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The Nation: The Most Valuable Progressives of 2005

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paineinthearse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-30-05 12:06 AM
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The Nation: The Most Valuable Progressives of 2005
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=45342

It is hard to complain about a year that began with George Bush bragging about spending the "political capital" he felt he had earned with his dubious reelection and ended with the president drowning in the Nixonian depths of public disapproval. But the circumstance didn't just get better. A handful of elected officials, activist groups and courageous citizens bent the arc of history toward justice. Here are this one columnist's picks for the Most Valuable Progressives of 2005:

* MVP -- U.S. Senate:

This is an easy category. While California Democrat Barbara Boxer deserves credit for refusing to go along with the certification of the dubious presidential election results from Ohio, and Arizona Republican John McCain merits praise for forcing the administration to back down from its pro-torture stance, there's no question that Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold was the essential senator of 2005. He was the first member of the chamber to call for a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq -- a stance that initially was ridiculed but ultimately drew support from many of Feingold's fellow Democrats and even a few Republicans. And he ended the year by forging a bipartisan coalition that beat back the Bush administration's demand for the long-term extension of the Patriot Act, scoring one of the most significant wins for civil liberties that Congress has seen in years.

* MVP -- U.S. House:

There are plenty of members of the House who deserve credit for standing up to the administration on critical issues -- from Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown, who led the fight against Central American Free Trade Agreement, to Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, who was the point man in the battle to fix the Patriot Act, to North Carolina Republican Walter Jones, who courageously broke with the administration to oppose the war. And, of course, there was Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha, the decorated Vietnam veteran who forced the House to get serious about the war he called for a speedy withdrawal. But the essential member of the House in 2005 was Michigan Democrat John Conyers, the ranking member of his party on the Judiciary Committee. No one used their bully pulpit better in 2005 than Conyers, who gathered damning information about electoral irregularities in the 2004 Ohio presidential voting and then led the challenge to the certification of the results, held hearings on the Downing Street Memo's revelations regarding the Bush administration's doctoring of pre-war intelligence, and ended the year by moving resolutions to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney for lying to Congress and the American people -- and to set up a committee to examine the issue of impeachment.

* MVP -- Executive Branch:

Yes, there was one. It's Lawrence B. Wilkerson, the retired U.S. Army colonel who served as chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin L. Powell until Powell exited the State Department in January, 2005. After leaving his position, Wilkerson began revealing the dark secrets of the Bush-Cheney interregnum, telling a New America Foundation gathering in October that during his years in the administration: "What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made." Wilkerson warned that, with "a president who is not versed in international relations and not too much interested in them either," the country is headed in an exceptionally dangerous direction. "I would say that we have courted disaster, in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita and I could go on back, we haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time," Wilkerson explained. "And if something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence." That is truth telling of a quality and a scope all too rarely witnessed in the Washington of Bush and Cheney.

* MVP -- Law Enforcement Branch:

While Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald deserved all the headlines and the credit he got for indicting I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the now former chief-of-staff for Vice President Dick Cheney and a key player in faking up the "case" for war with Iraq, Fitzgerald's work is just beginning. His most important indictments are yet to come. The prosecutor who took the greatest risks and who secured the most consequential indictment of 2005 was Travis County, Texas, District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who brought down House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The man who ran Congress for most of the Bush years has not been convicted -- yet -- but DeLay was forced to step down as majority leader and no one who watches Washington thinks he will ever regain that position. Earle got his man, and began the long process of cleansing a Congress that, after all these years of being run by a pest-control specialist, is in serious need of fumigation.

* MVP -- Citizen Branch:

In August, when Democrats leaders in Washington were still talking about working with the Bush administration on Iraq -- effectively leaving Americans who were growing increasingly ill-at-ease about the war without a voice in the chambers of power -- the mother of a slain soldier followed Bush to his Crawford, Texas, ranchette and asked him to take a few minutes away from his month-long vacation to talk about the quagmire. Cindy Sheehan put the issue of the war back at the forefront of the national agenda, forcing even the dysfunctional White House press corps to start covering dissenters and getting D.C. Democrats to wake up to the reality that the American people had lost faith in the president and his military misadventure.

* MVP -- Watchdog Branch:

The media did a slightly better job of monitoring political wrongdoing in 2005 than it did during the first four years of the Bush-Cheney presidency -- when it actually would have mattered. But the real work of exposing the misdeeds of the administration is still being done by activist groups. And the most inspired of these in 2005 was After Downing Street, the coalition of groups that describes itself as "working to expose the lies that launched the war and to hold accountable its architects, including through censure and impeachment." In conjunction with Progressive Democrats of America, the able activist group that seeks to create an actual opposition party in America, After Downing Street is pushing the political envelope in exactly the direction it needs to go. Check out their website at www.afterdowningstreet.org website and keep ahead of the action in 2006.
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az chela Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-30-05 01:56 AM
Response to Original message
1. All great choices.
Edited on Fri Dec-30-05 01:57 AM by az chela
I agree with all the ones on here except John Mccain,who I have no respect for!!! The man is as bad as Bush but uses the fact he was a pow to his advantage.I actually campaigned for him when he ran against Bush as I felt at the time that anyone was better than Bush.
Now John supports the war and almost every other thing the the idiot son has done.I have called Mccains office many times to tell them how I felt he was betraying the people and actually received a call from his office about one of my emails and sense I had a listener I told the guy who called exactly what I thought of John and I ranted for 10 minutes while the guy was politely trying to get off the phone.I really doubt I will hear from that office again!!!!
I support John Conyers 100 percent and respect him more than anyone in office.If he ever ran for president I would campaign for him in a heart beat.
Thanks for posting this as the facts are so right on.
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longship Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-30-05 01:58 AM
Response to Original message
2. Recommend and kick for John Nichols.
nt
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-30-05 02:20 AM
Response to Original message
3. I am one with the Conyers!h

Love this one: "The media did a slightly better job of monitoring political wrongdoing in 2005 than it did during the first four years of the Bush-Cheney presidency -- when it actually would have mattered."

Double slam, with style. High five!!!

Wilkerson and Fitzgerald are my two faves after all time fave Boxer. These two may or may not be Democrats but they are certainly truth tellers and patriots.

This is great stuff.

btw, Conyers retired the prize with his bravery by going into Hell on Earth, Ohio and acting boldly to try and regenerate democracy in this country.

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az chela Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-30-05 02:27 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Okay so lets put our support beyond this remarkable man
Not only is John brilliant,he cares about this country and our rights.If we get behind him 100 percent we can help him take down Bushco.Look at how he spoke out at the Downing St Memo when very few would support him and he kept on speaking out.We need to do all we can to give him our support and loyalty.
I plan on volunteering to get his message out to everyone who wants to know the truth.
Peace Now!!!!
I read that he would be at the protest jan 31st in DC so all of you who can make it please get out there and support him.
He is my hero!!!!
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-30-05 02:46 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. az chela, You're right! I'll be there!
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paineinthearse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-30-05 05:05 PM
Response to Original message
6. .
:kick:
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