Killian memos: this is insane

What does the morphing of democracy into an authoritarian government look like?  Part of it looks like this.

Before going on, I’ll comment that based on the information available, I think the Killian documents CBS has are likely to be genuine.  Some bloggers that I regularly cite (Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum) are dubious.  And, surprisingly, even Atrios and Hesiod are buying the secretary’s story I commented on in my previous post.

But let’s just assert hypothetically that Dan Rather and CBS got snookered on false documents.  Even in that hypothetical case, this is insane:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday: "The biggest question I have — and I think the American people have — is where did the memos come from? We're dealing with the alleged forgery of government documents to influence a presidential race during war. This isn't politics as usual. It's dangerous. It's possibly criminal. This is really serious stuff." Rather Rides Out Latest Partisan Storm Los Angeles Times 09/15/04; my emphasis)

And Orange County (CA) Republican Christopher Cox, one of the more prominent Republican Representatives, has formally requested (*.pdf file) a Congressional hearing on CBS’ “Killian documents.”  (09/14/04 letter, Cox to Rep. Fred Upton, from Cox’s government Web site)

This is a request that you commencea Subcommittee investigation into the continued use by CBS News of apparently forged of documents [sic] concerning the service record of President George W. Bush intended to unfairly damage his reputation and influence the outcome of the 2004 presidential election.

[By the way, it looks to me like the poor construction of that sentence indicates that it is highly unlikely that it was written or signed by a native English speaker like Christopher Cox.]

And he cheerfully cites press articles from the Washington Post, USA Today and the Dallas Morning News.  He then says:

Given the shortness of time between now and the election which the apparent fraud is meant to influence, and the even shorter time before Congress is scheduled to adjourn, 1 strongly urge that the Subcommittee move with all deliberate speed to uncover the facts.

[Clearly that last sentence raises serious questions about the authenticity of this document.  While the rest of the letter seems to indicate urgency, he uses the phrase “all deliberate speed” which has come to suggest protracted delay.  More seriously, the last portion of the sentence uses the numeral 1 (one) in a way in which it seems unlikely that any literal person would use it: “1 strongly urge.”  One strongly urge?  This is so unusual a construction that it nearly impossible to credit that it came from a respected, educated Republican Congressman.  I would strongly caution anyone from believing anything that appears on the Web site where this letter was posted.]

My parenthetical snark aside, this is insane.

Joe McCarthy in his notorious heyday used frivolous suspicions about Communist spies to justify witch-hunt hearings.

And let’s be clear: DeLay and Cox are not talking about the Valerie Plame case, in which the identity of an undercover CIA agent was leaked for the purposes of cheap political bullying.  They are not talking about how the Pentagon-funded Iraqi National Congress of Ahmed Chalabi passed critical US intelligence information to the government of Iran.

They are talking about a news report that suggested criticism of Bush the Magnificent, Liberator of Peoples and Hooder of the Unrighteous.

I didn’t find anything in the [alleged] letter by Cox saying that the investigation should include the behavior of reporters like Robert Novak of the Plame case, Fox News reporters that routinely use sloppy and even unethical journalistic procedures or Rush Limbaugh, who broadcasts his Oxycontin ravings on Armed Forces Radio.

This is the most amazing kind of intimidation tactics.  Tactics that I suspect are aimed both at "ganging the ref" as far as election coverage this year and also at intimidating anyone who might leak material critical of Bush to the media.

This is what today’s Republican Party has become.  This is what the evolution of authoritarianism looks like.