This letter is associated with the following article:
Letters
Friday, July 18, 2008 12:00 AM

Bob Barr endorses Accountability Now/Strange Bedfellows coalition

The widespread agreement between important factions of citizens on the Left and Right illustrates important facts about how our political establishment operates

Read other letters about this article

  • Saturday, July 19, 2008 06:08 AM

    DLC Chief Harold Ford at Netroots

    This perfectly illustrates Democratic leadership's position regarding accountability:

    Later Ford was quizzed on why he would support granting telecommunication companies immunity for their participation in the FISA program. His response - that it wasn't the companies who should be held to a fault but rather the public officials who ordered their participation - was challenged by several different questioners, who demanded "accountability" for privacy violations.

    "I think that accountability was brought in 2006 when [the GOP] lost in the House and the Senate," Ford responded said. "And we have only eight more months of George W. Bush..."

    "When is he going to prison!" screamed an audience member to a few claps.

    I think this is it, in crystalized form. "Accountability" equals loss of majority for ones party. Majority--power--is all that matters. "Law" comes in a distant second, if it is considered at all.

    Ford proudly terms himself a "centrist" in the Democratic Party, but this position is radically un-democratic, and when viewed logically, is every bit as bad as the logic of Rove, Yoo, or Addington. It is anathema to a truly functioning democratic government.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/18/harold-ford-heckled-over_n_113663.html

Most Active Letters Threads

508

Everybody hates mommy

We're "stroller Nazis." We're whiny "breeders." Why is there so much contempt for mothers these days?
374

Rule-of-law extremism engulfs primitive Eastern Europe

Why would the new President of Lithuania demand investigations of CIA black sites in her country?
292

The extreme secrecy of the federal courts

Judges are not only permitted, but required, to conceal anything the government declares to be secret.
94

Explaining ClimateGate: A history of distrust

Asking researchers to delete e-mails after receiving an FOI request is never a good idea. So why did it happen?
80

"Sons of Anarchy": Badass or just bad?

FX's biker drama makes heroes out of swaggering, hard-living thugs, but don't ride into the sunset with this bunch

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon