Not to make light of either the recent Senate Armed Senate Committee Hearing on the nomination of General George Casey to be appointed as Army Chief of Staff, nor of certain parts of the Catholic Rite of Renunciation of Sin and Profession of faith, yet, I couldn't help but find some similarities between the two.
The entire process seemed to be so formulaic, with so many prepared questions and so many prepared answers-as if no one wanted to be caught off-guard by the questions asked, or thrown off-guard by the answers given.
Senator Carl Levin, D. Michigan, began the questioning of General Casey by stating that there are a, "series of standard questions" which must be asked , thus he began his litany of standard questions, to wit-
"do you agree, if confirmed for this high position, to appear before this Committee and other Committee of Congress?
This was followed by Casey's answers,
"Yes."
Then General Casey was asked by Senator Levin,
"Do you agree, when asked, to give your personal views, even if those views differ from the Administration in power."
General Casey's reply was:
"Yes."
(Casey of course knew that he'd better give a, YES answer to that question if he wanted to even have a chance of being confirmed.
Next question standard question, asked by Senator Levin,
"Do you agree, if confirmed, to appear before this Committee, or designated members of this Committee, and provide information, subject to appropriate and necessary security protection, with respect to your responsibilities as the Chief of Staff, Army?"
In the light of so much hubris from the Bush Administration to go over the heads of Congress to do whatever the Administration wants, without regard to congressional oversight, this question, in particular, sounded like Senator Levin was inadvertently, in wanting to extract assurances from General Casey that he would follow protocol, setting him up as the point of least resistance between two opposing forces. You know that point in a rope which receives the most pull from two opposing forces and usually ends up going to one side or another...
One could also think of it as General Casey being the third leg of a triangle, with Bush and Congress being the other two, and with Levin wanting to ascertain from General Casey that he would not be pulled in by the Bush forces against the United States Congress.
Casey's answer to the question was, of course, the expected,
"Yes."
These questions formed a resounding echo in my head, so similar, i thought, to the questions asked of a child's godparents, by the priest, during the sacrament of baptism, and some times to the general congregation during certain parts of the Mass at Easter:
"Celebrant: Do you reject Satan, father of sin and price of darkness?"
Parents and godparents: "I do."
In my head this became akin to Senator Levin asking Casey, Do you promise to be good? Do you promise to keep the pecking order? Do you Promise that you will respect your duties to this Congress, this Oversight Committee and the Constitution of the United States even if you have to go against the rogue Bush Administration?
General Casey, knowing what is good for him, and wanting to be confirmed, answered, YES, to all of the question.
Teresa Simon-Noble is a computer activist for peace. She is a former mental health clinician. A poet and a freelance writer. Her work has been published in several online publications.
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