Over at HuffingtonPost.com, Arianna Huffington asks "What one question would you have me ask Speaker of the House [i.e. the leader of Congress] Nancy Pelosi when I talk to her Monday night?"
The Number one question, bar none, is "WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?"
Republicans can create vast amounts of outrage in an instant - on wholly trivial 'issues' such as "Lincoln bedroom 'scandal'" and "White House Trashing 'scandal,'" or turn molehills into mountains (Whitewater, Foster suicide, Cisneros prosecution)...
And, conversely, Republicans can take entire mountains of genuine scandals, and turn them into puffs of dust, as with Iran-Contra, Iraq-gate/BCCI, swiped elections 2000, 2002, 2004, and even 2006 (Florida's 13th Congressional District recorded 18,000 "undervotes," seating a Republican in Katherine Harris' old seat), Dereliction-of-Duty leading up to 9-11, and of course vast corruption in Iraq war contracts or the systematic lies-to-war themselves.
Ms. Pelosi seems to think that merely going through the motions - routine, ineffectual (legislative) protests against the Bush-GOP agenda - is fulfilling her leadership compact with voters and the constitutional responsibilities vested through her in the Congress. Robert Parry has posted on-line the first chapter of his Secrecy & Privilege" book, illustrating how in 2001 President Clinton helped quash on-going criminal investigations into the Reagan-Bush administration abuses of power.
http://consortiumnews.com/2007/100307.html
Clearly, President Clinton hoped Republicans would reciprocate with bipartisan comity. A more cynical view is that Clinton was willing to forgive Republican crimes, if it would boost his power and privilege in the White House.
Is Nancy Pelosi following in Clinton's misbegotten steps? When will Democrats finally CONFRONT the Right-Wing smear, attack, slime, and Swift-boat machine, and put the liberal-progressive agenda of the past 200 years - hard-fought progress always towards greater enfranchisement, civil liberties, and economic empowerment - BACK on the MORAL HIGH GROUND? Will Democrats continue to beg us for money every election season, then hand over a great proportion of that money (to buy prime-time campaign ads) to the very media barons whose policies and editorial agenda we so vehemently oppose? Or will Ms. Pelosi continue to allow the Media thugs to portray all Katrina victims as criminals ("untermensch", even), justifying billions of dollars of crony contracts to Blackwater, Halliburton, and other connected corporations, even as New Orleans residents must pay mortgages on homes they are not even allowed to rebuild?
(Note: We realize how tough it is for the Democrats to confront the business and theological wings of the Radical Right Republican Party: in "whack-a-mole" fashion, any Democrat who tries to stand up to the abuses of the Right-Wing theocrats - whether the Vatican influencing American elections on abortion, the Protestants Kennedy/Falwells/Robertsons/Bob Jones U advocating Christian evangelism in public schools and the US military, or the AIPAC lobby taking billions of dollars of US donations to Israel and directing it right back into influencing American politics - will be "WHACKED" (defeated) by the faithful of those religions should that Congressman/woman publicly oppose those sacred cow issues. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN that we Americans no longer have a right to oppose that radical-right, theological agenda that is the cornerstone of the Big Business wing of the Republican Party connecting with enough voters to win elections.)
