of the United States and the Director of the FBI thrown in jail. If the subpoenaed individuals show up and refuse to give information, then they can be sentenced and imprisoned on the spot.
As former President Richard Nixon famously said, the people are entitled to know whether their president is a “crook.”
My point being: The Senate in 2027 will create a Special Investigation Committee led by a Democrat. The chair cannot be a Democrat running for re-election in 2028 or for the Democratic presidential nomination. Moreover, the chair can’t be any Democrat seen as having a personal or political grudge against Trump.
Given all the remaining possibilities, I think Warner is the best choice. His being the wealthiest senator likely not a plus in terms of the public mind.
But there is no perfect choice. Indeed, no good choice in this kind of situation. On balance, as we say in politics, Mark is the least worst option.
Of course he might not want the job. Given the political vitriol likely to be aimed at the chair of such a committee, you can’t blame him.
Trump and his enablers came to Washington promising to drain the swamp. Now they are the swamp. It’s time for the Democrats to drain it.
The convention of wisdom in Truman‘s day said the Missourian have been given a thankless job. Historians now have a far different view.
PAUL GOLDMAN is former Chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, a former candidate for mayor of the City of Richmond, and author of “Remaking Virginia Politics.”
