Yesterday’s public sitting of the #Intelligence House Committee was the first public battle of the upcoming midterms where at stake will be the majorities of both the Senate and Congress. The Congressmen from both sides of the political fence used questions as weapons to discredit their opponents. Some hit, some missed but the shots will not stop until the citizens have voted.
The two Directors
As FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers fielded the questions they must have felt at times as though they were targets in a firing range.
The questions they fielded were barrages in a political battle that will increasingly dominate American political life as the midterms draw nearer.
The two Directors had been called to address the matters of alleged Russian interference in the presidential election in favour of Donald Trump and also in regards to the President's accusations that the Obama Administration had ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower during the election campaign.
These issues are already controversial in themselves but the differing lines of questioning by the Republicans and democrats revealed the themes that will define the midterm campaigns.
The former effectively defended the President by criticizing the leakers who are causing chaos in the Oval Office and the latter by concentrating on the consequences of the revelations.
Protests
These Tactics must also be seen in light of the rocky start to the new Administration on issues such as the repeal and replacement of the ACA that has led to public protests against the Republican politicians by the citizens who fear losing their health care or being forced to pay big increases in premiums to keep it.
The Republicans are being forced to deal with matters that are distracting them from their own political agenda and thus are attempting to steer the public’s attention away from issues that many of them have privately stated are worrying for them.
The Democrats on the other hand have every interest in keeping the fire of public opinion burning under their opponents in the hope of electoral victory next year.
Majorities
At risk are the majorities that the GOP now holds in both the Senate and Congress. In many ways this was the real battle being fought as Comey and Rogers fielded questions yesterday and undoubtedly both were well aware of that fact.
Yet the person with the most to gain or lose in this battle was sitting in the Oval Office sending tweets trying to discredit the testimony of the two directors. In his determination to deny the testimony coming out of the sitting Donald Trump had lost sight that the stake at play was not only his political future but that of the GOP which he ostensibly leads as President.
As the American political system moves towards November 6th 2018 when the citizens will decide to whom they will give the majorities in the Houses the electoral tactics will play an increasing role in the running of the county but those tactics may not be enough for either side.
In the end the deciding factors may well be the reports that Directors Comey and Rogers will present on the results of the investigations by their agencies that were dealt with yesterday.
Until then America’s politicians, Republicans and Democrats beginning with the man in the Oval Office, will play their games of tactics not knowing whether their future will be decided by the citizens or by the faceless investigators represented by the two Directors.
Without doubt this is the sign of a political system that at some stage took the wrong turn and it is up to both major political parties to find the correct solution for the future of the country.
