Bond: No You Guys Are Running A Banana Republic

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Early this morning over at the mother ship, Josh made an interesting comparison between members of the Republican rump and the members of Junta Parties in post-Junta Banana Republics. A Junta could rule a country for years, but when its members are overthrown, they face the real risk of recriminations, and forming a solidarity party is one key way for them to forestall any consequences.

For future reference, members of Junta Parties around the world should consult either Sen. John McCain, or Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. After spending years supporting Bush-era torture and other crimes, Bond, with an assist from McCain, has turned the tables (sort of) on the new party of power by accusing it of fashioning the United States after a Banana Republic. Watch:

McCain: In Banana Republics they prosecute people for actions they didn’t agree with under previous administrations.

Bond: This whole thing about punishing people in past administrations reminds me more of a Banana Republic than the United States of America. We don’t criminally prosecute people we disagree with when we change office. There are lots of questions that could have been asked of the Clinton administration failing to recognize the war on terror. They did not. The Bush administration went forward, and that’s the way our country should. The President said he was going to be forward looking and now he has opened up the stab in the back.

That’s either world champion chutzpah or an unusually pointed example of projection. Either way it’s a novel approach and, if it catches on as a meme or is in any way effective, the two should win some sort of ribbon for rhetorical jiujitsu. But, then again, I’m sure crazier ideas have gained a great deal of purchase in our discourse, so why not this one?

Separately, one is tempted to remind Bond of things like the Starr investigation and the Clinton impeachment. If the point of all this is that administrations should be investigated while they’re still in power and not after, then why did Republicans oppose any real measure of oversight from 2001-2008?

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