Letters to the Editor
Ijon Tichy
Published Letters: 452 Editor's Choice: 69
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First order of business
[Read the article: A party today, then the work ahead]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi need to do something Bush has never done with the American people. They need to sit him and the GOP leadership down and lay it all out.
Yes, the Democratic Congress is divided. It is divided between those calling for investigations into this administration dating back to 2001, and the centrists, like Nancy and Harry, who are not interested in getting bogged down in investigations that could hurt the country and the war effort, but are only interested in passing their modest agenda of raising the minimum wage, fixing the drug bill, immigration reform, and readjusting the tax laws to shift the burden back, and more fairly, to the upper brackets.
Harry and Nancy need to explain to Bush and Co., that there is a small, but very vocal minority of Dems who want theose investigations to begin yesterday. They need to emphasize that, as long as the moderate centrists can get their agenda on the table, discussed and passed with 'reasonable' compromise, they can keep the radicals at bay. But if the GOP minority and Bush try to stonewall, block or otherwise undermine their efforts, the moderates, including Harry and Nancy, won't be able to hold the more radical elements back. Subpoenas will inevitably start flying and investigations will begin in earnest, probably starting with finding out what really went on with Cheney's Energy Policy meeting; and lets not even talk about umm... 9/11.
Harry and Nancy should then clasp hands together, lean closer to Dubya and who ever replaces the current GOP leaders, and, like tough love parents or the "good cop," ask:
"So what's it going to be? Do you bite the bullet and work with us to pass our reasonable and modest agenda, or do we spend the next two years holding televised hearings uncovering every rock you've hidden your reckless, corrupt and probably indictable activity under?"
Maybe not in those words, but that is the message I would like our new Democratic leadership to be sending.
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Gates revisited
[Read the article: Rumsfeld, revisited]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Overheard on the Diane Rehm show. (paraphrased)
It is a bit disturbing that days after Daniel Ortega regains leadership of Nicaragua, the new Secretary of Defense is a man instrumental in running guns to the Contras.
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Carville
[Read the article: The chairman can't win for winning]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I like Carville, but then I like NOLA. (support rebuilding, buy a shirt or book). I thought he did a great job getting Clinton elected president when other advisors might have pushed him onto Dave Lettermen reading the top ten list of why bimbo explosions are funny. Instead he was an attack dog. I saw him give a speech in Houston in 1996, the heart of anti-Clintonism. His favorite line was "Driving down River Oaks Blvd. I felt like a fire hydrant rolling through a pack of overwatered dogs."
But unlike Rove, Carville didn't become the "brain" of the Dem party. Maybe he just rubbed people the wrong way. More likely, he was more dedicated to the fight than the idea. He married his female GOP foil and took to the talk shows to do battle with his conservative opposition. He wasn't Don Quixote, more brave Sir Robin taking on the killer bunny. And yes, he positively looks like he's skin on a skull with a strange color that reminds me of one of those outworld Jedi in prequal Star Wars movies. Yes, the ones who missed the rise of the evil empire.
Carville should know better. The south was not long ago Democratic and they have long memories, particularly of the War of Northern Aggression. Nixon and people like Rove exploited the Dem's move to liberalism to pursue a Southern Strategy designed to appeal to the racist populism the post construction and Dixie Democrats were known for.
Time has passed. The racism is fading faster than a Bourbon Street woman's virtues on a Mardi Gras night. Well, maybe not that fast, but faster than one's memory of what happened the following morning. The populism is still their and quite vibrant. For reasons I, a former Texan, now a Vermonter have not quite figured out yet, Dean understood this.
Go back to tapes of the Dem debates of 2004, remember his comment of bringing back the ones with Confederate Flags on their cars? Ok, he's a Vermonter. He should have said, "Bring back those with the Number 3 sticker on their cars." But he knew what he was onto. Get back to our populist roots while applying the common centrist sense of a party that answers to and serves those who work and toil.
The latest tea leaves today say Karl Rove's "Get out the Base" strategy backfired. The base got out, but a large number of them pulled the lever for Democrats. They would not have done that had Howard Dean not worked these past two years giving them a populast roots oriented candidate, and a small sack of seed money, to provide these people an alternative.
Bush was right. The margin of victory was slim. Everywhere. For this thank Howard Dean.
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All about the Joe
[Read the article: Lieberman won't rule out switching parties]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sen. Joe must have the same agent as T.O.
How grateful, after the Democratic leaders first campaigned for him in the primary,and then, just for "Mr. it's all about pious little me", tossed Lamont under the bus, giving by him no endorsements or support.
This is the type of thanks one should always expect from the self centered. The Dem leadership should have known better.
This is also a perfect example of the hypocrisy of those who seek power by waving their "religious piety" for all to see. George Bush and Joe Lieberman, this century's greatest examples of why politics and religion do not mix since Torquemada.