What IS it with Ron Lewis?
Wed. Nov 21, 2007
Though I'm originally a Louisville native, I've lived out here in Shelby County, Ron Lewis's congressional district, for more than 7 years now. That means I've had 4 chances to vote against Lewis, and I've taken every single one of those opportunities. Alas, we haven't been able to dislodge him yet, but hope still springs eternal in KY-2.
But there's something new in the air this year: Lewis actually seems to be trying to get re-elected (rather than merely trashing his opponent), for the first time since I've lived here at least. Let me explain why I say this:
In my 7 years as a KY-2 resident, I've written to Rep. Lewis probably 30 or 40 times on various issues. Added to that, I've signed an uncountable number of petitions that were delivered to Lewis among others.
In all those attempts to contact and/or express my opinion to Rep. Lewis, all I've ever received in return, before a few months ago, was a mass-mailed letter per contact, in almost every case a letter telling me that whatever I thought was wrong, and thanks very much for giving Rep. Lewis the opportunity to set me straight.
Well, that was then - when the Republicans arrogantly assumed they'd keep being re-elected for eternity - and this is now - when it's clear, at least in Kentucky, that Republicans not only CAN be, but ARE being soundly trounced at the ballot box.
So - Preacher Ron Lewis is actually making an effort, and has even learned a bit about technology. Here's how:
Since early August, I've received no fewer than 5 emails from Lewis's office, headered variously: Tired of High Gas Prices?, Of God and Country, Values in the Workplace, End Internet Taxes, and Honoring Veterans.
I also received, just yesterday as it happens, a 5X8 full-color postcard-style campaign literature piece. I hasten to point out that I am in NO way likely to be on any Repug mail or email lists, so these emes etc. were sent to the district at large when email addresses were available.
As a usually insatiably curious political junkie, I blush to admit that, after opening the first email and discovering its essentially electoral nature, I did not open the rest, nor did I give more than a cursory glance to the postcard.
But here's my point, regardless of the specific contents of any or all of these emails etc.: my and my fellow 2nd District voters' receipt of these emails and/or cards, coupled with the knowledge of Sen. McMitch's being the first senator up for re-election in 08 to hit the airwaves, in both men's cases even before they've been presented with bona fide opponents (Dr. Cassaro notwithstanding), says to me, not unreasonably I think, that the Republican candidates are reading the handwriting on the wall, and are scared spitless.
At least, I hope so. Certainly, they deserve to be scared.
So our job as Democratic operatives is to give them even more to be scared about, even more to spend their hard-earned campaign cash on, and even more reason to recognize that their arrogant, I-don't-care-what-the-people-think, Karl-Rove-and-Bush-are-GODS attitudes toward public service are kaput.
I for one cannot WAIT to see Lewis, McMitch, Bush et al. get their comeuppance, perhaps to run into them on the way to the SUI office, or behind the counter at a Mickey D's somewhere. From my admittedly subjective POV, it's long overdue, and a-comin' at them like a runaway train.
Crossposted at BluegrassRoots.org
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June 22, 2007
(Originally posted in a slightly edited form as a comment on BluegrassReport.org)
(Updates below 1 - 2)
Without further introduction, from today's WaPo on this matter:
...Vice President Cheney's office has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules, according to documents released by a congressional committee yesterday.
Since 2003, the vice president's staff has not cooperated with an office at the National Archives and Records Administration charged with making sure the executive branch protects classified information. Cheney aides have not filed reports on their possession of classified data and at one point blocked an inspection of their office. After the Archives office pressed the matter, the documents say, Cheney's staff this year proposed eliminating it.
(emphasis added)
============================================
To all the right-wingnuts who visit and occasionally comment on this site:
Where do we go from here? I mean, is this just OK with you, that this sort of lawlessness in the highest offices of our land go not only unpunished but virtually unremarked for nearly FOUR YEARS?
Will Pres. Bush call Cheney down on this, and fire him if he refuses to comply? (See update #2 below for the answer.)
Will the Gonzales Justice Dept. cite him, and charge him if he refuses yet again to comply with the law?
Will the stacked, 5-4 in-favor-of-Bush-as-God Supreme Court find constitutional fault with his recalcitrance?
Or will the just-barely-Democratic Congress find the votes, or more to the point the political courage to impeach an Executive Branch official who flaunts the law in this way?
Where do we, the people, go for redress when our leaders are not only lawbreakers but flagrant and admitted lawbreakers, who protect each other at the grave expense of our democracy?
This is the box that the Bush administration has built for our country: they have so successfully loaded our government and our courts with their friends and fellow-travelers that there IS no redress. Cheney will almost certainly NOT be called to task for this unconscionable breaking of the law, and no one can do anything about it.
And some folks, mostly right-wing nutcases who seem incapable of seeing what damage is being done to America and Americans on a daily basis, but also a few people who see themselves as "thinkers", think that's just A-OK. They think it will never backfire on them, and that the government that takes their civil rights from them is "protecting" them by doing so. They never seem to imagine what it would be like if some of these "protections" were used against them.
And so our nation sinks ever lower into the pit of despotism, and there are still folks who cheer the descent and those who are taking us there.
Seriously, folks, you on the right who think all this is OK: do you really want this - lawbreakers in positions of power - to be America's message to the world?
Never mind, I fear your answer would only depress me further.
In closing, let me offer this from Salon's Glenn Greenwald. Yes, he's a liberal - but that doesn't make him wrong. At least not automatically. If you still think Bush is a strong and steadfast and righteous leader, read this, with at least a half-open mind. See if there isn't something you can learn from it.
A tragic legacy: How a good vs. evil mentality destroyed the Bush presidency
The America Bush has created is NOT the America I grew up in, and is most assuredly not the America I wish to die in.
UPDATE 1: Cheney DID NOT say he is No Longer a Member of the Executive Branch: The Real Story is Much Worse
UPDATE 2: Bush claims oversight exemption too