One of the marks of a civil society is the relegation of political disputes to the political realm and not criminalize disagreements. This has historically been the downfall of third world countries as they attempt to move from totalitarianism or despotism to a more democratic form of government. If you are looking at a long prison term, or the gallows, if your political opponents win then you have small incentive to relinquish power. The recent history of Chile (Pinochet), Pakistan (Ali Bhutto, Musharraf), Egypt (Mubarak, Morsi) serve as reminders of the fragility of the democratic process.
As the United States has begun the slow, though accelerating slide from republic to a technocratic despotism we’ve seen the Democrats harness the legal system to their political goals, using the legal process to harm Republican presidents.
One might say their appetite was whetted in Watergate, though any crime Richard Nixon might have committed has been dwarfed by the criminal regime of Barack Obama. This was followed by the Iran Contra investigations and trials, the disgraceful October Surprise sham investigation, and the sad and ludicrous Valerie Plame episode.
Of late, though, the Democrats have turned their attention to attempting to destroy Republican governors who could be presidential contenders. The an era where the average American commits three federal felonies per day, it doesn’t take an evil genius to find grounds to prosecute some one.
- Chris Christie has been the subject of an incredible level of scrutiny over “Bridgegate.” Even if it is substantiated that Christie had a role in such a juvenile act, the only real purpose served will to divert Christie’s attention from a White House run as he it prevented by law from running for another consecutive term as governor.
- Scott Walker was the target of a fishing expedition the Democrat district attorney of Milwaukee. The charge was, apparently, that Scott Walker defeated the Dems in a recall election and gutted the unions that gave them money thereby breaking the natural order of things. That is alleged to be crime in Wisconsin. One federal judge tossed the “John Doe” subpoenas but now the prosecutor is in federal court in Chicago appealing the ruling.
- Rick Perry has now hired an attorney to represent him in a case emanating from… Travis County. The prosecutor there has empaneled a grand jury to investigate whether Rick Perry abused his power by exercising his line item veto over a budget item controlled by the Travis County prosecutor. Perry vetoed the budget item because the prosecutor at the time had been arrested, DUI, and expressed “contempt of cop.” This is the same county whose prosecutor indicted, tried, and convicted Tom DeLay of the crime of defeating Democrats. Fortunately, the conviction was tossed on appeal but still Mr. DeLay lost a decade of his life mired in that battle.
- Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is currently under indictment and facing trial on charges that look to be true but at the same time trivial. The important thing to consider in McDonnell’s troubles was they didn’t surface until his last year in office and when he was being discussed as both a presidential contender and a Senate candidate. This indictment was brought by an Obama political appointee.
- It appears that the FBI is now conducting a slow motion investigation of New Mexico governor Susanna Martinez over what may or may not have transpired in the building of the casino and racetrack.
- In 2012, it was reported that the IRS had opened an investigation of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. The IRS denied this in a way that is worded like a non-denial. But we all know the IRS is a non-partisan agency and would never target opponents of the Obama administration.
So in the past two years, six high profile Republican governors have been targeted for investigation or prosecution. In these cases, not only is the timing suspect but it seems rather unlikely that of the 29 GOP governors the only ones in jeopardy seem to be those with the ability to run for president or vice president. It seems that we’ve reached the point where the use of judicial system and attendant law enforcement apparatus to neutralize potential national candidates is part of the Democrat strategy and a complete purge of the Department of Justice and federal law enforcement agencies must be among the first orders of business if a Republican wins the White House in 2016.