After considering how best to communicate my deep concerns to you, I decided that a faxed letter would be better than an email (which would only prompt a formulaic reply, yet require me to submit a fixed "topic"), or a mailed letter which would probably be delayed far too long in some sort of security check. Because the issues I want to raise are urgent, my letter really cannot wait that long.

First, why is it that Senator Dodd appears to be so alone in his battle to restore the Constitution. Perhaps he has more support behind the scenes, but to those of us observing from outside the beltway, the support seems pretty thin. I grant that he has made some news for his efforts very recently, but I've been watching his campaign for much longer, since my own "litmus test" for the best candidate in the presidential field has, from the beginning, been who would commit himself or herself to rolling back George Bush's constitutional abuses as the highest priority. And so far, only Dodd's campaign fits that description, and I must say that it's puzzling, since the issues he's raising are (unbelievably, we must all agree) issues that should be paramount to any elected official, i.e., no-brainers.

Of course, there are dynamic reasons that the other candidates might have for not wishing to help Senator Dodd in his campaign, but that should not be true for those of you who are not running now, or at least are not running for the same office. Ultimately, it is not only Senator Dodd who deserves more support from you and your colleagues, but also we, your constituents and the constituents of your colleagues, who expect that you would make supporting his efforts a higher priority.

Second, if only there were a way to communicate effectively to our elected officials exactly how frustrated we are, i.e. we, The People... the 70% or more of us who are opposed to the occupation of Iraq, to the use of torture, to warrantless spying on Americans, etc., etc. That method of communication could be patented to make someone a fortune, or else sold like war bonds to completely eliminate our national debt. The situation is that serious. Surely, we thought, as we watched the returns last November, there will have to be some changes made. Surely, we would finally see our members in congress hold George Bush's feet to the fire for a change. Surely, there would be a change of direction, even if not speedily or on a dime. At the very minimum, we expected Congress to put the brakes on George Bush, not to continue to enable his every whim, or try to accommodate him every time he had a temper tantrum.

Instead, we are sorely disappointed. In George Bush, first and last, because he continues to be so bull-headed and inflexible, but also in the GOP for continuing to enable him, blind (if not stupid), to the effects that such enabling must have on their own political fortunes, and also in the Democrats, for continuing to act as if they have some sort of group version of PTSD. We are not unsympathetic to such trauma, but we expect our elected officials to be getting whatever treatment they need (using that wonderful health plan, at our expense), at the same time that they are going about our business. After all, that is what the rest of us are having to do.

We go about our daily business, in spite of the bloody evidence that greets us each morning and ends each day. The numbers of explosions, the politically disputed numbers of dead, wounded, civilians, militia members. We watch the NewsHour and witness its photos of our casualties. Online we find images of Iraqi casualties, primarily civilians, many of them children. We are baffled by the angels-on-a-pin arguments that involve the location of a wound as the determinant of civilian or insurgent as its source. Of course, if we had not started this conflagration there would be no need for such trivial discussions whose only purpose is to make the numbers look better. Is that, in fact, even possible?

Meanwhile, we watch every one of our criteria continue to shift-- along with Mr. Bush's goal posts-- as they alter the limits of our civil liberties, our reputation and standing in the world, even the slippery definitions of torture that, frankly, we had thought were already codified into law, much to our chagrin, but apparently are not quite... yet. If only we knew for sure. We watch the SCHIP go down, and wonder if it might have eventually passed if the Democratic leadership had only continued to send bills that represented our interests to Bush, regardless of his threats to veto them, knowing that even he could not win that PR battle indefinitely. Instead, we had to watch-- sideways, since our eyes were averted in embarrassment-- as our leadership folded, caved, and demurred, time and again.

Personally, I suspect that the Democratic leadership was not really prepared to lead this term, since very few pundits, even among the Democrats, were predicting that their party would take both houses of congress. But it's been a year now. Time to buck up and get a grip and start acting like the party in power. The Truth is that George Bush is not entitled to whatever he asks for, despite his lineage, SES, upbringing, and the enabling that he's become accustomed to as his due throughout his spoon-fed life. In fact, he is far overdue for a really, cold splash of Reality, that abstraction from which Karl Rove managed to protect him for so long, while suggesting that the administration would continue to write their own version, and the rest of us would be merely studying it. That time has long passed.

(balance to follow)