I should know better

Scott McClellan testifies before Congress tomorrow. And, fool that I am, I find myself being just a little, teensy, tiny bit hopeful. I should know better. When it became apparent after the 2000 election that there were serious irregularities in the Florida election, and Bev Harris was sounding the alarm with her Black Box Voting organization, I thought “Well, this will get straightened out.” But it didn’t. Then we had 9/11, and after the dust had cleared, we started hearing about ignored PDBs, and I thought “This group will now be exposed for the incompetents that they are!” But we were too collectively traumatized to absorb it. When the facts started coming out after the invasion of Iraq (well, the facts were there before the invasion, but eventually people starting talking about them), I thought “OK, maybe people will finally start to catch on.” But there was never any real traction to it. Then there was the Valerie Plame affair. And I thought “This is clearly a matter of treason. Now the American people will be outraged enough and demand some answers!” Nope.

We passed milestones of 1000 dead Americans in Iraq. Two thousand dead. And the big three-oh-oh-oh, a tie with the unrelated but often cited number of people killed on 9/11. But the death toll only served to justify shutting our eyes, stopping our ears, and plunging ahead, to honor those who had died by sending in some more.

There was the 2004 election, and the obvious problems in Ohio. Surely, if there is a tipping point for outrage, this was it!.. But it wasn’t. Then there were the fired US attorneys. The stolen election in Alabama. The political prosecution and imprisonment of Governor Don Siegelman. Muzzling of government officials. Contractor fraud and waste in Iraq. Illegal wiretaps (and denials, followed by “Yeah, we did that. So what?”). Abu Ghraib. Katrina. Secret prisons. Extraordinary renditions. Torture. Just Google “Bush administration scandals” and you will have no shortage of lists. Just don’t do it before bedtime, though.

We’ve had testimony and tell-all from Paul O’Niell, Richard Clark, Richard Carmona, David Iglesias, John McKay, James Comey - again, there are lists aplenty to be had on line.

And now Scott McClellan. From what I have heard about his book, his testimony should be enough to sink any administration in a democratic society with a free and independent press... Oops! Forgot where I was.

Still, I’m hoping there will be that moment. That Watergate “What recordings?” moment. Call me foolish, but I remember a time when we impeached a president for a lie in a civil deposition. His detractors certainly accused him of much more, but that was the one thing they felt they could actually indict him on, and they had to dig for years to get just that. The Bush crimes are not even buried, but the press and our elected officials keep stumbling over them like so much clutter, and moving on to matters apparently far more important than defending the foundations of our liberty. Although they don’t say it, Congress’s actions - or inactions - reflect Bush’s own assessment of the Constitution as a “Goddamn piece of paper.”

But I’m hoping there will be that one question, and that one answer, that one piece of clutter that, despite their worst intentions, Congress will no longer be able to ignore. Yes, I should know better, but I keep hoping the obvious will finally be obvious enough. Call me a romantic, but if I don't keep hoping - and speaking and writing and voting - then it's over. And I rather like the country I grew up in. I want it back.