The Progressive pundits agree that we are in a confounding situation: a right-wing
president - who lost the popular vote, who was installed by judicial fiat and
who continues to breeze through blunder after spectacular political blunder -
is virtually given a free pass by the leaders of the "liberal" opposition. This,
despite not only his illegitimacy and venality, but also despite the massive,
pervasive harm he is causing to our country and the world.
Mark Shields, in pondering this conundrum, asks, "What will the Democrats do
with a hand of four aces?" Actually, it is more a royal flush the Dems have been
dealt; and they are hesitating to bet more than a pocketful of nickels against
the four-card straight (i.e. the Terror War...a hand whose weakness is demonstrated
both in terms of its failure to decrease the threat of attacks and in terms of
our loss of civil liberties) that the GOP is holding. This is all the more confusing
given the Democratic heritage: it has been the party of the disenfranchised as
well as the average taxpayer, and the voice of the voiceless. Where are the mainstream
Democratic voices of true outrage at the cultural, political and economic disintegration
that we are witnessing right now, in not-so-slow motion?
Why, for instance, is there no raising of the ante in the current debate over
the re-regulation of financial markets? Isn't the Sarbanes accounting reform bill
but a mild prescription for the catastrophic illness that Wall Street suffers
from? And isn't it going to be watered down when it gets reconciled with the placebo
bill from the Republican House? Why couldn't the Dems see their overwhelming advantage
as well as our national necessity, and press for higher stakes - by requiring
that stock-options be listed as expenses; by eliminating the audit/consulting
conflict; and by adding restrictions on the SEC Chair's employment history that
would preclude another industry fox like Harvey Pitt from guarding the henhouse?
Speaking of Pitt, why has Tom Daschle explicitly eschewed the appointment of
an independent investigation into the sordid corporate dealings of Bush and Cheney?
Surely Pitt's investigation of Halliburton will be suspect, no matter how he couches
an inevitable finding of Cheney's innocence. (Will he fail to interview Cheney,
as Bush Sr's SEC failed to interview his son regarding Harken?) And what about
the California Energy Market Scam, the largest single, documented ripoff ever,
publicly aided and abetted by both Bush and Cheney (and managed at Enron by Army
Secretary Thomas White). Where is the hue and cry? Daschle's excuse for not pressing
for an independent inquiry on any of these matters is that these things can get
out of hand (as if things weren't already). Ok...so don't ask Ken Starr to do
it. We have a nation full of competent, impartial investigators who aren't beholden
to the powers that be. How about Eliot Spitzer?
The panoply of weaponry that the Democrats have in their barely-used arsenal
is truly mind-boggling. From Bush's refusal to re-regulate the markets (providing
momentum to the current Dow free-fall); to his belligerent alienation of virtually
the entire world at a time when we need global cooperation the most; to his knee-capping
of a host of crucial environmental and health commitments; to his cabinet's gang-rape
of the constitution; to his callous disregard for women and minorities; to the
petulant inanities that he utters in public on a weekly basis...the list is practically
endless. The guns are loaded, primed and pointed, but the only shots being taken
are into the air. And some of those bullets are landing - surprise! - on Democrats.
Take Arthur Andersen, for example. As the late accounting giant is implicated
in one colossal corporate implosion after another, it does the Democratic leadership
no good to harp on the help Andersen got from the GOP to operate in a regulatory
vacuum. After all, it was their own 2000 VP candidate, Senator Lieberman, who
was a forceful and successful advocate for keeping executive stock options off
the balance sheets...one of the flaming timbers on today's Wall Street bonfire.
Any well-aimed shots at the GOP via Andersen will clip the Senator and, by association,
2004 front-runner Gore. Similarly, it is dangerous to highlight fallen behemoth
WorldCom's lucrative connections on the hill because senior Democrat Senator Fritz
Hollings received even more of their lucre than did the nefarious Trent Lott.
(It is true that Tom Daschle is politely prodding the administration on Cheney's
Halliburton record, and asking for Pitt's resignation - under the covering fire
of conservative John McCain and aided by right-wing Judicial Watch's lawsuit against
Cheney. But if Pitt were to resign while Daschle refuses to ask for an independent
inquiry, any real investigation will be put off indefinitely while the SEC drifts
Chair less. Daschle's shots are not only into the air, but he is also firing blanks.)
And speaking of weird bedfellows, some of the Left's heavy lifting has just
been performed by - are we sitting down? - Bill Buckley's National Review. In
a balanced, well researched and concise July 16 expose (http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york071602.asp),
Byron York discloses yet another Terry McAuliffe business deal that smells as
bad as anything stinking up the Potomac these days.
Just before the Global Crossing story broke - which highlighted the DNC Chair
as a fast and loose dealer - (and during the 9/11 confusion late last year), the
IBEW was found by the Labor Department to have mishandled millions in electricians'
pension funds in a Florida real estate partnership with McAuliffe. Two union officials
were fined over $100,000 and $5 million was ordered to be reimbursed to the pension
fund. McAuliffe slickly parlayed an initial investment of $100 into $2,450,000
working capital, courtesy of his union pals. Like W performing his Harken/Texas
Rangers sleight-of-hand, the DNC Chair walked away unfazed, onto the next big
deal at Global Crossing. The official DNC response? "Terry McAuliffe isn't president
of the United States," as if corruption and hypocrisy doesn't matter when you
run a major political party. As if it ever doesn't matter.
The policies, morals and tactics of the "New" Democrats and the conservative
DLC have failed the party and the country as dismally as their GOP counterparts'
have. At this critical moment, our nation needs Progressive leadership from the
party of FDR; not the rehashed fear-mongering and regulatory soft-pedaling that
should be the sole domain of the Republicans.
McAuliffe should resign, and Real Democrats should demand it. His presence
at the party helm is an embarrassment and a liability. (A good candidate for his
replacement would be the man he beat last year for the post, Atlanta's Maynard
Jackson). Then, any Democrat with any conscience and guts left should call loud
and hard for a National Clean Elections Law, right now. And for God's sake, let's
demand an independent counsel, or several of them, and let the chips fall where
they may.
Get your act together, Democrats.
Bruce F. Cole is a carpenter, songwriter and political activist in Camden,
Maine. He welcomes email at bccpcole@earthlink.net
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