I don’t have anything against Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman that I know of. He’s probably a wonderful individual. I just didn’t elect him president, and neither did anyone else.
But from what we know of Vindman’s secret testimony to the sham impeachment hearing, he thought he was more powerful than the president himself. Indeed, like Kipling’s “Man Who Would Be King,” this decorated soldier may have gone a bit mad in his lust for power.
Oh I know, we are not supposed to speak ill of decorated soldiers or musty diplomats, but really how did they earn this mantle of inviolability?!? Isn’t that usually reserved for former vice presidents who leveraged the firing of prosecutors by threatening to withhold foreign aid?
No doubt Captain Queeg, er, I mean Chairman Adam Schiff, will give Vindman the kid glove treatment and will elicit stern, serious testimony from Vindman about his sworn duty, his solemn oath, his years of supposedly nonpartisan service. It will all be so awe-inspiring that some may miss the shiv that Vindman will be carrying to assault the president’s reputation.
I suppose Vindman’s military demeanor and aura of discipline make him the ideal candidate to be selected to deliver the death blow to Trump. Thus, in his public appearance today, we are likely to hear a story of how Vindman and his fellow Deep Staters decided they had no choice but to seize power from President Trump because, well, because he just would not follow the script they had written for Ukraine.
But as you listen, remember to differentiate opinion from fact. Vindman is welcome to disagree with the president, but his “well-informed” opinion has no constitutional provenance at all, and Vindman himself has no legitimate claim to power, except that which descends to him from Trump himself.
So ultimately President Vindman joins President Yovanovitch, President Taylor and President Kent in the scrap heap of supernumerary presidents — the ones who are completely unnecessary for the creation of U.S. foreign policy but cling to the notion of their own turgid significance.
Turns out that President Trump is quite capable of making foreign policy decisions on his own. Apparently Trump expected Vindman and his buddies in the “Interagency” to fall in line and follow orders — something that proved distasteful to this ragbag collection of Resistance fighters.
So today we get to hear the testimony of Vindman about why he supported the Obama administration policy of turning a blind eye to corruption allegations involving former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. We are likely to find out he didn’t like Trump asking unpleasant questions, and wanted them to stop.
We already know that Ambassador Yovanovitch was instructed by Obama aides to deflect any questions about Hunter Biden’s association with the corrupt Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Vindman must have agreed with that coverup approach as he was apparently badly shaken by President Trump’s bringing up the Bidens and Burisma in his phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky.
So much so that Vindman is probably one of the sources who went outside the White House to leak classified information to the whistleblower, although Republicans may have a hard time establishing that fact since Chairman Adam Schiff has ordered the whistleblower into the Memory Hole.
“Whistleblower? What whistleblower?”
I’m glad that the second week of the Sham Impeachment Hearings are starting with Vindman because he is very likely closest to the whistleblower of any of the Ukraine call participants. Republicans must be prepared to ferret out as much evidence of Vindman’s conspiring with others as possible. Whether the whistleblower is named or not, it is obvious that in the West Wing, whenever two or more gather, they do so in the name of the Interagency, not the Constitution.
Dig it out of them!
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Frank Miele has spent four decades in the news business and now offers conservative commentary to counter the left-wing bias in the national media. If you enjoy reading these daily essays, I hope you will consider purchasing one of my books. They are available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions. My new book — “The Media Matrix: What if everything you know is fake?” — shows that Fake News has been around for years. The “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy tackles the politics of the last two decades: Part 1 is subtitled “Bush’s Global Failure: Half Right.” Part 2 is “Obama’s Fundamental Transformation: Far Left.” Part 3 is “Trump’s American Vision: Just Right.” Also consider subscribing to Heartland Diary on YouTube by clicking here for News Every Conservative Can Use.
I guess his handlers think that Vindeman showing up in the military equivalent of “Full Cleveland” should seal the deal. Sad.