NANCY PELOSI-- THE LEADER... OF GOOD GERMANS

When?

It's tragic that Frank Rich's Good Germans column in today's NY Times should cause me to contemplate a couple of messages I got Friday from Nancy Pelosi. I mean I've been trying really hard to not turn my anger and frustration that the grotesquely criminal Bush Regime continues to run amuck towards Pelosi and the congressional Democrats. Every time I think of her saying that the only constitutional method we have to stop Bush now is something she has taken "off the table."

Frank doesn't mention Pelosi today. He's going deeper into the heart of darkness: us-- as a society, as a people, as a nation, as individuals with consciences who will one day stand before God-- or rot with the worms.

We can continue to blame the Bush administration for the horrors of Iraq-- and should. Paul Bremer, our post-invasion viceroy and the recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts, issued the order that allows contractors to elude Iraqi law, a folly second only to his disbanding of the Iraqi Army. But we must also examine our own responsibility for the hideous acts committed in our name in a war where we have now fought longer than we did in the one that put Verschärfte Vernehmung on the map.

I have always maintained that the American public was the least culpable of the players during the run-up to Iraq. The war was sold by a brilliant and fear-fueled White House propaganda campaign designed to stampede a nation still shellshocked by 9/11. Both Congress and the press-- the powerful institutions that should have provided the checks, balances and due diligence of the administration’s case-- failed to do their job. Had they done so, more Americans might have raised more objections. This perfect storm of democratic failure began at the top.

As the war has dragged on, it is hard to give Americans en masse a pass. We are too slow to notice, let alone protest, the calamities that have followed the original sin.

...Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those “good Germans” who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It’s up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war’s last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country’s good name.

Virtually nothing remains of our country's good name-- let's hope Hillary is up to the task of restoring it-- and I suppose Frank's polite reluctance to call out Pelosi by name is rooted in the same reticence I've had to just go a step further and endorse Cindy Sheehan's congressional race against her.

Friday an e-mail arrived in my box from Speaker Nancy Pelosi on behalf of the DCCC. The subject line was "Heartless" and it was meant to call my attention to Bush's war against children. Pelosi could have been doing a guest post for DWT.

Dear Howie,

President Bush must have forgotten the compassionate part of "compassionate conservative" yet again when he vetoed legislation that would have provided health care for 10 million American children.

This was perhaps George Bush's most heartless act ever-- knowing that he could help deliver health care to millions of American children-- then, wiping out that hope with a stroke of his veto pen.

We may not be able to change the President's mind. But, if we work together-- make it our mission between now and October 18th-- we can find the 15 Republican votes we need to make the President's cold-hearted veto pen powerless.

Oh she neglected to mention that she would only need to change 10 Republican votes if she and her crack leadership team could just convince reactionary Democrats Mike McIntyre (NC), Bob Etheridge (NC), Jim Marshall (GA), Baron Hill (IN) and Jim Marshall (GA) to switch over and vote like Democrats for a change. Actually, seeing how pathetically they've been managing that task, Blue America, showed them how to do it by working with other activists to force Baron Hill to agree to vote to override Bush's heartlessness. While Pelosi and the DCCC pound away at Tim Wahlberg-- who, as they are well aware, will never in a trillion years change his mind (but who may be electorally vulnerable if enough Michigan voters hear the DCCC radio spots)-- Blue America is attempting to actually change Jim Marshall's bad attitude towards working families with children.

I guess Pelosi wants to be a leader of her party first and foremost and a leader of America... not so much. Electing more Democrats is most certainly more her goal than actually getting the health care for the sick kiddies. Her e-mail was a request for donations to the DCCC, donations that could callously go to candidates on their Front Line Page, which includes several candidates who virtually never support core Democratic values,. I'm talking about putative Democrats-- the ones who vote for Pelosi and Emanuel and Hoyer to get better parking spots and fancier offices and then run off to vote with Bush and the Republicans on those little substantive issues like the war, choice, equality... and children's health care-- like Jason Altmire (PA), John Barrow (GA), Melissa Bean (IL), Leonard Boswell (IA), Chris Carney (PA), Joe Donnelly (IN), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Baron Hill (IN)-- where have we heard that name before?-- Nick Lampson (TX), Tim Mahoney (FL), Heath Shuler (NC), Zach Space (OH) and... how could anyone miss noticing? Jim Marshall, the "Democrat" who could well turn out to be the deciding vote against children's health care! So Pelosi is fundraising for Marshall by claiming Bush is heartless for vetoing a bill Marshall voted against and a veto Marshall intends to vote to sustain. Wow, that is... heartless.

The second message from Speaker Pelosi Friday somehow didn't get sent to me directly. My pal Matt over at OpenLeft called me on the phone to tell me about it. Progressive Nancy Pelosi has decided to endorse and campaign for-- besides Jim Marshall-- Al Wynn, one of the most corrupt and reactionary Democrats in the House-- even though he's being opposed to a fellow progressive, Donna Edwards, who is far more qualified to represent the residents of Maryland's 4th CD and even though she will stand up as a leader for Democratic values, not plot in the shadows with corporate bribers how to derail legislation and pass bills to screw working families (the way Wynn always does).

Do the Democrats have the wrong leadership in the House? Hoyer and Emanuel and as bad as the Republicans but Nancy Pelosi? Did you think she was "one of us?" I need to reflect on that a little more. "Impeachment off the table", apparently, isn't just an isolated instance of Pelosi's Good Gemanhood.

One stop shopping for More and Better Democrats-- particularly for Donna Edwards and for our PAC campaign to hold reactionary Democrats like Jim Marshall and Baron Hill accountable: right here