The landslide loss of George McGovern in 1972 should have been the biggest embarrassment of his life, but he out did himself with an Op Ed in the Washington Post:
Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly "high crimes and misdemeanors," to use the constitutional standard.
If McGovern has such a problem with Presidents who lie, where was McGovern during the Clinton impeachment trial? Remember, I never had sex with that woman? Here is what McGovern said in a 1/24/98 Mitchell Daily Republic report:
Former Sen. Gearge McGovern’s advice to President Clinton in the midst of the latest allegations is to tell the truth.
"You never get into trouble telling the truth."
The report ends with this:
The 1972 Democratic presidential candidate said he doesn’t think Clinton has lost any stature at home or abroad. "If these allegations prove to be true, that’s another matter."
So who was it that made a "historic low in the eyes of people around the world"? Remember the DNA results of that stained dress? After that, how could McGovern even think about letting Clinton be the keynote speaker at the DWU Library dedication? Perhaps embarrassment loves company.
And McGovern said this in his Op Ed:
How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?
It happened in part because the Bush-Cheney team repeatedly deceived Congress, the press and the public into believing that Saddam Hussein had nuclear arms and other horrifying banned weapons that were an "imminent threat" to the United States.
So lets again turn the clock back to 1998. From December 16:
From the Oval Office, President Clinton told the nation Wednesday evening why he ordered new military strikes against Iraq.
The president said Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors presented a threat to the entire world.
"Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons," Clinton said.
So we can now laugh at this statement from McGovern’s Op Ed:
Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The political scene is marked by narrow and sometimes superficial partisanship, especially among Republicans, and a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians. So the chances of a bipartisan impeachment and conviction are not promising.
I think we can now hand McGovern the prize for "narrow and sometimes superficial partisanship", along with being a major embarrassment.
