"Well, it's not a pleasant experience. And it's a terribly political process, because that thing was initiated by the Congress and by, you know, our adversaries in the Congress"
About this Quote
The language here is doing damage control in real time: “not a pleasant experience” is understatement deployed as armor. Bruce Babbitt isn’t dramatizing his own hardship so much as shrinking it to something almost administrative, a way to appear steady and reasonable while the surrounding machinery grinds loudly. The phrase “terribly political process” pretends to state the obvious, but it’s also an accusation: this isn’t accountability, it’s theater.
The key move is the pivot from passive discomfort to active blame. “That thing” is a classic evasive placeholder, a refusal to dignify the proceeding with a precise label. It signals contempt without saying so outright, letting listeners fill in “investigation,” “impeachment,” or “inquiry” with whatever cynicism they already carry. Then comes the real frame: “initiated by the Congress” and, more pointedly, “our adversaries in the Congress.” Babbitt is drawing a bright line between governance and faction, recasting a formal constitutional act as partisan warfare. He’s asking the public to read institutional process as opposition research with a gavel.
The verbal tics matter, too: “you know” performs conversational candor, as if the political motive is self-evident to any reasonable person. That stance invites solidarity: if you’re in on the joke, you’re on his side. In context, the quote tries to launder a high-stakes confrontation into a familiar Washington script - not about truth, but about who’s using power against whom.
The key move is the pivot from passive discomfort to active blame. “That thing” is a classic evasive placeholder, a refusal to dignify the proceeding with a precise label. It signals contempt without saying so outright, letting listeners fill in “investigation,” “impeachment,” or “inquiry” with whatever cynicism they already carry. Then comes the real frame: “initiated by the Congress” and, more pointedly, “our adversaries in the Congress.” Babbitt is drawing a bright line between governance and faction, recasting a formal constitutional act as partisan warfare. He’s asking the public to read institutional process as opposition research with a gavel.
The verbal tics matter, too: “you know” performs conversational candor, as if the political motive is self-evident to any reasonable person. That stance invites solidarity: if you’re in on the joke, you’re on his side. In context, the quote tries to launder a high-stakes confrontation into a familiar Washington script - not about truth, but about who’s using power against whom.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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