I opened my mail today, and was confronted by a "Democratic Leadership Survey" from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
After addressing me as a "Dear Friend", the opening line of the enclosed letter read,
"Over the course of the past year, Republicans have launched a record-breaking 61 filibusters."
Of course, Harry (as a dear friend I can be so informal) fails to mention just how many of those filibusters were actually realized on the floor of the Senate - none of them. Under Harry's leadership, Republicans don't filibuster, they need only threaten.
Until now, one full year into the Democratic majority, the only filibusters forced to the floor were those of members of Harry's own majority party, for whom Harry seems to have little tolerance.
Now, let's talk about the past year, shall we Harry?
Exactly one year ago today, and about a thousand American soldiers' lives ago, I stood on the National Mall in our nation's capital, bathed in a mid-winter respite of sunshine and warmth with half a million patriots from across our democratic republic, and listened to these words from the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman John Conyers, whose new position of authority arose from a mandate by American voters to end this war:
"George Bush has a habit of firing military leaders who tell him the Iraq war is failing. But let me tell you something. He can't fire you. He can't fire us. But we can fire him!"
Conyers didn't stop at just stopping Bush:
"Vice-President Cheney has said repeatedly, "Congress can't stop me." But we must stop him! We're going to stop him!"
I listened to the aspirations of Dennis Kucinich, fresh in his hopeful Presidential campaign, as he and all too few courageous members of Congress encouraged us with their progressive goals at a morning Code Pink rally.
And I marched with a widely diverse representation of American patriots, who had traveled from far across our nation to surround the Capitol with their mandate for the new Congressional majority.
I was inspired by the endlessly creative expressions of hopes and goals for the new age of justice we would struggle toward in the face of the worst humanitarian policies perpetrated on this world by any administration in any living American's memory.
With new Congressional leadership, we were sure to stop the war, stop the profiteering, stop the torture, stop the erosion of the Constitution, stop the politicized judicial appointments, stop the destruction of the Department of Justice, and stop the rise of power for the unitary executive. We marched, demonstrated and lobbied for peace and justice, and now, under new Democratic majority leadership for a full year, have made no progress toward either.
Now, thanks to the capitulations of Reid and Pelosi, telecom giants are about to get a free pass around justice. The President is about to take a free pass around Congressional process and cast in our children's blood, a commitment to an Iraq occupation with no end. And impeachment is still not on the table, but languishing in a dark drawer somewhere in Conyers' House Judiciary Committee.
Tomorrow, our REAL congressional leaders will take to the floor, despite the efforts of the party-appointed ones. In the House, people's leader Kucinich will do what the party leadership dare not, and introduce articles of impeachment against George Bush, as he did last May for Cheney.
"We already know the State of the Union," Kucinich said. "It's a lie!"
And in the Senate, where party leader Reid refused to introduce the Senate Judiciary Committee version of FISA reform, the one without telecom immunity, people's leaders Dodd and Feingold will once again try to sustain that mandate for justice that was so vibrant in the streets of our Capital one year ago.
There is some support coming from outside the Congress on this issue. Maybe John Edwards would like to take Harry's dirty little survey.
"It's time for Senate Democrats to show a little backbone and stand up to George W. Bush and the corporate lobbyists. They should do everything in their power -- including joining Senator Dodd's efforts to filibuster this legislation -- to stop retroactive immunity. The Constitution should not be for sale at any price."
So Harry, as for your Democratic Leadership Survey, and your dubious claim to even BE a leader of anything other than your sad, failed party, I can only say, "How DARE you pretend to care what I believe in now; I already told you 365 days ago!"