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Ref. : Letters to the editor
01.02 Blaming the Victims - The Dominant Media Vilify Hamas
12.30 Shock, Awe and Lies: The Truth Behind the Israeli Attack on Gaza
12.10 We All Failed Gary Webb
01.07 Gaza Voices, American Silence
01.06 The $6 Million Social Worker
01.06 Bush Spins Scandalous Neglect of Vets
01.02 2009 is Starting Off with a Shameful and Criminal Bang
12.27 Two Dangerous Bush-Cheney Myths
12.24 Madoff Scandal Exposes Government Failure
12.22 Cheney's Contempt for the Republic
12.19 Obama's New Appointments
12.18 Obama v. Washington Mythmaking
12.17 The Electoral College Has Got To Go
12.16 A Million McVeighs Now: The American-Made Insurgency in Afghanistan
12.15 Thinking About Illinois
12.14 Obama and US-Russia Tensions
12.12 A Time Machine to Save America
12.11 Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?
12.10 Workers of America: Wake Up! We All Need a Union!
12.31 America's War On Islam - The "Fort Dix Five"
12.30 Henry Kissinger: Eminence Noire
12.28 The Grinning Skull
12.22 Obama v. Richard Falk on Israel and Occupied Palestine
12.19 White House Lied About Iraqi Yellowcake Buy, But That’s Not the Biggest Scandal
12.18 Judge Declines to Jail 'Ghosts of the Iraq War'
12.18 Prosecuting Bush and Cheney for Torture: No One Can Be Above the Law
12.17 Cluster Bomb Treaty and the World's Unfinished Business
12.17 Abandoned by the World: UN Declares Open Season on Somalia
12.17 Assessing the Bush Legacy: The Measure of the Man and His Administration
12.16 Cheney Admits Detainee-Abuse Role
12.15 The Abduction, Secret Detention, Torture, and Repeated Raping of Aafia Siddiqui
12.12 Torture Trail Seen Starting with Bush
12.11 Atrocity Unlimited: US Seeks to Turn Somalia into Global Free-Fire Zone
12.10 The Persecution of Syed Fahad Hashmi
01.05 Thinking About the 2008 Numbers
12.29 Thinking About Realities
12.26 Early Suspicions About Bernard Madoff
12.24 The Federal Reserve Abolition Act
12.22 Thinking About Expectations
12.12 Excess Debt and Deflation = Depression
01.07 The Quartet's Hypocrisy and Failure in Occupied Palestine
01.07 Gazing at Gaza's Destruction: Israelis Sip Pepsi, US Progressives See 'Silver Lining'
01.05 Fallujah by the Sea: Aping America, Israel Unleashes Chemical Weapons in Gaza
01.05 Global Human Rights Groups Protest Slaughter in Gaza
12.30 How Hypocrisy on 'Terrorism' Kills
12.29 Israel's Wanton Aggression On Gaza
12.26 Christmas 2008: Hell in the Holy Land
12.17 Canada's Prince of Darkness Assumes Leadership of the Liberal Party
COMMENTARY:
Pelosi's Sinking Fortunes
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took power in the House of Representatives in January on a wave of public enthusiasm and hopes that Congress would finally start holding the president to account.Not quite six months out, it's becoming apparent to Democrats who were looking to her for leadership that she's not about leading an opposition party; she's about posturing and hoping for better days in 2008, but not much else.
Now her failure to act to stop the war, and her refusal to permit a Bush impeachment bill to be filed on her watch, are hitting her where it hurts--in the polls. According to a report today by MediaNews in Sacramento, written by Steve Geissinger, Pelosi's support in California, which was at 52 percent in March, has slumped 13 percent to just 39 percent since then. That's Bush territory she's entering.
It would be nice to think Pelosi would see this decline in support on her home turf as a signal that she needs to do something radically different, but she's been pretty pig-headed so far about taking on the president. In fact, as I wrote in yesterday's column, the Speaker is now on record as saying that impeaching the president would be a "waste of time" and that defending the Constitution "isn't worth it" unless she knows in advance that she can succeed.
Not particularly inspirational talk for an opposition leader, is it?
Well, maybe Pelosi's weakness explains why the number of members of Congress who have signed on to Rep. Dennis Kucinich's once ignored Cheney impeachment bill (H.Res. 333) has jumped to 13. The snowball is rolling downhill and it's starting to get bigger, and to roll faster. Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's jail sentence, which was done at the urging of Vice President Dick Cheney, and which is clearly designed to keep the convicted felon from turning state's evidence (making it obstruction of justice), should give that ball a big push in the right direction.
Maybe the July 4 weekend is the right time for California Democrats to start looking for someone to challenge Pelosi for her seat. Even a write-in campaign would be worth it.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress should take a cold, hard look at Pelosi's home numbers, at the crash in public support for the Democratic Congress, which has fallen from a high of 65 percent last November to just 23 percent, and at the feelings of their own constituents, and consider whether maybe they should look for a new and gutsier leader.
Either than, or they should start working on their resumes. At this rate, 2008 could be a Democratic bloodbath.
About the author: Philadelphia journalist Dave Lindorff is co-author, with
Barbara Olshansky, of The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office
. His work is available at
www.thiscantbehappening.net.
Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.
This story was published on July 5, 2007.
