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You are here: Home / The Fall Guy

The Fall Guy

by John Cole|  January 17, 20089:30 am| 31 Comments

This post is in: Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.

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Were you all unaware that origin of the phrase “the fall guy” is unknown? Wikipedia:

The origin of fall guy is currently unknown. Many sources (see below) place the origin at the early 20th century, and some claim it is of even earlier origin. As such the origins of the term is in a state of open contention.

I had always assumed that it took its origin from hangings, when “taking the fall” really meant something. I got curious and decided to look it up after having read this:

The former Central Intelligence Agency official who authorized the destruction in 2005 of videotapes documenting harsh interrogation of detainees from Al Qaeda gave the order despite apparently being directed to preserve the tapes, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday.

Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, said Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., head of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service at the time, had not “gotten authority from anyone” to destroy the tapes.

“Matter of fact, it appears that he got direction to make sure the tapes were not destroyed,” he said.

Mr. Hoekstra spoke after hearing testimony from John A. Rizzo, the C.I.A.’s top lawyer, who addressed the committee on Wednesday during a closed session lasting nearly four hours.

There will be a concerted and coordinated effort to compartmentalize this over the next few months, to keep this away from the administration, and they will try to pin this all on Rodriguez. Administration sycophants like Peter Hoekstra will lead the way, and has clearly already shown his willingness to do so. It is up to us to not let them get away with it. I honestly think that the health of the Republic requires accountability for the recklessness and willful disregard of the law that we have witnessed the past few years.

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Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    Dug Jay

    January 17, 2008 at 9:37 am

    Exactly where is your “evidence” that the facts are other than as noted by House Intelligence Committee member Hoekstra? This language of yours sounds a lot like the kind of overheated and virtually substance-free nonsense that idiots and discredited hacks like Scott Horton write about all the time.

  2. 2.

    peach flavored shampoo

    January 17, 2008 at 9:39 am

    Of vastly greater importance (IMO), but similar, is how the WH is now claiming they re-used email backup tapes to erase the old stuff. What’s the funtional difference between cutting out 17 minutes (Nixon) of a tape and simply destroying (rewriting) one?

    Both cases, destruction of possible valuable evidence of crime(s). How they can be so blatant is simply amazing.

  3. 3.

    Ugh

    January 17, 2008 at 9:39 am

    . . . hangings . . . I honestly think that the health of the Republic requires accountability for the recklessness and willful disregard of the law that we have witnessed the past few years.

    Noted without further comment.

  4. 4.

    4tehlulz

    January 17, 2008 at 9:41 am

    How they can be so blatant is simply amazing.

    They know that the Senate Republicans will mindlessly block conviction for their crimes; it’s what makes impeachment so pointless.

  5. 5.

    borehole

    January 17, 2008 at 9:41 am

    Great TV moments: Roy Rogers guest-starring on “The Fall Guy.” The villains were cattle-rustlers (or something outdoorsy), and when they saw this frail, elderly man riding up on horseback, the leader exclaimed “it’s Roy Rogers!” And then they fled.

    Maybe they thought osteoperosis was communicable, I dunno.

  6. 6.

    Cassidy

    January 17, 2008 at 9:44 am

    It is up to us to not let them get away with it.

    “To the BJ Car, Blog Boy.”

    “Holy gee whiz Hot-Air man…can we stop them?”

  7. 7.

    cleek

    January 17, 2008 at 9:46 am

    nah guhn hapn

  8. 8.

    Zifnab

    January 17, 2008 at 9:50 am

    Both cases, destruction of possible valuable evidence of crime(s). How they can be so blatant is simply amazing.

    Because they know they’ll never get caught. It’s like checking on your taxes when you run the IRS. Who’s gonna stop you?

    Bush owns the Justice Department. Congressional subpoena power is now offically a laugh line. And even if someone could categorically provide beyond a reasonable doubt tangible evidence incriminating the entire WH staff, who’s going to do something about it? Impeachment is off the table – perhaps the biggest mistake Pelosi could have made. Whatchagonna do? Arrest the President? With what army? Bush will throw the entire Democratic Party in the pokey before any elected rep does more than write a disapproving letter.

  9. 9.

    Jay

    January 17, 2008 at 9:50 am

    More great TV Moments: The Best Of The Fall Guy

    They just now, this year, came out with a stock pick-up with those cargo bays inside the bed walls like The Fall Guy’s truck. A good idea thats taken over twenty years to implement – no, Mitt, those jobs won’t be coming back.

  10. 10.

    Zifnab

    January 17, 2008 at 9:50 am

    Cheating on your taxes. It’s like cheating on your taxes.

    FAIL!

  11. 11.

    Jay

    January 17, 2008 at 9:52 am

    Oh, and I miss those 80’s pleated bikinis with the built-in camel toe.

  12. 12.

    Wilfred

    January 17, 2008 at 9:54 am

    I think the term comes from 19th century music hall comedy and/or vaudeville, where the ‘clown’ in a comedy act was expected to take pratfalls, Chaplin, Keaton, et al., for example.

    I honestly think that the health of the Republic requires accountability for the recklessness and willful disregard of the law that we have witnessed the past few years.

    In the current comedy act known as Homeland, that would make you the pathetically naive asshole.

  13. 13.

    myiq2xu

    January 17, 2008 at 10:04 am

    They know that the Senate Republicans will mindlessly block conviction for their crimes; it’s what makes impeachment so pointless.

    When they started the Watergate hearings many people had the same attitude.

    But when they started dragging it all out in the open, attitudes changed, and before the House voted on articles of impeachment, GOP congressional leaders told Nixon it was time to go, and he went.

    We need investigations to lance the boil and let the pus run out, so that the healing can begin.

  14. 14.

    Cyrus

    January 17, 2008 at 10:10 am

    Agency officers began taping detainees in April 2002 and stopped the videotaping by the end of that year out of concern the tapes could leak and put C.I.A. operatives at physical and legal risk.

    “… legal risk” is the closest thing I could find in the article to suggesting that, you know, torture isn’t good.

  15. 15.

    The Other Steve

    January 17, 2008 at 10:40 am

    Look, they had to destroy the tapes to protect the secrecy of the CIA agents involved in this. Had those tapes gotten out into the public, not only would the Libyan govt have been after these guys, but so to would the DOJ and ACLU!

  16. 16.

    The Other Steve

    January 17, 2008 at 10:41 am

    Exactly where is your “evidence” that the facts are other than as noted by House Intelligence Committee member Hoekstra? This language of yours sounds a lot like the kind of overheated and virtually substance-free nonsense that idiots and discredited hacks like Scott Horton write about all the time.

    Q: How do you know a Congressman is lying?

    A: His lips are moving.

  17. 17.

    Timb

    January 17, 2008 at 10:55 am

    Don’t worry the media, disinterested in the administration, and the Republican party and its bloggers and radio hosts, will discover accountability, on about January 22nd of 2009

  18. 18.

    Otto Man

    January 17, 2008 at 10:58 am

    Really? I’d always assumed it referred to Albert Fall, the Secretary of the Interior who was responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal in the Harding administration. He became the first cabinet member in American history ever to go to prison, while others in the administration — notably crooked Attorney General Harry Daughtery — escaped jail time.

    So “Fall guy” is the one who takes the blame as others get off scott free.

  19. 19.

    bdr

    January 17, 2008 at 11:04 am

    Um, what does the senior Democrat on the committee have to say about what Hoekstra said?

    Exactly.

  20. 20.

    Jake

    January 17, 2008 at 11:06 am

    I honestly think that the health of the Republic requires accountability for the recklessness and willful disregard of the law that we have witnessed the past few years.

    What’s that? Enforcement of laws designed to prevent our leaders committing the sorts of abuses that caused a revolution?

    How quaint.

  21. 21.

    STEVEinSC

    January 17, 2008 at 11:13 am

    Exactly where is your “evidence” that the facts are other than as noted by House Intelligence Committee member Hoekstra?

    Wherever would we get the idea that there might be higher-ups involved in destruction of evidence, obstruction of justice, lies and spin from this administration? Let me count the ways. Do we really need to provide the links or will you just climb back on the metaphorical turnip truck before we try (and probably fail) to properly embed the links to Patrick Fitzgerald and the Libby court record?

  22. 22.

    UnkyT

    January 17, 2008 at 11:16 am

    I honestly think that the health of the Republic requires accountability for the recklessness and willful disregard of the law that we have witnessed the past few years

    If this is the case, then I think the Republic is coming down with a serious case of pneumonia. There are too few in Congress and the general public who legitimately give a shit to hold anybody even remotely accountable.

  23. 23.

    4tehlulz

    January 17, 2008 at 11:17 am

    When they started the Watergate hearings many people had the same attitude.

    I’m sorry, but there are no Howard Bakers in the GOP anymore. People like Lindsay Graham or John McCain make noise about being independent of the president and putting the country first, but in the end, they’ll don the kneepads and service him.

  24. 24.

    Ed Drone

    January 17, 2008 at 11:27 am

    Q: How do you know a Congressman is lying?

    A: His lips are moving.

    OR he has a pen in his hand or a keyboard in front of him. You don’t have to speak to lie anymore.

    Lying — it’s what’s for dinner!

    Ed

  25. 25.

    Zifnab

    January 17, 2008 at 11:34 am

    Q: How do you know a Congressman is lying?

    A: His lips are moving.

    OR he has a pen in his hand or a keyboard in front of him. You don’t have to speak to lie anymore.

    If he has a pen in his hand, he’s stealing. If he’s got a keyboard in front of him, he’s verbally molesting congressional pages over the internet. Get your facts straight.

  26. 26.

    Jake

    January 17, 2008 at 11:43 am

    If this is the case, then I think the Republic is coming down with a serious case of pneumonia ^Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

    Fixed.

  27. 27.

    Tisse

    January 17, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    According to the Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (second ed)…

    The first fall guys were professional wrestlers. Until the early decades of the last century, wrestling was a reputable sport and its champions were as highly esteemed as champions in boxing and other professional sports. But then rigging of matches became so widespread that the participants were lampooned in the public prints as “grunts-and-groaners,” and various state courts decreed that the shows could no longer be called “contests” but must be labeled “exhibitions.” And the fall guy, of course, was the chump who was rigged in advance to take the fall and make the “champ” look good.

  28. 28.

    Sirkowski

    January 17, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    “Oh, and by the way, don’t destroy these tapes. WINK! WINK! Know what I mean? NUDGE! NUDGE! DON’T DESTROY THESE TAPES WE DON’T WANT ANYONE TO SEE. Cuz that would be illegal, so I wouldn’t tell you to PLEASE DESTROY THESE TAPES!“

  29. 29.

    Sarcastro

    January 17, 2008 at 3:50 pm

    “Fall Guy” is first attested in 1906. It’s origins are, indeed, unknown but a possible clue is that in late 19th century slang “to fall” simply meant “to be arrested”. The wrestling etymology is very common but there is no more to back that up than there is for the folk etymologies of the phrase referring to the Roman practice of falling on one’s sword, Lucifer’s fall from paradise or Adam’s ejection from Eden.

  30. 30.

    Johnny Pez

    January 17, 2008 at 4:36 pm

    I honestly think that the health of the Republic requires accountability for the recklessness and willful disregard of the law that we have witnessed the past few years

    Too late. The Republic is dead, has been for about seven years now. The only thing left to decide is who gets to animate the corpse.

  31. 31.

    Xenos

    January 17, 2008 at 8:00 pm

    Um, what does the senior Democrat on the committee have to say about what Hoekstra said?

    Nothing, because the testimony was classified and presented in a closed session. If a Democrat talks, it is treason, yada yada yada, and the DOJ may start an investigation. If Hoekstra talks about it, then… Nothing, right?

    It is a rigged game, and the Democratic leadership has decided, I think, that the only way to win it is to not play. If the GOP succeeds in stealing the next election, then after-the-fact prosecutions will not happen, and so this would have been a bad strategy. But if that happens, the republic is lost in any case.

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