Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

Former President Donald J. Trump is in trouble on several accounts. The House Jan. 6 Committee investigating the insurrection (or riot or protest) on that date is suggesting to the Department of Justice that Mr. Trump be charged for what it detailed as illegal actions. And the House Ways and Means Committee released a number of his tax returns.

The Jan. 6 Committee recommendations to the DOJ have the power of suggestions, they are not legally binding. The DOJ has appointed a special counsel to do his own investigation of the matter and decide if charges are warranted.

This is a difficult issue. Some see the Jan.6 committee work as a political witch hunt. Others see it as an effort to find the truth about who proposed the Jan. 6 gathering and what they sought to accomplish. The net effort appeared to be an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election result by overriding votes cast by people in six states and thereby changing the Electoral College vote count.

Personally I have a problem with not counting people’s legally cast ballots. That anybody in government would see that as desirable bothers me greatly. The difference between democracy and an authoritarian dictatorship is that office holders are elected by voters rather than people changing the rules after the vote to meet their desires.

Fifty years ago Watergate occurred. Compared to Jan. 6 Watergate was small potatoes. President Richard Nixon wanted information on what Democrats might be up to and sanctioned breaking into Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate complex.

Over a two-year period of hearings, driven by two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein, fault moved closer and closer to the president and it was finally clear that President Nixon had authorized the 1972 break in.

It was members of his own party who went to him in the summer of 1974 and told him the House was about to impeach him and the Senate would likely convict him. President Nixon resigned.

A short time later Gerald Ford, Nixon’s vice-president, granted Nixon a pardon for the Watergate offenses.

The pardon was widely criticized and probably cost Ford his election effort in 1976. But in hindsight it was probably the right move. It allowed Congress to get back to work on things other than hearings of a political nature.

Compared to what Mr. Trump is accused of, Watergate was peanuts, a two-bit break-in with the only damage probably being to the door they pried open to get in. But it was a presidential overreach that could not be ignored. And senior members of both parties agreed. Others convicted as part of the case remained in jail.

The difference with the current situation with Mr. Trump is that he is no longer in office but is running to get back into the White House.

The Wall Street Journal recently editorialized that barring a really serious discovery by the special counsel, Trump should not be charged. However, it also said “Jan. 6 was a disgrace, and Mr. Trump’s behavior on that day and since is a reason not to trust him with the presidency ever again.” This from a publication with zero love for President Joe Biden.

So maybe we need to wait to hear from the special counsel to see if there is really clear legal evidence of a specific crime to come to a conclusion on that issue. Being morally wrong and criminally wrong are different.

As to the tax issue I think the Ways and Means Committee decision to release tax returns can be seen as political mischief and shouldn’t have happened. Sure, most presidents voluntarily release their returns and Trump should have, too. But politicians releasing the returns of others publicly opens the door to more and more political tax return releases. In this era of highly partisan politics we shouldn’t go there. In scrutinizing those returns the IRS will deal with Mr. Trump.

It would be really nice if we didn’t have to ponder these kinds of things; if the leadership of political parties in Washington would take the high road and look beyond the next election and concentrate on what is the best for the United States.