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A Sign of Life or Aberration?

Yesterday, for the first time in what seems like years, we saw a slight sign of life from the Senate Democrats. Led by their leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the Dems invoked a rarely used tactic that allowed them to hold a closed-door session in the senate and for 3 1/2 hours they had at the Repubs, non-violently I presume, demanding a real investigation into the Bush administration’s handling of pre-war intelligence.

The Republicans expressed outrage, as could be expected. They claimed to have been blind-sided by the tactic. Republican majority leader, Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) claimed that he would not trust Harry Reid for the “next year and one-half.” Wow, the truth is I won’t trust the Repubs for the rest of my life…..

The Republicans are outraged that the Dems stood up for themselves and the country. Like any victim of domestic abuse, the Dems are supposed to just lie there and take the beating. Like any abuser, the Repubs are astonished when the abused stands up and says, “Hold it, stop this.!” Using the abuser/abused image himself, Sen. Harry Reid told the media that, “It’s a slap in the face to the American people that this investigation has been stymied.” In fact, the slappers even accused the slapees of doing the slapping. Sen. Frist, turning the tables, said he felt “slapped in the face” by Reid.

Truth is both parties need a good smack across their behinds by the American people. Both corrupt parties need a good whack, a shaking up, and a shaking down. But that might be just too much to expect from a populace distracted by the abortion buzz this week.

The Republicans want to ride the abortion issue as long as they can. By appointing Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, a clear “pro-life right-winger,” George W. Bush was hoping he could knock the Iraq war and Scooter Libby legal indictments off the front page. There is nothing like a good abortion fight to distract the American people from a war, a massive budget crisis, growing job losses, and more. Now don’t get me wrong, I think Judge Alito will be a disaster for all of us. Our constitutional privacy protections will be destroyed with him on the court. But can we get as outraged about the premature “abortion” of over 100,000 Iraqi lives (mostly innocent civilians) from this illegal and immoral war?

Now the question for me is, was yesterday’s slap happy event just a one-slap deal or is this a sign the Dems are getting real. I have my doubts. I’d like to be wrong.

BRUCE K. GAGNON is Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He can be reached at: globalnet@mindspring.com