Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
U.S. Republican Congressman Devin Nunes is chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Nunes is also a member of President Trump’s transition team.
This latter point is of some importance to Nunes because he had received information that, “The intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition.”
Nunes announced that information at a press conference and then left to brief the president on these latest developments.
The Sunday morning talk shows were all atwitter over whether or not Congressman Nunes had damaged his credibility when he told the president about this information prior to informing his colleagues on the Intelligence Committee. The question then became one of not who authorized electronic surveillance on the president-elect’s transition team, but rather did Congressman Nunes destroy his credibility?
There is a disconnect between television viewers and television reporters. Reporters don’t seem to understand that Americans give Congress a favorability rating of approximately 10 percent, which doesn’t seem like a lot of credibility.
What follows is a short lesson on how to gain and keep credibility.
The U.S. Marine Corps is in the midst of a major scandal that has to do with nude pictures of former and current female Marines someone posted on a private Facebook group. There are a number of theories of how these photos got posted and some believe they were revenge for lovers’ quarrels or something similar.
The problem appears to be widespread and may slop over into the other services. The military is investigating the allegations.
New York Democrat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand demanded that Congress look into the accusations, which resulted in the Senate Armed Services Committee holding hearings. Gen. Robert B. Neller currently is the commandant of the Marine Corps and was called to testify.
Sen. Gillibrand castigated Neller for his “unsatisfactory” testimony and demanded to know if anything had been done to hold individuals accountable for these actions against women. “Have you actually investigated and found anyone guilty? Who are the commanders responsible for this?”
Gen. Neller, commissioned in May of 1975, a veteran of more than 40 years of Marine Corps service answered, “I’m responsible, I’m the commandant, I own this.” That’s credibility, not to mention honesty and integrity.
The film clip is only 2 minutes, 39 seconds long. Google, “Gillibrand, Marine Corps Scandal” or something similar and you should find it.
Notice he doesn’t say, “What difference, at this time, does it make?”
Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at: