Where Have All Our Leaders Gone?
21 October 2007 12:11 am by Taylor Marsh
Speaker Pelosi Hands Republicans One of Our Own
The video above features David Crosby, Graham Nash and Jackson Browne performing at the National Cathedral last week, with Rep. John Hall standing in with them as well. Afterwards there was a prayer
for peace. The priest should have added a prayer for our feckless political “leadership.”
The performances last week were a cry into a void. The Iraq war needs
to end, but we have few men and women of courage today in Congress willing to
walk whatever plank they have to in order to make it happen. Then when one Democrat stands up and gets emotional about the mess we’re in what do our political leaders do? They target Rep. Pete Stark. It’s the MoveOn.org ad nonsense all over again, only with a political face. So naturally Speaker Pelosi felt the need to show her righteous indignation.
“While members of Congress are passionate about their views, what Congressman Stark said during the debate was inappropriate and distracted from the seriousness of the subject at hand – providing health care for America’s children,” Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said.
Ms. Pelosi evidently needs some schooling on how this is done, so I give you Rep. Barbara Lee.
“The Republicans are desperate to change the subject from the real issue at hand, which is an occupation that has cost us almost a half a trillion dollars, and there’s no end in sight,” she said. “That’s the real issue here, and the Republicans, and the president, are desperate to avoid it.”
This is the reason you have artist old timers from the Vietnam era stepping up and singing out. Democratic “leaders” just don’t know how to get the job done and when new artists stand up, like the Dixie Chicks, they get their careers almost handed to them. But people can’t push back against Springsteen, Crosby, Nash and Browne, because they’re lengends, lions, not chicks.
This is serious, because Democrats are now handing Republicans our own. Pete Stark was enraged after the S-CHIP vote. He’s enraged about the war. Democrats need to have his back and that includes the Speaker of the House. Shame on Nancy Pelosi for not being smarter on this one. As someone who has supported her unflinchingly, I am disgusted with her quick response to hand Republicans exactly what they want: a Democratic scapegoat that allows them to once again change the subject. Well done, Speaker.
When was the last time you heard a Senate Democrat stand up and make a speech
for getting out of Iraq that moved you… which was then followed by another and another that was taken to the media and continued as a campaign? When did you last see political action in the Senate that gave you hope they were going to start a campaign that moved people, if not Republicans, on the war and demonstrated their passion if not their effectiveness? When was the last display of energy to use our
majority, however small, to at least send a message that the Iraq war must end and Democrats are with the people? Where is the public pressure on Republicans? Days and weeks and months go by with absolutely nothing done by Reid, Pelosi and the Democrats to get people riled up against what is conveniently called the obstructionist Republicans, but is actually just cover for the Democratic leadership’s own ineptitude to force Republicans to filibuster so that Democrats don’t get the blame for their dithering. Where’s the outrage as the carnage mounts? Where’s the public pr campaign to end the war in lieu of having the votes to do it? We understand the slim majority, but what we cannot swallow is the lack of urgency we’re witnessing day in and day out, which hides that the 110th Democratic Congress is actually passionate about ending the war and ending the continual Republican chest thumping.
Anti war music and a prayer are welcome inspiration at a time of deep demoralization because of Democratic inaction. But congressional Democrats getting
off their collective political posterior is the only thing that will change our reality.
How many more have to die before Senate Majority Leader Reid actually leads Democrats in a campaign protest that lasts more than a news cycle and makes headlines; that speaks to the public’s outrage on the war, in lieu of having the votes to actually end it? I’m not holding my breath. There’s no passion or purpose in Congress anymore. Because when someone like Pete Stark shows emotion and passion, everyone jumps on him for not being civil. Civil? We’re long past time for civil.
It’s about more than just voting to help sick kids, or to end the war. Where’s the public campaign to ostracize the Republicans? Vietnam era rock stars coming out to do the job for Congress shows the desperation people are feeling and the fecklessness of the 110th Congress. The current crop of politicians don’t have the heart, the stomach or the will to do anything that isn’t polite. When one lone voice stands up and screams out he gets smacked, then handed to Republicans so they can do it officially; whether we’re talking Pelosi and Pete Stark, or Harry Reid and Chris Dodd’s telecom hold. This is our Democratic “leadership” in action.
