OUT OF CONTROL
With President Reagan hospitalized after taking a bullet to the lung, and Vice President Bush temporarily incommunicado -- Secretary of State Alexander Haig got so excited about the prospect of absolute power, his hands and face starting twitching. Alone at the top, a sweaty Alexander Haig stared into the White House Press Corps cameras and incorrectly informed the world:
"I'm in control here."
In her own "Haig Moment," Nancy "I will not impeach" Pelosi got so intoxicated thinking about her future powers, she nominated sleazeball supporter Murtha to be her number 2, and pardoned the idiot son of former President Bush for what is arguably one of the most tragic misjudgments in American history.
A higher crime and misdemeanor was hardly imaginable, yet the Not-Yet Majority Leader pardoned the latter-day President Bush before the House could even begin to unravel the falsehoods surrounding his Iraq fiasco.
"I'm in control here," ex-general Alexander Haig had said as if he had been practicing coups all his life. The 1981 quotation became widely viewed as an attempt by Haig to exceed his authority. The full, little-known, unedited Haig quote recently obtained by PNN was actually:
"Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the president, the vice president and yours truly, the secretary of state, in that order, and should the president decide he wants to transfer the helm to our currently indisposed vice president, he will do so. As for now, I'm in control here, pending the return of our vice president, and in close touch with him should he ever return from dropping the 'kids' off at the pool."
Under the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, when the President and Vice President are indisposed, the office holders between the Vice President and Secretary of State, namely, the Speaker of the House and the President pro tem of the Senate, resign and become acting President -- NOT the Secretary of State.
To that, Alexander Haig later reflected:
"I wasn't talking about transition in the democratic sense. I was merely talking about the executive branch, as in, 'Hey, who's running this fool government anyway?' That was the question asked. It was not, 'who is in line should Bonzo go belly-up before bedtime?'"
As it turned out, Vice President Bush had been caught with his knickers down reading a large type book, exactly as his knuckle-head son would find himself two decades later when 19 Saudi sheetheads outsmarted the most powerful man in the world. Had Haig knocked on the door to the water closet and whispered, "Mr. Vice President, you still on the throne?" the leadership crises might have been averted.
Instead, Haig declared himself leader of the free world. Haig's interpretive skills seemed more politically expedient than legal. The constitution is very clear on succession. In any succession context, taking a dump, no matter how immense the transfer, does not constitute being "indisposed."
Which brings us back to Nancy "I will not impeach" Pelosi. Months before any swearing in ceremony, indeed days before anyone knew for sure the outcome of the election, Ms. Pelosi appeared on television looking as though she had downed a case of Red Bull. And then it happened.
Out of control, drunk with power and absolutely powerless to power over it, Ms. Pelosi single-handedly removed from the table the single-most important statement made by the American people in the Midterm elections: That in spite of your unprecedented power grab, Mr. Bush, you were never beyond the long arm of justice.
With President Reagan hospitalized after taking a bullet to the lung, and Vice President Bush temporarily incommunicado -- Secretary of State Alexander Haig got so excited about the prospect of absolute power, his hands and face starting twitching. Alone at the top, a sweaty Alexander Haig stared into the White House Press Corps cameras and incorrectly informed the world:
"I'm in control here."
In her own "Haig Moment," Nancy "I will not impeach" Pelosi got so intoxicated thinking about her future powers, she nominated sleazeball supporter Murtha to be her number 2, and pardoned the idiot son of former President Bush for what is arguably one of the most tragic misjudgments in American history.
A higher crime and misdemeanor was hardly imaginable, yet the Not-Yet Majority Leader pardoned the latter-day President Bush before the House could even begin to unravel the falsehoods surrounding his Iraq fiasco.
"I'm in control here," ex-general Alexander Haig had said as if he had been practicing coups all his life. The 1981 quotation became widely viewed as an attempt by Haig to exceed his authority. The full, little-known, unedited Haig quote recently obtained by PNN was actually:
"Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the president, the vice president and yours truly, the secretary of state, in that order, and should the president decide he wants to transfer the helm to our currently indisposed vice president, he will do so. As for now, I'm in control here, pending the return of our vice president, and in close touch with him should he ever return from dropping the 'kids' off at the pool."
Under the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, when the President and Vice President are indisposed, the office holders between the Vice President and Secretary of State, namely, the Speaker of the House and the President pro tem of the Senate, resign and become acting President -- NOT the Secretary of State.
To that, Alexander Haig later reflected:
"I wasn't talking about transition in the democratic sense. I was merely talking about the executive branch, as in, 'Hey, who's running this fool government anyway?' That was the question asked. It was not, 'who is in line should Bonzo go belly-up before bedtime?'"
As it turned out, Vice President Bush had been caught with his knickers down reading a large type book, exactly as his knuckle-head son would find himself two decades later when 19 Saudi sheetheads outsmarted the most powerful man in the world. Had Haig knocked on the door to the water closet and whispered, "Mr. Vice President, you still on the throne?" the leadership crises might have been averted.
Instead, Haig declared himself leader of the free world. Haig's interpretive skills seemed more politically expedient than legal. The constitution is very clear on succession. In any succession context, taking a dump, no matter how immense the transfer, does not constitute being "indisposed."
Which brings us back to Nancy "I will not impeach" Pelosi. Months before any swearing in ceremony, indeed days before anyone knew for sure the outcome of the election, Ms. Pelosi appeared on television looking as though she had downed a case of Red Bull. And then it happened.
Out of control, drunk with power and absolutely powerless to power over it, Ms. Pelosi single-handedly removed from the table the single-most important statement made by the American people in the Midterm elections: That in spite of your unprecedented power grab, Mr. Bush, you were never beyond the long arm of justice.
posted by R. Reynolds at 8:43 AM
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