So, yet another figure from the Trump administration has been forbidden to testify before Congress. At the last minute, Ambassador Gordon Sunderland was ordered not to make his scheduled appearance before three House committees.

No criminal enterprise in the U.S. could get away with this. Someone must at least show up and say “I respectfully decline to testify ….” But Trump’s underlings do not have to do even that to escape telling the truth. 

The administration decides who can testify, decides what documents it will make available to Congress, only after they have been “redacted,” that is to say, only after damaging evidence has been removed. They are shamelessly abusing “executive privilege” to the point of claiming an immunity to investigation usually available only to dictators. This makes a mockery of any pretense to oversight. 

How can this happen? Congress has long been wanting in intelligence and courage. Over many generations they have handed over to the presidency the responsibilities that they found burdensome or scary. This same tendency of Congress is abetting Trump today. The Republican Party, always as disciplined as the Communists, is in lock step tolerating, concealing, defending, and even commending Trump’s malfeasance.

Can our government be saved from the gangsters and wimps who now dominate it?