The Charlotte News
Monday, January 19, 1953
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that U. S. Patton tanks had moved over frozen rice paddies on the central front in Korea this date, hitting enemy bunkers and trenches in the "Iron Triangle" section for the fourth consecutive day. The previous day, the Pattons had teamed up with U.N. fighter-bombers to destroy five enemy tanks on the central front, damaging four others. Allied fighter-bombers bombed and strafed Communist positions north of the "Punchbowl" on the eastern front, with at least 60 enemy troops killed or wounded. U.S. Sabre jets struck deep in North Korea and engaged twice with enemy MIG-15s, with allied pilots making no claims of damage. Marine planes attacked enemy positions on the western front, and Shooting Stars and Australian Meteors attacked rail lines behind enemy lines near the west coast of Korea. The airstrikes followed a series of savage infantry fights which had flared in the predawn darkness on the eastern end of the frozen battle line.
In other ground fighting, allied troops captured an enemy outpost near "Anchor Hill" and repulsed enemy counterattacks until dawn, when they withdrew to their lines. The previous day, allied artillery and pilots had caught about 1,000 Chinese troops in the open above Kumhwa, and reported 260 killed or wounded. The allied blows the previous day had goaded the enemy into firing, and they had maintained almost the same pace this date. In the biggest fight of the previous day, in the Mundung Valley, allied defenders reported killing or wounding an estimated 83 enemy troops out of a company which had made an unsuccessful assault early in the morning.
Temperatures continued cold, dipping almost to zero along the front. With the rice paddies frozen, tanks could prowl the front on both sides, looking for targets. Enemy tanks were more often showing up on the central and western fronts, but moved carefully, to remain out of sight from allied planes and artillery spotters.
Ernest B. Vaccaro of the Associated Press reports that President Truman, "radiating cheer and voicing deep satisfaction with his stewardship", put in his last full day as President, before becoming a civilian the following day at noon. He planned to head back to Missouri several hours after the inauguration, after having served in Washington for 18 years, ten years as a Senator before becoming Vice-President on January 20, 1945, and then President on April 12, at the death of President Roosevelt. He had worked about 17 hours per day for the previous nearly eight years in office, but, at 68, still appeared in excellent health. He had plans to open a private office in Kansas City, near his hometown of Independence, Mo. Matthew Connelly, the President's appointments secretary, was planning to become a consultant in New York regarding business and Government contracts. The President and First Lady Bess Truman planned to stop at Mr. Connelly's apartment so that the President could take a nap after the inauguration, before proceeding to the train for the trip back home. He would also have lunch with the retiring Cabinet members at the home of Dean Acheson. When the President boarded the executive railroad car, "Magellan", at Union Station, Secret Service protection would officially end, and the car would be attached to a regular passenger train for the trip back across country. Thus, anyone who wished to see the former President off could do so right from the platform without interference and without credentials. During the previous couple of weeks, the outgoing President had granted exclusive interviews to some veteran reporters assigned to the White House, two having been broadcast during the weekend, by Bryson Rash of ABC and Bill Costello of CBS. Mr. Rash had quoted the President as saying that at the 1945 Potsdam Conference, he had given Premier Stalin a broad hint that the U.S. had detonated the world's first atomic bomb and would use it to end the war.
Washington was preparing for the inauguration of President Eisenhower the following day, as thousands of visitors poured into the nation's capital to see either the swearing-in of the 34th President, the first Republican to occupy the office since 1933, or to view the subsequent parade from the Capitol to the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue. The President-elect remained in seclusion at the Statler Hotel in Washington, where he continued to make last-minute checks of his inauguration speech, expected to last about 15 minutes. Only a few callers were being received this date. A schedule of the events to take place during the inaugural festivities this night and the following day is printed on the page, should you wish to try to attend.
The irony of timing between this project, its summarized events each day, and that taking place as time moves along in reality, never ceases to amaze.
The new White House chief of staff, Sherman Adams, predicted that the Eisenhower Administration would "ride out" protests over the appointment of Charles E. Wilson as Secretary of Defense, his confirmation to the post having been challenged by some Senate Democrats and Republicans because of his failure to divest substantial General Motors stock holdings, an annual pension and retirement bonus from the company, of which he had been president, when G.M. was the largest recipient of Government contracts through the Defense Department. Senate leaders had abandoned the plan to have Mr. Wilson confirmed with the other Cabinet appointees the following day. Attorney General-designate Herbert Brownell was seeking, along with his appointed chief assistant, William Rogers, to find a way around present law which barred any Federal official from negotiating contracts with the firm in which he held even an indirect financial interest. Mr. Rogers—to become Attorney General in President Eisenhower's second term, and Secretary of State during President Nixon's first term—indicated that he did not believe an opinion was forthcoming this date, as some time would be necessary to investigate the legal aspects of the situation.
While they are about it, they might warn Mr. Adams about having his wife not receive any vicuna coats during his tenure. Stick to those Nixon cloth coats. Follow the man who will set the tone of an Administration to be "as clean as a hound's tooth", as promised during the campaign.
The Senate Finance Committee this date unanimously approved George Humphrey for confirmation as Secretary of Treasury, following an open hearing at which he had testified that he was afraid a general tax reduction could not be made in the immediate future. The Committee chairman, Senator Eugene Millikin of Colorado, said that the Senators were satisfied that Mr. Humphrey had sufficiently divested himself of any interest in his various business enterprises, with the exception of stock holdings. The same Committee also unanimously approved Oveta Culp Hobby to become the Federal Security Agency administrator.
The U.S. had called on Russia to attend a Big Four meeting of deputy foreign ministers to be held on January 30 in London to discuss the Austrian peace treaty. No reply had yet been received from Moscow on the long-stalled efforts to conclude a treaty formally to end the war with Austria.
Radio Sofia out of Bulgaria announced that ten alleged American-paid spies would go on trial this date, alleged to belong to a group of spies which was directed by an American espionage center in Turkey.
In Stuttgart, Germany, a spreading typhoid epidemic caused a ban to be imposed on the sale of imported endive, a salad herb, in the Stuttgart area, after a total of 581 persons had been stricken during the previous month, five of whom had died, with officials suggesting a considerable degree of probability that the endive was responsible. No American soldiers or civilians had become ill during the epidemic.
In Pittsburgh, 1,000 rioting convicts who set fire to the Western State Penitentiary this date, defied officials backed by 72 armed State troopers and 400 other policemen, refusing to release four guards held hostage, as they shouted for prison reforms. Since the rioting had begun the previous night, the prisoners had smashed windows and taunted police, who stood by with rifles and submachine guns. The warden moved cautiously to avoid bloodshed, although the Governor of Pennsylvania, John Fine, declared that the State would not bargain with the prisoners. Originally, they had taken a fifth guard as hostage, who had since been released or escaped, the story being silent on how he obtained release. No shots had been fired and no prisoner had thus far escaped.
In the California and Oregon coastal plains this date, flood waters raged, causing vast destruction across several communities for the third consecutive day of storms. More than 1,000 persons had been driven from their homes during the weekend, as the torrential rains had caused at least ten deaths, blocked highways and railroad tracks, and disrupted communications. A state of emergency was declared in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties in Northern California, where several communities were ordered to be evacuated. U.S. Highway 101, the main north-south artery, was under water at a number of places in both Oregon and California, and from Eureka, California, over the mountains to the Central Valley, highways were blocked by slides and washouts.
In Statesville, N.C., former longtime Congressman Robert Doughton, 89, who had retired at the beginning of the year from Congress after 42 years, was reported to be beyond the critical stage of his pneumonia, from which he had suffered since the previous Thursday.
In Charlotte, the Mecklenburg County Commissioners voted 4 to 1 this date against the proposal that the County Police Department be merged with the Sheriff's Department, following an hour-long hearing on the matter, at which citizens urged that no change be made. The County's four members of the State House were present, but made no commitment either way on the proposed legislation for the merger, sponsored by a State Senator, who was absent from the hearing.
In Hollywood, actress Lucille Ball
gave birth to a baby boy by cesarean section, as had been her
firstborn, a daughter, Lucy Desiree, one and a half years old. The
boy, named Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces.
Both mother and child were in excellent condition. The birth had been
anticipated for weeks because of the "I Love Lucy"
television show which had made no secret of the star's pregnancy with
her husband, Desi Arnaz, constructing episodes
We, after all, have a couple of
things in common with little Desiderio, as we are here now, too, as
previously stated a couple of weeks ago. Happy birthday, Al. Welcome to the Eisenhower-Nixon era. May it be shorter
On the editorial page, "What Kind of a 'Crusade' Is This?" finds that the Senate Armed Services Committee, passing on the recommendation of confirmation of Secretary of Defense-designate Charles E. Wilson, ought not recommend confirmation until he had agreed to divest himself of all of his holdings in General Motors, which included 2.5 million dollars worth of stock, the receipt of an annual bonus of more than $600,000 and 1,800 shares of additional stock coming to him. As of July 1, G.M. had 2.9 billion dollars worth of defense contracts, and as of January 1, five billion dollars worth, amounting to 60 percent of the Government's defense contracts on a dollar basis. Moreover, the previous week, current Defense Secretary Robert Lovett had announced that G.M. had sought an increase of its profits on Government contracts, and that he was leaving the decision to his successor.
Additionally, Mr. Wilson's deputy would be Roger Kyes, also a G.M. executive who held substantial stock.
It indicates that if those two men, who were of good character and highly competent, would not divest themselves of their investments, then the standards of government would quickly become "bogged down in a morass of influence peddlers serving two masters". Congress, it concludes, ought either to raise the salary of the new Defense Secretary or require that he sever his connections completely with G.M., to remove any taint from disinterested performance of his job.
"The Barnes Dance" indicates that in Denver, Colo., an engineer named Barnes had developed a traffic system whereby pedestrians were held up as all traffic proceeded, allowing ten or more cars to make right turns on a green light, whereas with pedestrians proceeding as usual, only one or two could get through. The new arrangement of lights then stopped all cars, allowing pedestrians to cross the street in any way they wished, including diagonally. The pedestrians were so happy with the result that they called it the "Barnes dance". It hopes that Charlotte might adopt a similar traffic control pattern, and then, after the City engineer, Herman Hoose, call it, perhaps, the "Hoosestep".
Not unless you wish to cook his goose.
"Why Should Paroles Be Secret?" indicates that a State Representative had introduced a bill before the General Assembly to alter the parole structure to make a three-person Paroles Commission responsible for determining release on parole, instead of the current one-man setup. It finds it a worthy change, recommended by Governor Umstead, but takes exception to a part of the bill which provided that the records of the Board of Paroles would be held in confidence, and not subject to inspection by anyone except those whom the Board deemed to have proper interest. It finds that keeping the inner workings of the Paroles Board off-limits to the public and press would not serve the public interest and hopes that the General Assembly would strike that part of the proposed law, suggests that the people had a right to know on what basis paroles were granted or denied.
"Yardstick" tells of Comptroller General Lindsay Warren, of North Carolina, having been justified in boasting during his customary annual letter to each new Congress. In 1946, the General Accounting Office which he headed had 14,904 employees, and by the beginning of 1953, that number had been cut to 6,204, a reduction by nearly 60 percent. Mr. Warren had indicated that there was no department or agency in the Government which could not reduce the number of its employees, provided they were willing to do so. He had done so by constantly surveying the work of his office and eliminating procedures which had outlived their usefulness, without losing control of his authority over expenditure of public funds. The piece suggests that if the President-elect's new executives needed a yardstick by which to measure their forthcoming accomplishments in economy, they should use Mr. Warren and his successful efforts at GAO.
A piece from the Mecklenburg Times, titled "Rural Mecklenburg's Greatest Asset", indicates that most residents of rural Mecklenburg County regarded the County Police Department as very efficient and one of the best services provided by the County. Thus, it finds it not warranted for the State Senator to the General Assembly to be attempting to merge the County Police Department with the Sheriff, which would only bring the rural police under an elected functionary, and thus inject politics into the agency, rendering a less efficient department. The object was to save $100,000 per year, but it finds that by the time 30 to 50 additional men would have to be hired by the Sheriff to accommodate the merger, the savings would be minimal.
Drew Pearson indicates that seven years and nine months earlier, on April 12, 1945, at around 5:00, Vice-President Truman was in the office of Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, when the phone rang, indicating that the Vice-President should come to the White House at once, where he then met First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who imparted to him the news that the President had died earlier that afternoon in Warm Springs, Georgia. Thus was thrust upon him, less than three months after becoming Vice-President, the awesome responsibilities of the Presidency.
Mr. Pearson finds that the President was not so humble as he had been at the beginning, was "a little more peppery", just as vigorous, and possessed of "sublime self-assurance" that history would, in the end, place him in his proper niche. Mr. Pearson had originally predicted that the President would leave office heavily criticized, similar to President Andrew Johnson after the move in 1868 to remove him from office by impeachment had failed by only a single vote in the Senate. The new President had heard Mr. Pearson's broadcast that night and sent word the following day that he did not like it. Mr. Pearson indicates that he saw no reason to modify his original prediction, now believed even more that President Truman closely resembled President Johnson.
As with that earlier Johnson Administration, the Truman Administration, he suggests, would go down in history for courageous policies which shaped American destiny, but would also be remembered for fumbling many policies which the President wanted to carry out, just as had President Johnson. President Truman had the courage and foresight to provide aid to Greece and Turkey in 1947, when Congress had been skeptical and the public unprepared, the so-called Truman Doctrine, without which, that vital area would have fallen to the Communists. He had also shown the courage to put across the Marshall Plan, without which Western Europe would have fallen to the Communists. And he had the vision to establish NATO as a continuing means of maintaining Western Europe beyond the reach of the Soviets. He had not hesitated to use the atomic bomb in August, 1945 to end the war with Japan, and to continue thereafter its research, but had also set up a civilian commission, the Atomic Energy Commission, to perform that research, with an eye toward making atomic energy useful for peacetime purposes. While the attempt to stop Communism in its tracks in Korea stood presently as the most unpopular of his policies, he suggests that history might paint it differently, though at present, it stood as the foremost example of his greatest failing, the inability to execute the farsighted policies for which he had an aptitude. He posits that the Korean War should never have been entered unless victory was certain, as the potential losses were too great, both in lives and in lost faith in the great ideal of ensuring peace by an international police force.
The President had taken a courageous stand by vetoing the Kerr Natural Gas Bill, which would have increased the price of gas to Northern consumers through deregulation of the natural gas industry, but then allowed his friend, Mon Wallgren, chairman of the Federal Power Commission, to nullify and undercut the President's veto of that bill by doing an end-run to effect the same results. The President had taken a courageous stand against monopoly, including that of overseas air routes, and then allowed his White House secretary to maneuver him into approval of the most monopolistic of all airline combines, Pan American Airways. The President had also moved against Communists inside the Government long before Senator McCarthy or anyone else had taken up the hue and cry against them. He had set up the Loyalty Board, with a Republican as chairman, two years before Senator McCarthy's charges, which had begun in February, 1950.
Mr. Pearson suggests that those were some of the things which the President might be thinking as he would ride along Pennsylvania Avenue for the last time before departing Washington for civilian life the following day. He suggests that he might also think about having bawled out Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov a few days after the death of President Roosevelt, when the former had come to pay his respects, or the time that he had bawled out Premier Stalin for being late at the Potsdam Conference in mid-July, 1945. He might also be wondering why he had kept Maj. General Harry Vaughan as his military aide despite his having caused so much grief and pain to the President regarding the influence peddling scandals, or why he had stuck by Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder, whose failure in that job had caused the Administration great tax-corruption trouble. He might also regret having written precipitous letters to Bernard Baruch and to the music critic of the Washington Post, when the latter had criticized his daughter Margaret's singing, or the statement he had made recently regarding "demagoguery" of President-elect Eisenhower in making his post-election trip to Korea in December.
Oh, you know, Mr. Pearson, that after that hatchet job, he is going to be fuming, and may refer privately to you as the male offspring of a dog, which you so often chose to clean up in your column by providing awards for "Sons of Brotherhood", after the President had referred to you as an S.O.B. after you criticized General Vaughan for receiving a medal from El Presidente Juan Peron at the Argentine embassy in Washington. But, such is the lot of a reporter who does his or her job, winding up not liked by too many people outside the profession of journalism.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop indicate that if Attorney General-designate Herbert Brownell cared anything about American liberties, one of the first items on his agenda would be investigation of the professional informers who flourished in the country. One such person was Paul Crouch, a former Communist, who had been the chief accuser of President Truman's chief economic adviser, Dr. Leon Keyserling, and his wife, Mary. Mr. Crouch's sly hints that Mary Keyserling had been a member of the Communist Party had been found to be baseless by the Loyalty Board and she had just been reinstated to her job at the Commerce Department as an economic expert, after a year and a half under a cloud. The charges against her husband, which had been parroted on the Senate floor by Senator Joseph McCarthy, alleged that in June, 1951, Mr. Crouch had informed official government investigators that he had seen Dr. Keyserling with one Gordon Parks while the latter visited his parents in Beaufort, S.C., in either 1937 or 1938, at which time, Dr. Keyserling had condemned one or two items on the official program of the Communist Party, such as the establishment of a black republic in the South, but had allegedly described the Soviet Union as "setting an example for the rest of the world" and praised "the unselfish devotion of the Communists", showing himself thereby, according to Mr. Crouch, to be "a good friend of the Party" who would probably be "ready for membership" soon. Mr. Crouch emphasized that Dr. Keyserling had been critical of the Communists and so could not properly be called a sympathizer, but was a "left liberal" New Dealer, which Mr. Crouch indicated he did not mean to imply reflected on his personal loyalty.
Mr. Parks, meanwhile, testified that Mr. Crouch had fabricated the whole story, and that Dr. Keyserling had never called on the parents of Mr. Parks. Dr. Keyserling said that he never recalled meeting Mr. Crouch until the latter had accused him in 1951.
Mr. Crouch was being employed at $22 per day as an expert adviser on the administration of the McCarran Act for the Immigration & Naturalization Service.
The Alsops find those facts shocking, the more so that any committee would even listen to the allegations, but indicate that the case was not isolated. Professional former Communist Louis Budenz had told an official State Department investigator in 1947 that he had no proof of any Communist connection of Owen Lattimore, and had informed an editor of Collier's in 1949 that Mr. Lattimore had never acted as a Communist in any way, but the following year, publicly accused Mr. Lattimore of being a member of the Communist Party.
Former Communist Harvey Matusow, who had appeared often before the Internal Security Committee and was a source for Senator McCarthy's accusations, had, according to the reliable Great Falls Tribune in Montana, delivered a speech in Great Falls during the late presidential campaign, stating that the Sunday section of the New York Times alone had 126 dues-paying Communists on its staff. The entire Sunday section, it turned out, had only 87 employees on its staff. In the same speech, Mr. Matusow said that the editorial staff of Time and Life had 76 "hard-core Communists" on its staff, while there were 25 more in the New York Bureau of the Associated Press.
The Alsops note that many leaders of public opinion in the country had been complacent about such informers and had even encouraged them at times, but that if the performance of such former Communists was not warning enough for the leaders of opinion, "they will never be warned until it is too late."
Marquis Childs indicates that Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas, as the new Minority Leader in the Senate, had forged an alliance between Northern and Southern Democrats quite adroitly, despite Northern Democrats having initially had grave doubts about his being made Majority Leader, fearing that he would place Southern Democrats in the dominant positions in the minority spots on committees, leaving the Northern Democrats on the outside. In so effecting a balance acceptable to both regions, Senator Johnson had worked closely with Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota—to become President Johnson's Vice-President in 1965. Senator Humphrey had been urged by friends to compete with Senator Johnson for the leadership position, but had declined, believing it to be a futile gesture which would only anger Southerners, something which he had strategically avoided at the convention the previous July. Senator Humphrey had established a close relationship and friendship with Senator Johnson since both had entered the Senate in 1949 at the same time—not just during the prior two years, which Mr. Childs mistakenly attributes to Senator Johnson as the extent of his Senate career.
Overlooking customary claims of seniority, Senator Johnson had assigned important committee posts to several Senators whom he considered most qualified for the positions, such as freshman Senator Stuart Symington, the first Secretary of the Air Force after 1947, who would serve on Armed Services; Senator Henry Jackson of Washington, who would serve on the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, where he could turn his attention to Federal power projects and Federal grazing lands, which had been threatened with being turned over either to the states or to private interests; and Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, also a freshman, with extensive background on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and experience at the U.N., who would serve on the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Humphrey would also serve on that Committee, as well as on the Steering Committee. The Senator had given up his seats on the Labor and Agriculture Committees in order to serve on what he deemed the more important two, despite worrying constituents that he might be turning his back on farmers and labor.
Apart from personalities and the politicians involved, Senator Johnson's successful beginning at putting together an effective Senate minority held, posits Mr. Childs, significance for the future, contrary to the anticipation of many that the Democrats might wind up split into factions in the wake of the lost election.
Robert C. Ruark, in Isiolo, Kenya Colony, again discusses the Mau Mau movement, equating it with the Klan in America. It had been started in the "best Communist manner", designed to intrigue the million or so Kikuyu who had been deprived of their old tribal ceremonies by the modern British administration in Kenya, providing them with a secret society to which they could turn to blow off steam. The movement was formed subtly, even enabling profit for its organizers, as he sets forth. There were voodoo rituals involved, which he also details. The oath required of members of the Mau Mau included vows that they would bring in the head of a European if told to do so, that if they saw anyone stealing anything from a European, they would say nothing, and that if called upon in the middle of the night by the Mau Mau, they would go naked, each vow of which had the added line that if they failed in the oath, it would kill them.
Some pressures had been placed on members of the Mau Mau to get at the leaders, such as those who had been responsible for a letter sent out at Christmas promising a dozen heads to celebrate the season. He indicates that "not much headway", however, had been made. There was to have been a general uprising at a given signal on "The Night of the Long Knives", to be touched off by the sounding of a reedbuck's horn, at which point, chosen Europeans would have their throats slit, all designed to drive the white man from Kenya. Since that announcement, some of the members had begun to slash livestock and then engaged in a series of murders which had terrorized both blacks and whites. A new purge was promised for January 10. Since January 1, two white men had been slain and two other murders had been attempted, in addition to pillaging and attempted arson.
The basic inception of the movement had been shown to be aided by the Communists, if not directly inspired by them. Their leader was Kenyatta, a darling of the Communists, who had spent about two years in Moscow and was married to a white woman.
He indicates that nearly two years earlier, his Kikuyu carboy had informed him that when the Communists took over Kenya, he would personally be provided a Chevrolet and a radio. Mr. Ruark imagines that presently, the carboy was at least a commissar in the movement, but he hopes they would not let him drive a car as he had been "a bloody awful carboy."
Incidentally, the claim of absolute executive privilege, which was raised by the White House in 2019 to prevent any executive department officials from testifying before the House, and thus used to justify several officials with relevant testimony regarding the current impeachment articles in ignoring subpoenas, has already long ago been evaluated, as the House Managers have correctly asserted, in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, starting, in relevant part, at page 703, holding that there is no absolute privilege, as claimed by the Nixon Administration in 1974, and by the current Administration in 2019, that the limit of executive privilege is where there is "a claim of need to protect military, diplomatic, or sensitive national security secrets", not asserted by the White House in 2019. Absent that need, there is no valid claim of executive privilege to block production of relevant testimonial and documentary evidence, subject to in camera inspection for excluding matter deemed subject to the executive privilege exception, a protection afforded in the 2019-2020 impeachment process by the call by the House Managers for preliminary deposition of the witnesses and screening of the documents presently sought prior to public presentation.
That claim by the White House, defying prior Supreme Court precedent, is at the heart of the preliminary controversy, to be renewed after opening statements are delivered, under the rules of procedure for the trial adopted by partisan vote by the Senate in the first full day of the trial on January 21, 2020, regarding whether additional witnesses and documentary evidence may be received, not heard or received in the House impeachment inquiry before the Intelligence Committee and subsequently in the Judiciary Committee which proposed and voted to recommend to the full House two articles of impeachment, which were then adopted by the full House and are now before the Senate for trial. The White House blocked all witnesses and documents to the House on the assertion of an absolute privilege, and thus substantial testimony and documentary evidence was not heard or received in the House, except by way of testimony before the House from witnesses who appeared despite the White House directive.
The White House maintains that the remedy lies in the courts, that the House should take its case into the courts for resolution regarding production of the withheld evidence—resolution, taking months to pursue, of an issue determined by the highest Court in the land in 1974, and thus a mere make-weight argument put forth for purpose of delay and as a blatant attempt to fool the gullible into believing that there is a plausible, practicable remedy not pursued by the House—while justice in the matter would rot on the vine, probably not to be redetermined until shortly before or after the 2020 election, defeating the very gravamen of the impeachment articles, designed to protect against the White House and its operatives seeking further to enlist foreign entities to intrude in the electoral process.
The questions of witnesses and documentary evidence rejected in the first day will be taken up again after the opening statements of both sides. If the partisan votes continue as they did on the first day, then the "trial" will become the biggest sham in the history of the republic, one which is limited, essentially, to opening statements, and only that evidence presented in the House, tantamount to an indicting body for purposes of impeachment under the Constitution, not the body trying the case, which is exclusively the Senate. By majority vote, the jurors, the Senators, have, thus far, on a strictly partisan basis, determined to uphold, essentially, a blanket claim of executive privilege by the White House, in defiance of Supreme Court precedent and ordinary trial procedure. Have you ever attended or heard of a trial where the opening statements and submission of the record of testimony and exhibits presented before the grand jury, subject to majority-vote exceptions even as to that evidence, were the only proceedings to be allowed before a verdict would be rendered? You have not, for no such trial, absent a stipulation by both sides, has ever occurred in the United States, whether of impeachment or other type—save perhaps in the courtrooms of the kind which were run by the infamous Judge Roy Bean during the days of the wild West, or of the equally infamous Judge Charles Lynch in colonial Virginia during the Revolution. If such winds up the case, then any pretense that the current impeachment trial is a trial in any actual jurisprudential sense is an absurdity. To call it, in that event, a "kangaroo court", orchestrated by the sing-along gang with a predetermined intention not only to acquit but to hide, for political purposes, the complete facts from the people, is a mild understatement. We shall see.
The House Managers, to be accorded the fair due process right to presentation of their case in full on behalf of the people of the United States, who voted just a little over a year ago a Democratic majority to the House, must be allowed to call relevant witnesses and have subpoenaed appropriate and relevant documentary evidence, withheld from the House by the White House directive during the impeachment inquiry, to bolster their trial presentation in the Senate, or the matter is simply a sham, giving lip service to the Constitution, while the majority of the jury actually engages in approval and fostering of the old Klan-era practice of "interposition and nullification" of the entire Constitutional framework set out for due process in trials, and followed in every prior impeachment of Federal officials, whether resulting in acquittal or conviction and removal from office, throughout the prior history of the nation, including during the original Klan-era of 1868, the time of the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.
If you believe all relevant evidence should be heard in the trial, then you should write to Republican Senators and insist upon it. Even if the result might be a foregone conclusion, the right of the people to hear all of the appropriate evidence which can be mustered by the House Managers should not in any manner be limited by majority partisan vote of 53 to 47 Senators for the sake of maintaining a cover-up, whether partial or complete.
Otherwise, a month or so from now, or a year from now, or a decade or more from now, those Republican Senatorial jurors who nullify can simply feign lack of knowledge: "Hey, look heya, don't blame me. I didn't Know Nothing. That there acquittal was the House's fault for not producin' the evi-dence. We done did our job."
As for the present status, shame on the 53, or, in response to one motion to table one of the amendments offered by the Minority Leader, 52.
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