To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable

To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Observercast

Lankford Thinks It’s Time To Move On

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DEFINITION OF VOYEURISM: [1] Enjoyment from seeing the pain or distress of others. [2] The practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity.

Don’t blame me for starting off a Tuesday with that. As it turns out, voyeurism was the answer given this morning by our junior Sen. James Lankford when he was asked what he thought about the Democrats still wanting to push for an outside investigation of the Jan. 6 event in the United States Capitol.

Now it’s probably true there have been some moments – but not too many – that would fit definition No. 2 above but knowing what I do about the former Falls Creek Administrator I’m much more inclined to go with definition No. 1 as to his meaning of why the Democrats want further inquiry into the first Capitol attack since the Brits pulled a similar stunt in 1812.

So if Lankford meant what he said by using the word voyeurism, just who would feel pain or distress through further examination of that early January day?

Certainly the Trump troopers who didn’t wait in line or get tickets for their Capitol tour [although one senator indicated they acted more like tourists than bat wielding trouble makers] would come in for more criticism, pain and distress. How about some of those White Supremacist outfits such as Proud Boys [of what I have always wondered] or Aryan Nation Nasties? Bet those guys wouldn’t like their behavior that cold day further exposed as they whacked, hit, sprayed bear repellent on and otherwise tried to do damage to their fellow Americans who were guarding the place … and by extension the gravely voiced, mild-mannered, carrot-topped Okie who plays second fiddle to Oklahoma Politician for Life James Mountain Inhofe.

One has to wonder – and in this case I’m the one wondering – is James the Second worried that some additional nefarious actions, or more likely inactions, might be revealed concerning the behavior that day of Donald the First, AKA our then-president? After all, it took that man of inaction several hours to find the number for the Pentagon and request a relief column be formed from across the Potomac River and provide same to the bloodied, blinded, bit, bandaged, and badgered defenders of The People’s Building which by the late afternoon was showing quite a bit of wear and tear itself not normally by-products left by mere tourists from Toledo.

No, the elephants in this game of “who knew what, when, where and why” with the Democrats have seen and heard plenty enough already after poking at the remains of this mish-mash for just a few days. By comparison, when they controlled the Speaker’s gavel, it took them several years to conclude a former congressional colleague of their own, Hillary Rodham Clinton, hadn’t done anything wrong at an embassy annex somewhere in Africa, specifically I believe Libya. Seems a bunch of thugs burned the place down and killed our ambassador and three of his colleagues while Secretary of State Clinton was back in DC, provably doing her assigned duties there. Or at least that’s what a three-year investigation, with subpoena power, a couple hundred witnesses, many millions of dollars spent, proved beyond, as the say, a shadow of a doubt.

Voyeurism, monkey business, rioters, insurrectionists – or maybe just worked up tourists excited to see the statutes in Statutory Hall – who knew and now no one will know exactly because Sen. Lankford and a majority of his caucus have declared it’s time “to move on” to more important issues. Maybe stuff like naming post offices, highways, byways and no-ways, after somebodies who really were nobodies … that’s the business today at the Capitol, near the swamp but not yet in it.

Makes me wonder why anybody, or even a nobody, would want such a meaningless job, one with a title that produces so little of value, either now or in the future. Maybe it’s the cherry blossoms. I understand they were spectacular this year but you’d never know by asking James the Second of Oklahoma because the only thing harder than asking him is to actually see him.

Understand he did a great job on Fox the other day turning dirt at the new post office location in Little Axe. Course it was by zoom but his voice for radio always still gets me. Reminds me in a way of FDR, a politician of the past who spent his time battling The Depression as well as defeating the Japanese and damn Nazis.

Sure seems like things were very different back then or maybe it’s just me.

Well, I’ve got to go and get linked in to my Congressman’s town hall via zoom event. His name is Tom Cole, a real smart guy with a PhD in English History. Too bad he doesn’t know anything about American history because he, like Lankford, voted against establishing an independent commission to investigate Jan. 6. Said it was no big deal. Just a kerfuffle. And that’s the difference between Tom and yours truly. I don’t even know what kerfuffle means … but I do know what an insurrection looks like. Sorta like 1812 … and Jan. 6, 2021.

Cal Hobson
Cal Hobson
Cal Hobson, a Lexington Democrat, served in the Oklahoma Legislature from 1978-2006, including one term as Senate President Pro Tempore.