Mary Pitt: "The peril of doing nothing"

THE PERIL OF DOING NOTHING
by Mary Pitt

After November's election, the people were feeling optimistic, having elected a Democratic majority in the House and more than an even balance in the Senate. Speaker Pelosi announced her "first 100 hours" strategy and we were ready to watch the reform take place. However, the euphoria was short-lived as the House passed first one "non-binding resolution" only to have it squelched by the Republican bloc in the Senate. The Democrats, unlike the Dixie Chicks, are still convinced that they need to make nice. Perhaps they were in the minority for too long and it was simply easier to fall back into the same old habits of huddling helplessness. In addition, the next election campaign is on everybody's minds and key figures are playing to the power structure rather than to the electorate.

Now they trying to put together a plan to force the President to withdraw our troops from Iraq by one method if not another. However, the President dares them to "bring it on" with a threat of veto while the Republican Senators again threaten to filibuster. The Right shouts and threatens while the left huddle in a closet and plot like a family that is totally cowed by a domestic abuser and the public stand outside shouting, "Do something even if it's wrong!" It is of the utmost urgency that Bush and the Neo-Con agenda be stopped before their takover is complete and our beloved democracy is turned into the totalitarian corporatocracy which they envision. The groundwork for their evil empire has already been laid with the authorizantion for declaration of martial law which has already passed.

So every plan that is created runs up against the threat of filibuster. Let them talk! Debate cloture and then let them spout their hate hour after hour, day and night, show it on television so the people can hear every word! Let us hear every last word of their boring and falacious talking points over and over until we are sick of them and even the semi-conscious "sheeple" realize that they are nothing but parrots speaking the lines that were written in the White House. Otherwise, we will hear no original thinking nor will we hear any proposals that amount to anything other than a continuation of the blank check which was presented to Mr. Bush by the last Congress and that got us into this mess in the first place.

By the time the Republicans are suffering extreme laryngitis, papers of impeachment can be prepared, first for Mr. Cheney for the illegal outing of Valerie Plame and for meddling beyond his responsibilities in our foreign affairs, and then for Mr. Bush for usurpation of the powers of Congress and the Courts, for his war crimes, and for the devastation he has brought upon our economy by the squandering of our national treasure on the over-blown contracts with business cronies. It would be an even greater crime to allow these people to escape unscathed after being responsible for sending American men to die on foreign soil for a lie to enable their dreams of empire. Even if the Senate cannot be expected to convict, the filing of a bill of impeachment in the House would keep them busy, conferring with attorneys and trying to fend off their own personal disaster. It worked with Clinton, didn't it? Put a good, aggressive special prosecutor on it to find the evidence. Fitzgerald will soon be at liberty and he already has a load of information on White House operations.

Before the election John Conyers and others were collecting signatures in favor of impeachment and seemed ready to lead the charge in that direction but, as soon as the Democratic majority were seated in the house, that was "off the table" Suddenly, the Democrats were back in the old pattern of "coalition and compromise", playing by the old rules, and seeking the easy way out. If the last election and the polls don't prove anything else, Congress should get the message. To borrow an expression from the black-and-white boxing movies of my childhood. "Hit 'im ya bum! Ya got da wind wit' ya!"

Mary Pitt is a septuagenarian Kansan, a free-thinker, and a warrior for truth and justice. Huzzahs and whiney complaints may be sent to: mpitt@cox.net