It is beyond refute that there is a more than
glaring level of hypocrisy in the repugican cabal, and there is no
better example than in the House of Representatives; particularly since
the Koch brothers invested power in the teabagger delusion. After the
2010 midterm elections when repugicans stole control of the House they
immediately launched myriad investigations into wrongdoing by the Obama
Administration; including fabricating highly-profitable and phony
scandals, only to find the Obama Administration is guilty of nothing
untoward. In fact, the House, under the direction of John A.
Boehner, initiated a lawsuit against the President for exercising his
executive authority according to the Constitution and long-settled
Supreme Court rulings.
What is stunning hypocrisy is that there have been
several unethical acts by House repugicans who are following the lead
of their leader John A. Boehner; the ethics-challenged cretin
that no-one is willing to prosecute. Like every common criminal, or
once-convicted felon, who continues to escape punishment for violating
the law, Boehner continues his unethical, and now illegal, behavior
because he truly believes he IS above the law. It is time to disabuse
Boehner of that belief and restore the American people’s faith in the
nation’s justice system.
When Boehner conspired with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress to campaign
and “send a clear message to the White House” about how Israel will set
America’s foreign policy in the Middle East, he violated a 216 year old
law. A law, by the way, devised and enacted by America’s Founding
Fathers that repugicans claim are their exemplars. It is now time to
finally call for Boehner to be charged, tried, and convicted for
violating the law and put a stop to his career-long abrogation of
long-standing ethical and legal provisions to send a clear message that
no-one in America is above the law.
He openly violated the so-called
Logan Act that was signed into law and enacted in 1799 by President John Adams and codified in
18 U.S. Code § 953.
The Code addresses precisely what John A. Boehner
did in conspiring with Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress
to defeat the measures of the United States in relation to any disputes
or controversies with the United States.
The Logan Act prohibits any “Private correspondence
with foreign governments” and reads; “Any citizen of the United States,
wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States,
directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or
intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof,
with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign
government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any
disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the
measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than three years, or both.” The Supreme Court ruled
that Congress cannot and should not conduct foreign affairs; that power
rests in the Executive Branch exclusively.
In the 1936 Supreme Court
case, United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp, the Court held that “
all
ability to conduct foreign policy is vested in the President. It is
given implicitly and by the fact that the executive, by its very nature,
is empowered to conduct foreign affairs in a way that Congress cannot and should not.” Boehner just does not, and repugicans cannot, accept that yes, “
all ability to conduct foreign policy is vested in the President;”
regardless of the fact he is an African American man or that repugicans’ allegiance is to a foreign power; in this case Israel.
Boehner violated the Logan Act just by “directly commencing or carrying on any correspondence with a foreign government, or agent thereof”
with his admitted and explicit intent of influencing measures of the
United States. Boehner did say publicly that his reason for illegally
corresponding with Netanyahu was to “specifically ask him (Netanyahu) to address Congress and send a clear message to the White House about our commitment to Israel.” Boehner’s hubris, defiance, and obvious disregard for longstanding U.S. law was when he publicly said, “Congress can make this decision on its own.”
No matter what Boehner says, or thinks, Congress cannot make that
decision on its own according to a 216 year old law and reiterated by
the 79 year old ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. Boehner needs to be
fully prosecuted under 18 U.S. Code § 953 to teach him that no American
is above the law regardless what he thinks. Obviously, throughout
Boehner’s political career he has considered himself above the law.
This is not Boehner’s first offense without facing
any legal action or congressional ethics violation repercussions to
remove him for various acts. He was caught red-handed, and admitted to
handing out corporate bribes for favorable votes on the floor of the House that
garnered expulsion
for another Ohio congressman guilty of corruption. Boehner openly, and
continues to, lie about the number of jobs the KeystoneXL pipeline will
create since he bought stock
in seven Canadian tar sand companies in 2010; a few months before
becoming Speaker of the House. In 2013 the Federal Elections Commission
(FEC) began an investigation into campaign finance violations
and like Boehner’s other instances of malfeasance; nothing is done to
put a stop to his criminality; likely because he is white.
It is difficult for regular Americans to understand
how unarmed African Americans are gunned down in cold blood, and then
tried and convicted in absentia (because they were murdered) by a
hostile justice system when men like Willard Romney openly violated
SEC and bankruptcy laws with impunity. Or, how seditious malcontents
like Cliven Bundy can defy federal court orders and summon armed
militias to confront and aim their weapons at federal officials in the
commission of their duty; a federal offense and sedition, and face no
charges. Every year across the nation evangelical clergy violate the
conditions of their tax-exempt designation, videotape their illegal
acts, and dare the IRS to take punitive action. Former pretender the shrub and his co-conspirator Dick Cheney proudly boast that they
authorized torture of captive enemy prisoners of war, many innocent, and
nothing happens. Now, Boehner
blatantly violates an over-200 year old law, boasts about it, and the
Justice Department and congressional ethics committees turn away in
what; fear?
One often hears politicians, including President
Obama proclaim with authority that “no-one in America is above the
law.” Americans certainly understand that is undoubtedly one of the
biggest lies, and farces, being parroted time and time again with no
chance in proverbial Hell of ever changing. John A. Boehner is a sleazy,
crooked politician, and although handing out corporate bribes for
votes, lying to manipulate tar sand share prices, and taking illegal
campaign donations are crimes, they pale in comparison to conspiring
with a foreign nation’s leader to “influence and defeat foreign policy
measures of the Unite States.
John Boehner’s most recent crime is not up for
debate, or opinion; he deliberately and with substantial malice
aforethought violated the Logan Act and Americans must demand that he be
charged, tried in federal court, and convicted with his own confession
that he defiantly “carried on any correspondence or intercourse an
officer of a foreign government to defeat the measures of the United
States” because Israel has a dispute with the United States of America’s
Middle East foreign policy.
