Where, Oh, Where Are Woodward & Bernstein?

‘You know,’ DNC chair Terry McAuliffe told Democrats assembled in St. Paul Friday, ‘there are some who feel the Democrats should just throw in the towel right now. I even read the following just the other day by political commentator Tom Wicker: ‘The real question is whether any Democrat can match George Bush’s claim to be a proven Presidential figure, validated by war and victory. It won’t be easy . . .’ I also read: ‘No political strategist in the country can see any way George Bush is not going to win and win big.’ That came from Ed Rollins, a Republican political strategist. Sounds pretty dire, huh? Well, buck up – these were written in 1991.’

I know this will annoy those who believe the right wing of the Republican Party should control all three branches of government (look how well it’s doing so far), but I think a Democrat is going to win in 2004.

Look at it this way: Do the 51 million folks who voted for Gore – 537,000 more than voted for Bush – wake up each morning thinking, ‘Gee, this is really better than I expected! We’ve got peace and prosperity, we’re funding the things that need to be funded, and, well – the guy really is a uniter, not a divider.’ I don’t think so.

Do the 3 million folks who voted for Nader – 97,000 of them in Florida – wake up each morning thinking they would do the same thing if they had it to do over again? I don’t think so.

Will the nearly 50,000 African Americans in Florida who were systematically – and wrongly – removed from the voter roles in 2000 vote for Bush in 2004? I don’t think so.

And I don’t think the ‘Jews for Buchanan’ – those nice little old ladies in Palm Beach – will either.

And then look at the other side of it. Do the 50 million folks who voted for Bush wake up every morning feeling glad they did? Yes, I think most do. But I think some small but crucial proportion feel betrayed. This is not the balanced budget they expected. This is not the humble foreign policy they expected. This is not the bipartisan spirit they expected.

And I like to think that some portion of the media will finally get a little tough. Not Rush Limbaugh or Fox or any of them, obviously (‘We Distort, You Decide’). But the more traditional media.

I can’t say for sure that every word Greg Palast has written these past few years is accurate, fair, and balanced. (And I can’t say that it’s not.) But I am dumbstruck and disheartened that the American press has not investigated and found out for sure.

To get a flavor of what I’m talking about, click here. It’s mainly about former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, but here’s one piece of it:

Months before the 2000 presidential elections, the offices of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered the removal of 90,000 citizens from the voter rolls because they were convicted felons . . . and felons can’t vote in Florida. There was one problem: 97 percent of those on the list were, in fact, innocent.

They weren’t felons, but they were guilty . . . of not being white. Over half the list contained names of non-whites. I’m not guessing: I have the list from out of the computers of Katherine Harris’ office – and the ‘scrubbed’ voter’s race is listed with each name.

And that’s how our President was elected: by illegally removing tens of thousands of legal African American voters before the race.

But you knew that . . . at least you did if you read the British papers – I reported this discovery for the Guardian of London. And I reported again on the nightly news. You saw that . . . if you live in Europe or Canada or South America.

In the USA, the story ran on page zero. Well, let me correct that a bit. The Washington Post did run the story on the fake felon list that selected our President – even with a comment under my byline. I wrote the story within weeks of the election, while Al Gore was still in the race. The Post courageously ran it . . . seven months after the election.

Isn’t this as important as, say, a $225 Presidential haircut that may or may not have delayed airport traffic for 15 minutes?

For those who may be growing worried about right wing control of all three branches of government, click here.

‘If this is class warfare, then my class is winning.’
– Warren Buffett