Senator Lee, Please “LEAD” the Job We Hired You to Do - A Case for Strong Congressional Leadership - Unabridged. Colonel Mike Seguin - U.S. Senate in 2022
Congress must be drained of weak party senators and congressmen/women who put personal interests and party interests before America’s interests. I know, strong words, but they say make your main point up front.
Today, with a strong President in office, who is likely to be re-elected, a strong Congress that’s up to the task of serving as the counterweight intended in America’s constitutional architecture of “checks and balances” is not only important, it is essential.
Our President demands his staff be populated with yes-men/ladies. By all accounts, he always has. And those who do not play ball his way are unceremoniously dispensed with. Though I try to reserve judgement on this, such behavior is a problem for “lots” of reasons in our current circumstances. But I will try not to dwell on those now. I am trying not to make a judgement about the President here either. I’m just stating the self-evident facts that you all already know. And, I am not suggesting a leader must surround him/herself with opposition and bend to the opposite extreme of yes-men/ladies - that would be ridiculous.
We have seen the castration of our National Security apparatus (Bolton, etc.), the loss of our key generals (McMaster, Kelly, Mattis, etc. etc.), the evisceration of our diplomatic apparatus losing one Secretary of State and one Ambassador after another. All this, and much more, as some of our elected representative in Congress generally appear impotent and not up to the task of doing their job, turning a blind eye, and who do little, nor voice precautionary concern, with any real fortitude. I assert the reason being for fear of losing their jobs. This, some call, the process of draining the swamp. And, this in and of itself, is not entirely unhealthy - i.e. replacing career Washington D.C. old guard and getting some new strong blood in there. I totally support the idea.
However, we stand having a second term President that goes too far and lobbies to populate Congress and the Executive Branch with yes-men/ladies, and not experienced, level-headed, free thinking Americans motivated to do what’s right for America first as our founders intended - ya’know, that inconvenient little “oath of office” thingy.
Today, we have two parties that compete for power, not to do what’s right for America first, but to preserve their jobs and their parties grasp on self-interested preservation first. Dismissing this as normal is unhealthy acquiescence. Remember, the U.S. Constitution makes no mention of political parties. This current Congressional environment lends itself to the weakening and irrelevance of our Congressional bodies - the Senate and House of Representatives.
In fact, as many of my friends would say about Congressional positions, “it was the American founder’s intent to get into government, do their civic duty, and get out. It was not intended to be a career.” Yes, I know, the America of today has certainly become a tad more complicated than the founders in our 13 colonies were faced with, or even likely anticipated. Though, the founder’s concerns were certainly just as existential, maybe even more so than today, as evidenced shortly after the Constitution was ratified, when in 1812 the British came back, overran Washington D.C., spanked America, and burned down the White House (Bastards).
Therefore, it is essential to finish clearing the swamp of week party minions that blindly follow the President’s and Party’s orders and fail to serve America as our founders, and we the people, intended. We need “leaders” in Congress that are unafraid to stand up to a strong President, and party, with the integrity to always put America’s interests first, and when necessary, say no!
This is why I don’t support either party but identify as an “American.” Otherwise, could we fall down the slippery slope China and Russia already has with their dictator presidents who have changed, or are changing, their constitutions to install them for life? Ridiculous assertion you say? That’s probably what the Czar would have thought too, before a minority of violent Bolshevik’s took over Russia and murdered the Czars family and created the Soviet Union - with Stalin’s exterminations that followed. Or, what the German people might have thought, before Adolph Hitler dissolved the Reichstag (Germany’s Congress) and declared himself the sole head-of state (a legal dictatorship). We know where that got the world. Or, how about the fall of ancient Athens, the first democracy, at the hand of the treacherous demagogue Alcibiades as described by Thucydides - required reading at the U.S. Army War College. Does any of this bother anyone or raise any red flags?
If our elected representatives in Congress were unqualified or unwilling to do their duty to put America’s interests first, would you say we have the wrong folks in our elected positions? Or, perhaps more importantly, would you insist on seeing them replaced? Of course, you would.
Congress has an integral role to play as the daily voice of the people, through their elected representatives, right? Congress drafts the laws. Congress ratifies treaties. Congress is the body that changes our Constitution. And Congress decides if America goes to war. Congress is the body that even fires a President when its deemed necessary. Congress’s job is not to do what the President tells it to do. Congress’s job is, among many other things, to be the primary honest broker - the referee - of the Executive Branch so that it does not come off the rails and consolidate power entirely in the Executive Branch. The Judicial Branch does not even have this degree of responsibility and power. And no, I am not saying Congress’s role is to stymie the President’s agenda or get in the way of the “people’s will - of which they elected the President to lead. And, I’m trying not to write a book here. I think you get what I mean.
Yup! This is the way it is folks. Our founders fought the revolutionary war against a king - which make no mistake, is essentially a dictator. The founder’s created America - a republic “of the people, by the people, for the people.” And, “all” our elected representatives take an oath to protect it. That hasn’t become outdated, has it? I for one am still for it.
Regardless of your feelings about the man in the White House, strong elected Congressional leaders with the conviction to “Do-The-Right-Thing” are essential to preserving our Constitutionally mandated system of checks and balances, maintaining governance of our nation in the hands of our citizens, and not evolving to an oligarchic dictatorial state - like Russia. Russia, a nation where power is in the hands of a dictator, they call a President, with a farce of an elected body that merely does what it’s told – and claps (what a bunch of lackeys). This is not who we are, right? Can we agree on that? Short of that latter moral compass pointing to true-north (of the people, by the people, for the people), as our founders intended, we could say some politicians put personal interests, and party interests first, before America’s interests. Yup, you deserve better!
Today, our strong President has polarized America. For many, you either like him, or you don’t. Whether you love him or hate him, (my apologies, I know, “hate” is a strong word), is not the point here. Whether you think the President is healthy for America and “Doing-The-Right-Thing” or leading us down a path you feel is the unhealthy for America is not the thrust of this editorial. It’s about Congress! It’s about Congress’s role as one of the three legs of Constitutional power (Legislative) to assert its mandate to be a counterweight to the other two branches of government (Executive and Judicial) and ensure the health of America and our way of life is preserved as intended. And it is Congress that holds the ultimate staff of power - until they lose it - that is.
Our President can smell political weakness a mile away. To maintain a healthy counterweight to such a strong personality, which if you are on board with our Constitutionally designed system of checks and balances that I assume you still want, you need equally strong personalities in Congress - leaders of conviction. Not sock puppets that will say and do anything at their party’s bequest in order to maintain power and preserve their jobs. Don’t they teach this stuff in primary school anymore?
Our current Utah Senator Mike Lee may have good intentions, but he is captive to personal career political aspirations that clouds his judgement as a multi-term seeking party ball-player that is doing, and telling you, anything to preserve his re-election fortunes and the health of his party. The problem now is, he is faced with the dilemma of having to choose what to put first - honor his oath of office, or put his party and personal political fortunes first. We know what “Doing the Right Thing” is. I’m suggesting you may want, and need, better.
As a legal clerk, we can agree that Senator Lee can draft legalese and quote chapter and verse of scores of legislative documents and provide good history lessons. These are great attributes for a member of a Senator’s staff, but not enough for the leader you expect a Senator to be. Senator Lee’s credential’s leave us wanting for leadership that has experience, and more importantly moral conviction, beyond what is presently being brought to the table.
Folks, we need better. We need leadership in Congress that can stand up to a strong President and party bosses and special interests and who will “Do-The-Right-Thing” regardless of getting re-elected or whether their Party’s interests are being served - especially if at the expense of America’s interests first. This is not to suggest undermining, or containing, the policies of the President, but commanding equal respect for the authority of Congress and the position and power it’s entrusted to wield. Senator Lee is not your man for this as evidenced by his actions and his difficulty in trying to “Do-The-Right-Thing,” staying true to his moral compass, and his propensity to protect his job and his party first. He finds himself conflicted and having a difficult time untangling himself from his personal interests and doing what is right for America. You deserve better. America deserves better.
Please hold on folks, as I write this piece with its intricately woven parts. I know my War College professors will be rolling over in their graves at the length - well, for those not still with us that is - for attempting to tackle too many themes in one editorial. Try to hang with me…
The tenacity and energy President Trump brings to the Oval Office is what may be needed to vet out weak Congressional leaders and install new strong leadership that commands the authority Congress is Constitutionally empowered to exercise. Now is the opportunity to clean house and make our government stronger, focused, and up to the task of doing what’s right for America first. Now is the time to dismiss multi-term party incumbents for candidates who will “Do-The-Right-Thing” regardless of re-election fortunes or the health of the party they identify with.
The challenge, and integrity dilemma, Senator Lee faces as he tries to have his cake and eat it too by blindly supporting his party, and its leadership, while simultaneously laying into question its capacity to govern within our established Constitutional framework, is the problem - i.e. simultaneously acting as a juror in the impeachment trial and serving as the chairman to re-elect the President after taking the “Scenic Route” from not supporting our President, to now supporting him, and excusing his party’s leadership, after treating Congressional leaders as “little boys and girls.” Story on that to come…
In a nutshell, Senator Lee has acknowledged outrage with the Republican Party, and his ultimate bosses, President Trump, Senator McConnell, etc., and yet he continues to support the entire regime and its behavior. Senator Lee is torn between the leaders he works for, the constituents he’s supposed to represent, and America’s Constitutional interests that many American’s still embrace.
Senator Lee’s fickleness has placed him in an ethical dilemma trap that demands he demonstrate sound integrity even at the expense of his party, and job, or become an irrelevant patsy, lapdog, and yes-man for a party that’s shirked its responsibility to act within its charter of checks and balances, and will support saying and doing anything, no matter who they destroy, to accommodate the Executive Branch and the President’s bidding. This is wrong. This is why we have such a strong President, and this is what happens when Congress fails to do its job in the eyes of the people. My guess - Senator Lee will in the end continue to vehemently support his party, before America, and aggressively take action to promote and re-elect the lot of them - including himself - and hide behind impeachment due-process instead of what he is bound to do by the oath of his office which is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and “Do-The-Right-Thing.”
Senator Mike Lee, who leads the Utah effort to re-elect President Trump, after taking the “scenic route” from not supporting his leader, to now supporting him, says he's "worried" about the integrity of the information coming out of the government about Iran. "I’ve learned not to take the federal government’s word at face value” he says. Ya’think! Sir, “YOU ARE” the government that’s in power (subtle reminder emphasized). (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/01/12/gop_sen_mike_lee_says_hes_worried_about_the_integrity_of_information_coming_out_of_the_government_about_iran.html). Senator Lee, are you the only one who cannot see you are being “played” by the President, just as Congressman Paul Ryan was? Or, are you just in hopeful denial that somehow this will all workout and pass allowing you to emerge with your integrity intact? You can’t have it both ways, Sir! Gosh dang it, now I feel I am being too harsh on a fine family man I have never even met - my apologies. But, I call it as I see it. Please forgive me. I continue…
Senator Mike Lee’s “surprised” (https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/01/08/trump-administration-briefing-on-iran-angers-republican-senators-boosts-effort-to-restrict-presidential-power/23897375/). Why are you “surprised “Senator Lee,” are you that naïve? On Wednesday, January 8th, Senator Lee and others in Congress were provided a classified briefing furnished by the White House staff and senior cabinet, that included the participation of the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Defense, Mike Esper, regarding the evidence and circumstances behind the attack that killed Iranian Quds General Qassem Soleimani in spectacular fashion in Iraq on January 3rd.
After the briefing, Senator Lee expressed frustration describing the Congressional leaders in attendance as being treated like “little boys and girls” and having been encouraged to NOT support the Kaine proposal which would require a debate about war authorities resulting from the President’s order to kill General Soleimani. Mr. Lee further is quoted as saying the briefing was “probably the worst briefing I’ve seen, at least on a military issue, in the nine years I’ve served in the United States Senate.” Senator Lee, this is the party leadership you are following and supporting! You are leading the campaign to re-elect this behavior. Again, please forgive me, but there’s little room for indecisiveness at this level. Senator Lee should rethink his candidacy.
Senator Lee, I’m worried too. I’m worried that you are out of your league, being played like a sock puppet, as was Congressman Paul Ryan by the President, and failing to recognize the President will continue to treat you like a lapdog while you’re still of use to him and you seek to re-elect him. Then, once you have completed your task, he will discard you like an irrelevant old shoe that’s worn out its usefulness - or he will own you. You’ll kiss his ring and do his bidding blindly, having left your integrity in tatters.
Folks, I have been in, and created, the kinds of briefings Senator Lee was supposed to have attended - classified, well prepared, and transparent with honesty and integrity. For a classified briefing to be anything less would certainly not only be “un-American” as Senator Lee said, it would also be shockingly condescending and dangerous to America’s security interests.
Senator Lee, and all representatives in Congress, have a duty to us all as leaders to stand up for the checks and balances his office requires of him and “DEMAND” with fists clutched that this administration, his party, his leadership, behave transparently and with accountability. For Senator Lee to feel “insulted” by the treatment of our Congressional leader’s as “little boys and girls” by the White House staff, again, over-watched by the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense who were present, is unprecedented. Mr. Lee should have blasted the President for such unprofessional behavior and announced his decision to no longer support his party’s leadership and that he would be removing himself from the Utah committee to re-elect the leadership Senator Lee currently supports and follows. Hey, can’t have it both ways…
The question is, what will Senator Lee do about it!? Will he continue to support a party and leadership that is by his own account patronizing, condescending, and dismissive of peer leadership - Congressmen / Ladies and Senators - of his own party and using them merely as “tools” to achieve support for dubious decision making, only to be cast aside and thrown away when their usefulness is no longer perceived as convenient? Or, will he “Do-The-Right-Thing.” Maybe, that time has already passed for him.
Senator Lee says, “I’m worried,“ when asked about the “integrity of the information we're being told” He states: “And as a United States Senator and as a voter and citizen, I have learned not to simply take the federal government's word at face value. I mean, look, we were lied to about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We were lied to for a couple of decades about what was happening in Afghanistan. We have been lied to about a lot of things.” Okay, got it - now what are YOU going to do about it Senator Lee? Who exactly are you pandering too with these comments? Remember, Sir, it was your party that mismanaged the decisions, before, during, and after those wars. Sorry for the use of the word “after” since we are still losing soldiers in both theaters - my bad.
Senator Lee, you must step up, or step aside. Be a leader and draw a line in the sand, and “Do-the-Right-Thing” regardless of the toll on your political fortunes and aspirations. You must lead, not make excuses for your party’s leadership. I call on you to divorce yourself from a party that’s done America wrong, be the leader we ask of you to be, or get out of the way and let someone else get in there with clear integrity and who demands accountability.
When President Trump gave his ill prepared Press Release to Fox News Host Laura Ingram that “I can reveal that I believe it would have been four embassies” Soleimani was plotting against (https://www.fox5dc.com/news/trump-tells-fox-news-laura-ingraham-four-embassies-were-targeted-in-imminent-threat-from-iran) and (https://video.foxnews.com/v/6121521183001#sp=show-clips). He was obviously unprepared and most likely making a story up! Egregious!!! Even the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, the man with arguably the most comprehensive inter-agency apparatus with a sea of intelligence gathering insight and daily assessments, from both the Pentagon, Central Command, and Embassy attaches around the world, could not even support the President’s assertions, stating: “…the President made no citation of a “specific piece of evidence,” adding that Trump was just making clear what he believed (bold underlined emphasis added) to be the case. Neither he, nor Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, could not point to evidence that could support the presidents claims (https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/01/12/esper-didnt-see-intelligence-backing-up-trump-claim-iran-was-preparing-to-attack-4-embassies/23899431/). Folks, they are hoodwinking you! Really - “Probably?!?, Might Have?!? Secretary of Defenses Mark Esper: "I didn't see one with regard to four embassies," Esper said of a specific piece of evidence leading to Trump's conclusion. "What I'm saying is I shared the president's view... my expectation was they were going to go after our embassies." Secretary Esper, stop defending ineffectiveness - expect more from the folks with their fingers on the triggers! You know this stuff is B.S.!!!
Folks, how can I put this more plainly… they make it up as they go... and in your heart of hearts - you know it. Senator Lee’s senses are on target. Unfortunately, he and his fellow Senator’s and Congressfolk continue to enable and dismiss the circumstances with limp token outrage designed to make you believe they are doing something. They’re not! Senator Lee, lead with your conscious, integrity, and conviction to “Do-The-Right-Thing.” Or, get out of the way and let the kind of leadership that was intended for Congress take the reins.
Yes, yes, I underscore! Soleimani, the Iranian regime, together with Syria’s Bashair Assad, are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of our American soldiers. A Tomahawk missile down the throat of Quds Headquarters in Tehran would have been warranted during the Iraq War in the mid-2000s. But playing with big boy toys and shooting missiles around and killing people with no coherent plan, not even evidence to relay to your “cleared” elected officials, is completely off the rails. Folks, your National Security apparatus has been castrated, your experienced generals are gone from the cabinet, and nothing has replaced them that can be considered informed and capable leaders – just yes-men / ladies remain who will do the bidding of ill-advised strategy and policies until they are used up and cast aside - don’t let that be you Senator Lee!
The Kaine (Senator Tim Kaine – Virginia) Resolution is intended to underscore that Congress has the sole power to declare war, as laid out in the Constitution. The resolution requires that any hostilities with Iran must be explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force but does not prevent the United States from defending itself from imminent attack. The resolution will force a public debate and vote in Congress to achieve what the framers of the Constitution have already enshrined to determine whether United States forces should be engaged in these hostilities. (https://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/kaine-files-war-powers-resolution-to-prevent-war-with-iran).
And Senator Mike Lee, as if in an echo from Niall O’Dowd, as he put it in his article in “Irish Central” Paul Ryan (former Republican House Speaker), Trump’s lap dog, Trump can smell political weakness and a sock puppet a mile away (https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/paul-ryan-trump-lapdog - a plaything for a president who can smell political weakness – don’t let that be you Senator Lee.
So, this is our dilemma… we want and need leadership from a weak do nothing Congress… stacked full of legal clerks whom many have never held a leadership position in their lives, never served in our military - yet send our young to war - never have created businesses or jobs - elected representatives that put party before the interests of the country, and their own re-election fortunes. President Trump was heralded in to shake it up. He’s certainly doing that.
Now, as President Trump has put the weaknesses of the characters in Congress on display - is the time to vote incumbents out and weaken party politics in favor of candidates that will strongly do what’s right for America first. No more entanglements that do not properly weigh an intelligent cost benefit analysis, no more social programs that we can’t afford, no more budgets that are simply cast aside to the tune of trillion-dollar annual over-runs when its expedient. Vote out the incumbents - all of them. Do what’s right for America - Not what’s right for parties that have no foundation even in the Constitution of the United States. Man, am I becoming extreme?
Maybe the President is not entirely unhealthy for us. As he laughs at us all… you should, for the health of America, stand up to his provocations and hold his office accountable to our Constitutional system of checks and balances through strong principled Congressionally elected representatives who are prepared to “Do-The-Right-Thing” for America – to do what’s right. Or, throw our democracy and national principals away - principals that have served us pretty well for the last 250 years or so.
As the President toys with and antagonizes the inbred Congressional party status quo - who he has COMPLETE and utter contempt for - and though possibly entirely by the accident of simple minded serendipitous bullheaded leadership - the President is playing Congress as his sock puppets, revealing the decay of the parties and their ineptitude, impotence, and removing the false veil of competency that hides self-interested motivations for the sake of their party’s and personal re-election fortunes, before, America’s interests.
Do not blame President Trump for his actions, blame Congress for their inaction’s.
So then, what should Senator Lee do? If he embraces the notion of integrity and doing what is right for Americans and America first as a Congressional leader who’s taken an oath to uphold our Constitutional values and practices with integrity, before party, as he is expected to do, he will do five things:
1. Denounce publicly by press release any of either party’s efforts to obstruct the Congress’s efforts to undermine a Constitutionally legal impeachment proceeding.
2. Announce his unwavering intent to be an impartial juror in the impeachment trial - regardless of outcome. Senator Lee must be an impartial juror, without prejudice, in what is a legitimate judicial proceeding.
3. Reaffirm that the Constitution’s empowerment of Congress having sole war making decision authority without the need to pass a Kaine Resolution that attempts to needlessly underscore, or restate, what’s already sufficiently clear in the U.S. Constitution. Senator Lee is faced with supporting a party that is solidifying inappropriate extra-constitutional authority, to marginalize Congress, and empower the President with the sole power to decide whether, and to what extent, the United States may go to war. Kind of a problem here - don’t ya’think? Mr. Lee, don’t waste our time and dollars for the sake of amplifying what does not need to be amplified or restated for clarity in an attempt to show you are doing something substantive to constituents by engaging in a weak attempt to create the illusion of credibility.
4. Remove himself as the head of the Utah committee to re-elect President Trump, due to the inherent conflict of interest with being an impartial juror in the President’s impeachment trial, and for undermining Congress’s role in our government’s system of checks and balances as evidenced by Senator Lee’s own, admitted, experience at the January 8 classified briefing by the Trump administration that laid into question, by his own party’s leadership, Congress’s Constitutional role in taking America into war.
5. Lead with “grinding teeth and clinched fists conviction” to denounce a Republican party’s obstructive behavior that’s come off the rails, reform it, and be one of the leader’s to fix D.C., not the follower and “party team player” that puts party before doing the right thing for America.
I encourage all Americans to vote out party incumbents - both parties - who are putting party before America. Elect responsible leaders that will “Do-The-Right-Thing” for America, regardless of term or party, clean house, and expect responsible, well informed, and tenacious leadership with integrity who will to do what’s right for America first. As President Trump toys with Congress and pulls off the veil of perceived competence, showing the misguided “party first” mentality in Congress, use this opportunity to demand your elected leaders “Do-The-Right-Thing” for America first. Support your Constitution with its intended system of checks and balances and elect leaders that insist with conviction competent, professional, executive performance that’s focused on doing what’s healthy for you and America
I want that job - Colonel Mike Seguin - U.S. Senate 2022