6 for 06? how about you broke it; you bought it

An Open Letter to Democratic Leaders

Friday, July 28, 2006

Dear Mr. Reid, Ms. Pelosi, Dr. Dean, Mr. Emanuel (cc: Mr. Lakoff)

It is 9:02 a.m. and I'm doing a slow burn. Last night and again this morning I googled six for 06 and you wanna know how many results i got on the first page? That would be zero.

Why? Because no one cares. Or more precisely because you said something people care a great deal about in a way no one cares about. In your first 24 hours out of the gate you left Google still thinking six for 06 has something to do with the month of June.

Did you come up with this in a vestry meeting? Is this insipid campaign calculated to avoid upsetting the older parishioners? Well guess what: you are the older parishioners. You preside over something that might be characterized by copping a line from Bono: "Religion is what's left after the Spirit has left the building."

six for 06 . . . I hope you didn't pay good money for that.

If you want to gain control of Congress, here's the idea to beat:

You Broke It; You Bought It

You broke Iraq. You failed in due diligence. You rushed to judgement. You caved in -- I can't believe I'm saying this about the Congress of the United States -- you caved in to peer pressure and bullying. You allowed yourselves to be taken in by people who are either fools or liars or both. And look what happened! Look what's happening! The future will judge you harshly. Now get out the way and let's get busy fixing this awful mess.

While we're at it, let's hear some mea culpa from Democrats who were and are complicit in this outrage. If you want us to trust you, admit your error. Francis Fukuyama is lighting the way on this; walk in that light.

You broke the economy. You can't hide behind market corrections at the beginning of the new decade and you can't hide in the rubble of 9/11. You hate working Americans. Prove that you don't. You have kissed the golden hams of speculators. Prove that you haven't!

Someone has to stanch the hemorrhaging of America's middle class and working poor. Get out the way; we're coming in to clean up your economic mess -- again.

You broke the treasury. Your tax cut emptied the US Treasury into the the accounts of the wealthiest citizens. The sacking of America continues and you do not care. There is no money for the remarkable succession of rainy days we have experienced and are forecast to experience into the middle distance. Your mothers would be ashamed of you. We certainly are. Step aside; we're coming to restore order to the House (and the Senate).

You broke health care. On your watch, the delivery of American health care has gone from mediocre to become a national embarrassment. It will take us a decade to unravel this because you tangled it so completely and because those who profit from the confusion will fight us every day until they figure out they're either going to have to join us or go find other work.

You broke the separation of powers. You have given this administration too much, too often. They are running roughshod over the Constitution of the United States and it is your fault. As a consequence you also broke American foreign policy. The Bush Doctrine is an abrogation of two-and-a-half centuries of mainly good faith dealings with our global neighbors (I don't mean to overstate this; we have been on the dirty side on many occasions -- some of our current problems owing to that fact -- but we did those things in secret because we knew they were shameful). Now you have ratified the Bush Administrations claims to act with impunity. No one has to tell a reasonable person what the postmortem on that is going to look like).

You broke the balance of our government. We are coming to restore the equilibrium.

You broke national security. You signed off on cronyism and deadly incompetence. You allowed the Administration to dismantle highly professional federal agencies, driving legions of our most qualified civil servants out of government and replacing them with rank amateurs. FEMA is the poster-child for America's crippled capacity to respond to crisis. Is there any evidence we are better off today than before the Department of Homeland Security swallowed up 22 reasonably high-functioning professional agencies?

You allowed the Administration to dismiss the wisdom of Pentagon and State Department professionals. You buried their expert testimony in committee. With rare exception, you failed to air true assessments of US military capability in public for the benefit of lawmakers and the public you serve.

Prior to 9/11 you routinely dismissed the findings of commissions you appointed to study national security. Post 9/11, you routinely dismiss the findings of commissions you appointed to study national security. You haven't done your job. You're finished. Get out of the way.

You broke Congress. You used the rules to rewrite the rules and crush open and honest governance. If you were a business operating this way in the state of New York you would find yourselves settling with Attorney General Spitzer for billions rather than have the extent of your misdeeds exposed in a court of law. But you are not a business; you are elected representatives of the people of the United States of America. But not for long. Make way: Mr. Smith is coming back to Washington.

Mr. Reid, Ms. Pelosi, Dr. Dean, Mr. Emanuel; you can see where this is going. Six for 06 is all but meaningless in the face of what we have to say about the direction the Republican Administration and Congress are taking America.

Your colleagues on the other side of the aisle broke faith with the American people. They broke it; they bought it. It is up to you call them to account for that in public and in private every day between now and November 7.

For what it's worth, gentlemen and madame, I think it's time for you to push or pull or get out the way.