As I watched
TV the last days of February in 2019 in Washington DC before the Oversight
Committee of the House of Representatives I couldn’t help thinking of an essay
from a don at Oxford, C.S. Lewis, entitled The Inner Ring . It should be required reading for every new
and old member of congress before they start a new session.
Lewis lays
out for the King’s College, University of London Graduates, the path a person
follows to become a scoundrel. It is a commemoration address in which one usually
is looking for the bright future in front of the graduates. Lewis chooses to
follow a different line of thought.
Instead he
talks about a path some will take even though they are not planning to do so. People rarely directly seek to become a
scoundrel but rather, evolve gradually into the state in which Michael Cohen
finds himself today. The process is gradual and incremental and almost
imperceptible as a person slips from being an honorable person into becoming
totally dishonorable and discredited.
The desire
to be in the inner ring, in some aspect of one’s society, is almost
universal. To be accepted and trusted
and admired by one’s peers is a state that all members of Congress want to
attain. It is a state one must reach if
you are to be re-elected and accumulate power in the institution.
An often
told story is the Tip O’Neil tale in which a freshman got an interview with Tip
to ask for a plum committee assignment.
“Are you one of the new class of freshman? Go home and get re-elected so
I can see if you are for real!!”
Getting into
the inner ring of the Speaker or the chairman of your desired committee is one
of the first tasks every member sets his or her mind to as the session begins.
How do you pledge your fealty or vote to the chairman? How do you show proof of
your believability?
In 1993-4 I
was the leader of a Single Payer Health Care caucus and I had 95 pledged votes.
Chairman Rostenkowski was moving toward bringing out a bill that he and Mrs.
Clinton had crafted that was not a single payer scheme. Danny, one day drifted up to me on the floor,
and said, “Doc, if we bring my bill to the floor without single payer in it,
will you support my bill?”
I knew the
implications of opposing the chairman and said, “I know the rules. You have my vote.” I acquiesced for future
consideration. He knew it and I knew it.
I was in the inner ring and there was no benefit to opposing him and thus,
being on the outside. This is the normal way of operation in the circles and
overlapping circles of the political process.
But C.S.
Lewis told his audience the day will come when the request from a member of the
circle will come that is not quite right and you know it. Will it be a vote for
a bad amendment or a request for silence in committee when an issue you
understand is being discussed and you don’t explain the truth to the committee
because a colleague has asked you to be quiet? Or will it be an effort to word
a contract so it avoids scrutiny and goes to a friend?
The slide
down hill is hard to reverse. If you
succeed, the next one is easier. If you fail it is important to show you aren’t
“untrustworthy” and will try harder to succeed.
And so, step by step, you descend into scoundrel hood. No one sets out
to do this.
Michael
Cohen never in his wildest imagination thought that the events of the 27th
of February would have occurred; he never dreamed as he went to the office for
10 years, knowing that each day he would lie to keep Donald Trump’s approval
and consequently wind up headed for the penitentiary. He knew, as he called
more than 500 people to threaten them, that if he failed, he was in danger of
being put outside the Inner Ring.
What is most
intriguing, and baffling is that moral truth of The Lewis lecture is not new
and we as humans continue to ignore it.
The story is as old as the story of the fall of Jericho. Judeo-Christian
history tells us that God told the Israelites, thousands of years ago, that He
would deliver Jericho into their Hands.
One caveat that He gave was that no one should take any of the booty of
war for himself.
Jericho was
a total success. The walls fell
down. But one man, Achan, disobeyed and
took some of the spoils of war. He put
them under the floor of his tent.
A few days
later God told the Israelites to go against the city of Ai. To their surprise
they got whipped by the men of Ai.
Joshua, the Israelite leader, asked God why they had been defeated. God
said, ”Someone in the camp has sinned.”
Joshua lined everybody up and found the guilty party. Achan was identified as the offender and he
and his family were stoned to death and all his wealth was burned.
The next
time the Israelites went against Ai they won decisively.
The message
in my Sunday School was be sure, “Your sin will find you out.” No scoundrel
expects to be discovered. As each
escapade goes unpunished the next one is easier. One can only wonder how the
Trump family views the future. Will
Mueller or the Southern District Court of New York find the political booty
under the tent ? Will the Judiciary or Oversight or Ways and Means or the
Intelligence Committees find the Emoluments under the tent?
