GREAT READ - Molly Ivins: We can't ignore the Downing Street Memos

AUSTIN, Texas -- I hope this is not too Inside Baseball, but I am genuinely astonished by what the bloggers call "Mainstream Media." (In my youth, it was quaintly called "the Establishment press.") The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have all gone way out of their way to deny that the Downing Street Memos (it's now plural) are news. Like many of you, during the entire lead-up to the war with Iraq, I thought the whole thing was a set-up..........

Also aggravating, the Republicans in Congress refuse to allow hearings. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan held "Democratic hearings," without the Rs, in a room described as a large closet, because they were not allowed to use an actual hearing room. Under these difficult circumstances, 30 Democratic representatives persisted in asking the important question, "Were Americans deliberately misled in the lead-up to this war?" When did we come to the point where the minority has no place?

I don't know if these memos represent an impeachable offense -- although I must say, I don't want to bring up the Clinton comparison again. But they strike me as a hell of lot worse than anything Richard Nixon ever contemplated. He used the government for petty political vindictiveness. Heck, I'd settle for that again, over what we're looking at now.

The irony of Deep Throat surfacing after all these years in the midst of this memo mess is almost too precious. Does The Washington Post have any hungry young reporters on Metro anymore? I'd say, start with: Who did Dearlove meet with besides George Tenet?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/national/ivins/v-print/story/13102259p-13947010c.html

...."Do any newspapers have any hungry young reporters on their staff anymore?"

.



.

This is an impeachable offense and now there is proof. But instead we get Durbin having to apologize, Amnesty Int. being called evil, Aruba, a boy scout, and another anti-Hillary book getting the press.

it's really a BA in English, so I'll be sure to emphasize that on my resume next time I apply for a job.

I don't work in the industry now anyway, and I'm actually pretty glad about that. If there are any good journalists, I'd like to know where they are. Local papers perhaps?

Non-descript, some crapola about Texas politics. Must have been the stand-by piece should any columnists bring up the DSM again. Not ONE WORD about DSM in any way shape or form on any page of the Hartford Courant today. Even Molly.

<snip>

Here are some aggravating factors. Tom Friedman, columnist for The New York Times, recently wrote that "liberals" no longer want to talk about the war because we were against it to start with and probably hope it ends in disaster. Good Lord, who does he think we are? Does this man actually think we are out here cheering every time another American is killed?

Mr. Friedman, real, actual, honest-to-God American liberals are out here in the heartland, and we know the kids who are dying in Iraq. They are from our hometowns. We know their parents. That's why we hate this war. That's why we tried to tell everybody else it was a ghastly idea.

The second aggravation is that the very prestigious papers that are now dismissing the Downing Street Memos have already themselves admitted that their pre-war coverage was -- I don't know, you pick the adjective. Slack? Inadequate? Less than rigorous? Wrong? And now they're saying, oh hell, this isn't news, we knew it all along.

Michael Kinsley out at the Los Angeles Times, which has certainly done some commendable reporting on this war and taken the heat for it, too, also dismisses the memos. I don't get it. You suddenly get evidence -- I don't know if it proves or just strongly suggests -- that this administration lied to all of us about war, and your reaction is not to go after the administration, but to dismiss the evidence? And to put down the people who are calling you screaming about why you haven't bothered to mention it? What is wrong with this picture?

<snip>

Btw, recommended post for Greatest Page.

It's a gem through and through!

She speaks English.

When I listen to McClellan, Cheney and Rice for very long, I start thinking I'm losing my mind. The lap-dog reporters just nod at their bizarre, disconnected lies and evasions and act like nothing is strange about it at all, and I start thinking I'm the one who's nuts.

But then I read Molly, and I know I'm sane. I may not know everthing, and I may have no power at all, but at least I'm not crazy!