- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
One way of reading Obama's reconciliation with Lieberman and quick meeting with McCain is that the era of the permanent campaign is over. Government will be run as it should, not as an extension of the political party that is in power.
About accountability - while it is true that the Republicans now have a majority nearly nowhere, and almost every county in the country voted more Democratic than it did in 2004, nevertheless they got 40+% of the vote for the most unattractive ticket - McCain/Palin - that I can think of. This group of people have no doubt a very different view from us of whether Bush & Co have anything to be accountable for.
That is the second read I take from Obama-Lieberman: namely, if Obama establishes in people's minds that he is not vindictive, politically speaking, then that opens up the political space for him to do some real accountability without tearing the country apart in a new political war.
The government is so degraded that the new one must be seen as doing its constitutional duties and not engaging in perpetual campaign politics before it can hold the previous one accountable.
I know her-ur and co are going to scoff at this. But there is wisdom in what Rep. Rush Holt said an year and some ago - that while Bush is impeachable, it cannot be done as long as it is seen as coming from the Democrats - impeachment has to be by the people, not by the party. Otherwise the damage will rival that of the original problem.
