Okay, who here remembers well the Iran-Contra Hearings? Was the hearing

[anarchy1999]

today with Ashcroft in front of the Judiciary Committee more inspiring than anything you watched then or have I just lost touch?

I was really impressed today. But then, maybe I'm just easily moved these days, it doesn't take alot to impress me with these guys.

[nomatrix]

1. From Hostile Witness, by Arthur Liman

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/irancontra/contra1.htm


"I share responsibility for making Oliver North into a national hero. In retrospect, I think it was almost inevitable. North, boyishly handsome and photogenic, sat in his Marine uniform with his medals at a simple table, alone with his lawyer. Arrayed against him, on an elevated two-tier platform, sat 11 senators and 15 members of the House committee, plus all their aides and staff. Steven Spielberg later told me that North was televised at the hero's angle, looking up as though from a pit at the committees, who resembled two rows of judges at the Spanish Inquisition. Spielberg called that the villains' angle. Unfortunately, the committees had built the platforms without any advice from a movie director.

Rudman tried to persuade Inouye, when North began testifying, to wear his Distinguished Service Cross along with the Good Conduct Medal he habitually wore in his lapel. But Inouye, who lost his right arm during the war, replied that he wore the latter medal because he'd earned it, whereas he'd only gotten the Distinguished Service Cross by being in the wrong place at the wrong time -- that is, in the line of enemy fire! For my part, if I had it to do over again, I'd hire a Vietnam War vet to examine North. As it was, the Marine lieutenant colonel could all too easily portray himself as a patriot and a war hero being bullied by politicians and their lawyers.

Before we even knew what had hit us, the most nonpartisan hearings ever held in the U.S. Congress came across on television as unfair."

Well said. Wasn't there a blonde secretary?

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Truly amazing that they spotlighted the one moment in history that

became a turning point into hell. Because this image was so strong Oliver North became a hero to conservatives, and, thus, validated the convoluted thinking we've come to know as conservative ideological thinking.

[ladjf]

3. North should have been in prison.

But, he became a hero to many and was almost successful in his bid for the Senate. If the perpetrators of the Iran/Contra crimes had been put in jail for long sentences, we might not have been subjected to many of the current horrors.

[shirlden]

4. I remember them well

Watched all that I could of them and am still scratching my head in amazement that North is a hero instead of a convict. Lost my political virginity during those hearings. The realization that we were living in a country of ignorant, uninformed and nazified people began for me then, so Bush is not a surprise. He is just the personification of the beginning of the end with Reagan and the Iran-Contra mentality. I stopped believing in a God Blessed America and started praying for God to save America. I'm still praying, but with less conviction and less hope that we will survive the likes of the current Rethugs. So, may God bless the new America, when it rises from the ashes of this one.

:hurts:

[Hubert Flottz]

5. I couldn't afford a TV or even a sandwich, so I didn't watch!

Reaganomics was a Bitch! But I'll never forget how handily Reagan forgot!