Claire McCaveSkill is my senator. I voted for her. That will be the only time I do so after her sickly cynical vote for telecom Immunity and the gutting of FISA. She demonstrated the exact same vague, mealy-mouthed talent on Maddow that she did with me when I wrote to grill her about her cave on FISA. No matter what else she is, she is first and foremost a political opportunist and first Class ObamaKisser of the highest order.

One of her comments in the Maddow interview related to her work in uncovering fraud, waste, and misappropriation of funds in the reconstruction of Iraq. According to her and her website, McCaveSkill has done a lot to uncover this waste of 10s of billions of taxpayer dollars. As a former State Auditor, "she took her fiscal hat to Washington" with her. She's done some "tough" questioning of officials on capitol hill.

Wow. Awesome. Great work, Claire. So. Freaking. What.

Where are the arrests? Where are the indictments? Where are the court decisions ordering jail sentences, criminal fines, and the seizure of assets from companies who've fleeced your constituents and the US Gov't? Where are the high profile names being brought into the light for their cheating and thievery? If people far less powerful than you can catch Bernie Madoff, why can't you catch even ONE big name government bilker?

Ahh, yes, the wheels of justice and change turn slow, eh, Claire?

Yeah, results. That's what you're all about. You're all about "GETTING THINGS DONE" for the people of Missouri and the US.

Do you really expect us to believe that in TWO FULL YEARS you, as a powerful and influential US Senator, cannot get ANY tangible results for the blatant financial crimes being committed against us to the tune of many 10s of billions of dollars? It's one of your signature causes. And yet....crickets. Nothing. Even though report after report after report from the GAO for years before and since you took office clearly, and without ANY equivocation, and WITH plenty of usable evidence, demonstrates the fleecing of our Treasury by these defense contractors, you still can't even squeeze a single big-name conviction or arrest out of anything anywhere? Is our gov't so completely corrupt that no one will help you? Or is it the case that no one wants to risk their cushy job, their circle of influence, or those juicy campaign donations that keep rolling in from Blackwater, KBR, Halliburton, General Dynamics, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grummon, and the like.

Perhaps it is time we just start exposing these thieves ourselves and putting them out there in the media for the bloggers to deal with. Sure as hell isn't going to come from the halls of power, no matter how much "success" the McCaveSkills of the world tout on their websites and in their MSM interviews.

Even if Claire McCaveSkill isn't a total tool (I mean, heck, she at least says a lot of the right things when not voting against her constituents and the Constitution), it clearly shows the system is irretrievably broken, and it is up to the blogging community to expose them and demand our money back. Surely Congress and the MSM are NOT going to serve in that role, not effectively, and certainly not willingly.

End rant. Have a splendid day.

To call that interview of Senator McCaskill by Rachel Maddow "aggresive" is overly generous. I watched the video thinking it'll be nice to see a U.S. journalist/talking head actually challenge a political figure trying to spew the typical talking points. Instead, I saw an interview that could've been done by any of the mainstream media. McCaskill didn't answer a single question and wasn't challenged once!

I kinda felt the same way after watching the video, but I think two points are worth making:

1) No one else in the MSM comes close to consistently criticizing lawmakers and asking the right questions that should be openly debated, and

2) When you answer to a boss, it changes a LOT of what you can and cannot do.

I'm not defending Maddow, nor really criticizing her. But when her ratings get to the level of Olbermann's on a consistent basis, she'll likely have more leeway to do things her way instead of the way designated by those behind the cameras and one floor up.

Just reality. Gotta take what you can get, until you're very integral to the operation, then you can take more.