Whenever I hear a Democrat in Congress say something like, 'We're not interested in the past; we're focused on the future,' I shoot the nearest television. What this usually means is: 'Our pollsters tell us that voters don't remember what happened last week, let alone three or four years ago, and that we just open ourselves up to attack for 'dwelling in the past.''No matter how narrow their majority, the Dems need to show that they are actually doing their best to get at the truth and to bring the guilty to justice. A Bush appointee nailed Scooter for hindering a federal investigation. Now it's up to Congress to investigate why, and what he was hiding. Subpoena the VP, and get down to brass tacks. The time is now.
This is exactly the kind of politics that lost them the last two very winnable presidential elections. Follow your polls, stay on safe ground, concede the other side's arguments before they've even made them; and for God's sakes, don't ever try to move public opinion, just try to meet it and placate it.
If they don't know by now how much this posture has cost them politically in the last seven years -- and how much it's cost the country in countless ways -- then majority status will be fundamentally wasted on them.
I suspect there's still a lot that we don't know about pre-war intelligence misuse. For starters, there's the famous disappearing Phase II report on the subject, promised but never delivered by the Senate Intelligence Committee when Republican Pat Roberts was the chairman. Democrat Jay Rockefeller, not known for having carved a swashbuckling profile when he was the committee's ranking minority member, is now the chairman. He needs to be pushing hard now.
Or forget about keeping your precious majority.
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