(World News Trust) -- I've been watching a parade of slapstick worthy of the Keystone Kops
lately, but it's not on Vintage Movie Night -- it's in Washington D.C.
Hapless doesn't even begin to describe it.
It might be the FISA cave-in in the Senate. It might be the Karl Rove
impasse with the House Judiciary Committee. It might be the statements
from Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and others in his government including
his national security advisor that it?s time for a US troop withdrawal,
or at least for a timetable for withdrawal to be set -- about which the
White House naysays and Congress remains silent. Or any number of other
issues. Actually, there is no "might be" about it. These problems ARE
all present. Only one thing is not here, and there's no "might be"
there, either. There is no backbone.
There is NO backbone. And if there was ever a time for lots of it,
we're there now. I'm thoroughly convinced that this explains the latest
Rasmussen poll -- in which Congress has now fallen from 11 percent job
approval to 9 percent. NINE percent. It's the first time in that
survey's history that the number of voters giving Congress good or
excellent reviews has cratered so deeply -- into single digits.
I'm so there. I'm invited to take polls online and on the phone fairly
frequently, and my built-in wish to grade the Bush administration far
more poorly than a now-Democratic controlled Congress (mainly because
I've long considered the Bush administration worse than anything else)
is no longer active. I can't give Congress A's or B's when I'm
repeatedly convinced that they're earning F's. Even F's are sometimes
too good. How far down the alphabet do I go? Certainly way down past
even W, these days.
My kingdom for a backbone. Any backbone among the Dems. Any at all. At
this point, I'm not proud. I'll take anything. This is the time they
should be flexing their muscles like nobody's business and seizing the
momentum. After all, we have a White House occupant with lower-than-low
approval ratings -- so dismal that Bush?s biggest fan and would-be heir,
John McCain, shrivels from him in revulsion and goes virtually Cirque
du Soleil in twisting his schedule in knots trying to avoid being in
the same zip code Bush is in. So dismal that Republican stomachs are
tied in knots wondering what they're going to do with the Toxic Texan
at their upcoming convention -- when almost nobody wants to admit
they've even heard of the guy.
Furthermore, every poll that tracks whether Americans think we're on
the right or wrong track now shows resounding, near record-breaking
numbers leaning hard in the "wrong track" direction. The latest from
AP/Ipsos, for example, finds a measly 17 percent of those responding
think we're doing okay as a nation.
If EVER there was a time to show backbone, and buck the White House and
all its apologists and excuse-makers and cover-up cronies, This Is It.
And yet, they won't.
Why? Are the Dems still that intimidated? Afraid of being lambasted as
unpatriotic? Un-American? Soft on terror? Not supporting the troops?
Won?t the opposition slam them for all of that ANYWAY, no matter what
they do or how much they capitulate or otherwise try to make nice? Why
not just go for it? What have they got to lose at this point? They
can?t go much farther down into the sewer than nine percent approval.
Americans crave leadership. Leadership that will pull us off the wrong
track and back on the correct path where we belong. We're longing for
strength of character and conviction. Fearlessness. Guts. Whether the
GOP juggernaut tries to swiftboat it or not. Voters never seemed to
mind when George W. Bush repeatedly told them -- "you may not agree with
me, but you know where I stand" while campaigning for another four
years in the Oval Office. So where do the Democrats stand? Firmly and
courageously in defiance of all that's evil, criminal, and
unconstitutional -- all of which has been forced down our throats by
Bush/Cheney and all their little Republican friends? Or are they still
trying to go along to get along?
Curiously enough, I noted an item about Senator Patrick Leahy's cameo
appearance in the new film "The Dark Knight." In the scene, Leahy
appears next to the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. Leahy can be seen
standing up to the villain with the macabre grimace on his face, and
declaring "we're not intimidated by you thugs."
Well, I guess we found our backbone, alright. Up front and dead center
against a cartoon villain in a summer blockbuster. It's there in a
fictional confrontation on America's cinema screens when it should be
playing in reality on CSPAN and every newscast of record, every day and
night. It's scripted by Hollywood screenwriters, when it should be the
easiest adlib that ever tumbled off a Democrat's tongue. We can work up
a spine when it's playing pretend.
When will we start seeing Democratic backbone - for real?
***
Mary Lyon
is a veteran broadcaster and five-time Golden Mike Award winner, who
has anchored, reported, and written for the Associated Press Radio
Network, NBC Radio "The Source," and many Los Angeles-area stations
including KRTH-FM/AM, KLOS-FM, KFWB-AM, and KTLA-TV, and occasional
media analyst for ABC Radio News. She began her career as a liberal
activist with the Student Coalition for Humphrey/Muskie in 1968, and
helped spearhead a regional campaign, The Power 18," to win the right
to vote for 18-year-olds. She remains an advocate for liberal causes,
responsibility and accountability in media, environmental education and
support of the arts for children, and green living. In addition to
World News Trust, Mary writes for Huffington Post, OpEdNews, Democrats.us, WeDemocrats.org's "We! The People" webzine. Mary is also a parenting
expert, having written and llustrated the book "The Frazzled Working
Woman's Practical Guide to Motherhood.