IS there a point in our nation today where a politican can also become a leader and have to tell like it is?
Can a politican be a leader as well as play the politcal side?
I think they can, as Congressman Ron Paul and Senator Jim Webb do, but in my opinion these two guys are rare in Washington, and I would follow them anywhere.
At some point, today’s definition of lying (has become bending the truth) hurts the country, as it has really bad recently.
A bigger issue is does the public really want to hear the truth?
My opinion and I wrote a chapter in my recent book Manning the Legions on it, is that our public in general does not want to hear the truth about oil peaking (and our strategically horrible energy policies-the worst strategic mistake as a nation we have made in the last 40 years), global warming or overpopulation as long as it can possibility negatively impact the American Dream (shed responsibility in the pursuit of near term happiness). They elect these same people all the time to tell them what they want to hear. Pelosi is just part of that culture, and he or she who casts the first stones better duck themselves.
Anyway, I just got this from my good friend Winslow Wheeler who runs the Strauss Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information, as well as editor of the recent anthology America’s Defense Meltdown, and the editor of my book Raising the Bar.
Take Care, Don
Subject: Pelosi’s Imperiled Pedestle I am a sometime participant at a blog run by National Journal. I couldn’t resist to opine on this week’s topic: Nancy Pelosi’s making herself a floater in her own punchbowl. My comments are below;
the blog is at http://security. nationaljournal. com/2009/ 05/congress- and-torture- holding-l. php
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s attempts to re-groom her non-oversight of the intelligence community and torture in 2002 are as pathetic as the Republicans’ pretense at outrage that any respectable Member of Congress would accuse the CIA of misleading Congress, let alone lying. An executive branch agency misleading Congress? Why, how shocking. In fact, it’s a long honored tradition, started not decades but centuries ago. That’s why the Founding Fathers crafted the Constitution as they did – empowering Congress to perform effective oversight – a function that historian Arthur M. Schlesinger deemed at least as important as the power to legislate.
Quite clearly, Pelosi – like almost every currently sitting Member of Congress – has no clue of the supremely important role of oversight and not the slightest idea of how to perform it, if she cared to exercise it. Congress’ oversight of the intelligence community has been and continues to be a null set. The most obvious indicator of that is the absence of transcripts of the briefings – if that is what you want to call them – given to Pelosi and others in 2002, which by the way would end the controversy and all the pretense in a heartbeat. That transcripts are still not made of these encounters tells us all we need to know about oversight enjoying any hint of revival in these matters.
The good news is that Pelosi’s standing in Washington is now greatly diminished as she twists and squirms to escape the can of worms she jumped into, as eagerly as she was clueless. That gives President Obama a major opening: to pursue his entire legislative agenda without the toxic handiwork of a Speaker of the House who puts short sightedness, hyper-partisanship, and personal status above all else. Unless she makes an even bigger mess of it, Pelosi’s seat as Speaker is probably secure, but now her high-handedness and narrow outlook are likely to be as diminished as her stature.
Don,
Before you dump on Pelosi excessively I suggest that you check out Marcy Wheeler’s blog (http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/) entries over the past ten days on the issue. A good place to start is a summary she put up just this morning about the inconsistencies in the documents the CIA has released about the past briefings. You can find it at: http://tinyurl.com/pwvc22 There are plenty of links in there to both her own past posts as well as other sources. Pay especially close attention to the detailed time lines she constructs from time to time that go far toward nailing down who did, said or knew what and when.
In my opinion there’s no one in either the blogosphere or the mainstream media who is better and more tenacious at parsing documents for what is both said and not said, and at connecting related dots among stuff that has appeared months and in many cases years apart. I think Wheeler builds a compelling case that the CIA, very likely under pressure from the White House and/or the VP’s office, was violating at least the spirit of the pertinent oversight legislation and perhaps the letter as well, in order to minimize the amount of information made available to the Democratic members of the “Gang of Four” and the “Gang of Eight” about the “enhanced interrogation techniques” during the time those techniques were being most heavily employed. In short, Marcy’s analysis shows that it is consistent with the statements of others on the topic, most notably former Congressman and CIA Director Portor Goss, and thus it is entirely plausible that she is telling the truth.
What we’re now seeing in the mainstream media appearances of the likes of Cheney, Gingrich et al, as well as from the usual bloviators in the right wing rantosphere, is a coordinated campaign to divert attention from the appalling information that is coming out about those “enhanced interrogation techniques”, and the increasingly compelling evidence emerging that those policies originated at the very top of the previous administration. Unfortunately most of the mainstream media is being taken in by this cape job and not doing their homework, as usual.
1 п. “Не имей сто друзей, а имей сто шекелей” тоже хорошо рифмуется :)
8 п. Ты никогда не потеряешь работу. Когда закончатся фотографии можно размещать рисунки (да хоть бы и конкурс объявить на лучший рисунок Одри (-:), аппликации и фотографии поделок из пластилина…
9 п. Сто пудов ! :)
Well, there’s an ol adatage that goes,
“you get the leadership ypu deserve.”
Americans do though deserve better.
Individualy, fine pepole for the most part,
collectively however, that’s another story.
In consideration of all that’s gone wrong,
there must be a benevolent and mercifull
God, who keeps on giving America, another
chance, after chance after chance.
M
ex PFC and everyone else, thanks for the insights. I have gotten to the point where I don’t trust anyone in our Congress except Ron Paul and Jim Webb seem the only ones that say it like it is.
The public, as California serves as an example, loves a government that keeps giving without responsibility, and they are crashing. The time is now to take action, elect leaders, and go from there.
“More Senior leaders caught lying…”
Speaking of Which,
On this sacred and hallowed of occasions
US Memorial Day, when we remember those
who sacrificed , everything.
Apparently, North Korea actually HAS
Weapons Of Mass Destruction.
They don’t have OIL though, what a shame.
Maximillian