Just another right wing partisan passing. His demeanor was congenial, but his politics were right wing.

Baker was a flaming liberal.

You could say the same about reagan, but that doesn't change the fact that reagan was a dangerous right winger.

Not seeing anyone like him around these days.

of current and future Republicans.

We can trash them all just because they are in the opposing political party or we can recognize some measures of merit where it exists.

I believe taking the latter course will give some encouragement to any potential responsible, conscientious Republican (s) to think of the nation first and work with Democrats to find common ground and solve our nation's many pressing problems.

Should we take the former course and just say fuck it, they're all evil and burn the house down, we will only give aid and comfort to the radical extremists on the right wing and our government will continue to drift toward dysfunction and ruin.

Thanks for the thread, FSogol.

It set the precedence for not prosecuting George W Bush.

That was the question that dogged Nixon into resignation. Can you imagine a Republican asking a question like that about a Republican President? Can you imagine a Republican congressman holding Dick Cheney's feet to the fire like that? I sure can't.

It was a different era.

But prosecuting someone for criminality and attempting to put them in jail is different from asking a question that makes headlines. Don't get me wrong. I watched every minute the hearings and I cheered Baker for asking that question. Then the reality of Gerald Ford saying he would just let bygones be bygones made me realize at that moment that people at the top of federal power could get away with any crime if it was framed right. Later with the ignored warnings about Bin Laden which resulted in Americans being incinerated, outing a CIA Agent and sending American soldiers to die for a lie proved to me I was right. At lot of people in this country feel as I do but also feel powerless to do anything about it. I could not create a lie that results in people being murdered or mastermind a break in without going to jail. Governors go to jail quite often. In the past one has gone to jail in my State. Why is a President than anyone else when it comes to crime. Especially murder.

There are decent Republicans, but none of them hold elected office.

they started agreeing with Bush/Cheney and enabled the GOP to take the country down dark destructive paths.

They could have spoken up, but didn't.

including two of our VP nominees.

A bunch more stood up to the Bush II White House when they outted Valerie Plame.