I said that I quite agree that there should be a full investigation and that censure is intended to be only the first step but that I do not understand what else the Senator needs to hear right now, given that the president proudly announced that he was breaking the law, intended to continue doing so and essentially challenged everybody to do something about it. I also said that anyone who believed that this Congress would do a full investigation of anything could become a billionaire by selling whatever it is he’s smoking. Finally, I said that, since Senator Kennedy is one of the few senators who can put sentences together into a good speech, he should do so now in support of Senator Feingold.

To Senator Kerry’s office I said that I had frequently been very unhappy with his failure to take a strong stand but that I was extremely pleased to see him find his spine and hoped that he would keep track of it.

Representative Capuano needs to hear from his constituents. The staff person I spoke with said that calls were mixed, so all of my neighbors who are reading this should call, I hope with congratulations for taking the right stand.

Last but not least, I assume the senators are both getting plenty of calls, especially Senator Kennedy, judging by how long I spent on hold. Let’s keep them coming.

‘nuf said…

In 1972 I was national field staff for Benjamin Spock’s Presidential campaign for the Peoples’ Party, a coalition including Michigan’s Human Rights, California’s Peace and Freedom and others, mostly allied by anti-war fervor. Come September, the chair of the coalition revealed to the staff that he long had been secretly on McGovern’s payroll, a fact which he then neglected to mention in his press release announcing that he was switching his support to the Dem ticket and urging other liberals to vote for the only feasible alternative to Nixon.

Why do you expect Kennedy, Biden, Boxer, Clinton et al. to be brave, noble, idealistic, or even particularly well-intentioned? As DC lifers, they honestly believe they’re the better alternative, just because they are. Some have already opposed a war or two. They’ve already opposed a President. Maybe they even voted a couple of times against an oil company. Why go through all that effort when they no longer need to in order to stay in office. Ain’t being in Congress a grand lifestyle? Taking a position at odds with corporate funders’ wishes might threaten all that.

That’s no reason to stop fighting their resistance. And remember that people in the streets forced the end of the Vietnam War (along with military losses on te ground), not the Democratic Party. Jimmy Carter was not a liberal. Bill Clinton was not a liberal. Get some perspective and then go make change.