Ah, there's the rub

By Glen McAdoo

Hi, we're Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, we rob banks." They could have added, "If we get caught we give the money back, so where's the rub?"

That seems consistent with the Jim Gibbons' theory of criminal justice. After being caught violating the McCain/Feingold Bi-Partisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, not once, not twice, but three times, Gibbons' response can be summed up as; we will give the money back, so where's the rub? Empty the jails. They gave the money back. Unlock the lockup, they're sorry. Free the felons, after all, as Chick Hearn, the late great Lakers announcer, used to say, "no harm, no foul."

Gibbons' campaign reacted predictably by accusing his opponent of violating a law herself, a state law which prohibits candidates from receiving campaign contributions within a certain time frame from the end of a legislative session. The law is intended to prevent quid-pro-quo contributions for favorable legislation. Not a bad law, but not a very effective one.

I don't know all the facts, but if this donation was made from the candidate's funds to the candidate's campaign, I think the Gibbons' folks are tilting at windmills. Fair enough. If she did something wrong it's fair fodder. She should pay the price. What is not okay is the comment attributed to the Gibbons' camp to the effect that they would not have told on her had she not told on them. How childish. I think the fellow who made that remark did so while sucking on his thumb.

Actually, it's much worse. He clearly seemed to say that as long as you overlook our lawbreaking we'll overlook it when you break the law. I think these people have been in Washington D.C. too long. Maybe that's the way they've operated on the hill. Maybe they were so busy watching each other's backs they failed to watch out for ours. You reckon?

Now comes an attack by Dean Heller, Republican candidate for Congress, that is shocking. In an article that appeared in Tuesday's Las Vegas Review-Journal, Heller is quoted as saying; "I'm not happy with his (Sen. John McCain's) position on torture. I'm so mad at these three, McCain, Warner and Graham (all Republican senators). I think they're far more concerned with protecting terrorists." Heller has to be dumber than a doorknob to make such a statement.

The press release I received didn't say if Mr. Heller acknowledged that many military leaders, along with Former Sec. of State Colin Powell, supported the position of these three that changing the Geneva Convention rules regarding prisoner treatment could subject our own troops to torture. He dismisses all the evidence that torture doesn't work.

Torture is performed by those that believe in torture for its own sake. They like it! Get it? They like it. They are sadistic monsters parading as protectors of America against terrorists while participating in everything this country has long abhorred. I can see them smiling while waterboarding the next captive in some remote American prison set up by this administration. They are sadists, as are those that approve this conduct, then wash their hands, as did Pilate. That appears to include the holders of the highest offices in the United States. Oh, the shame. Ah, the power.

We don't need another blind worshipper like Mr. Heller in Washington. We need people with conviction; people who will defend our Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. We need people who understand that power is not the goal, that power is only a tool by which one can do great things, lift up the downtrodden, feed the hungry, and share the wisdom of compassion. Power in the hands of those who flaunt it with reckless abandon can cause great harm all over the world and turn others who admire this power into mere blind mice, championing torture for torture's sake, wreaking havoc upon the environment for a few dollars more and ignoring the truth.

We must decide whether this great country will remain a country of idealism and law, where the Constitution and all it stands for is worth defending or whether we abandon our ideals for the expediency of the moment to provide just a little more safety. We can take the cowards way out or we can stand up as brave Americans and say in unison as did Patrick Henry, "As for me, give me liberty or give me death."

We can step aside and say it is okay to spy on American citizens without a warrant, where's the rub? We can say it is okay to torture terrorists, even if it doesn't work, because they're evil, so where's the rub? We can say it is okay to break a few laws here and there, even violate the Constitution if necessary, because we are at war. Besides, where's the rub?

Yeah, we can do all these things, as long as we don't want to be Americans. Ah, there's the rub!

Glen McAdoo can be reached at glynn@phonewave.net