Helen Thomas: a wake-up call for Democrats

source: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1213-29.htm

It's about time that the "me too" Democrats, particularly those in Congress who vote with the Republicans so often, stand up and be counted. Too many Democrats are tiptoeing around the major issues facing our nation, afraid to venture out of the mainstream. This is a big mistake at a time when the nation is begging for true leadership. <skip>

Instead of endorsing universal health care - a topic that she knows a lot about - Clinton is busy co-sponsoring with Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, a law to bar desecration of the flag. Has anyone burned a flag lately? Clinton is a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, which might explain why she's busy pandering to conservatives instead of staking out a leadership role on more important issues.

The Democrats' lack of political courage has left voters with the choice of Republicans who call themselves that - and Republicans who call themselves Democrats. The result: The GOP gets a free ride. <skip>

Democrats have a golden opportunity to hammer away at the mistakes made by the Bush administration and to support Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who has made a dramatic and courageous call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within six months.

Murtha's House and Senate colleagues should rush to embrace him. Instead, many of them have scattered to the winds, carefully parsing out distinctions that they claim prove that they're not like Murtha. The Pennsylvania Democrat is a newly minted dove. He was in the Marine Corps for 37 years and had such close ties to the Pentagon brass that some believe he is speaking for many of them in his call to end the war in Iraq. Murtha argues that we will confront less terrorism if the United States ends its occupation of Iraq. He also frets that the U.S. military will be caught in an Iraqi civil war if it stays behind.

To the alarm of the right-leaning Democrats, Murtha has been joined by House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has endorsed his plan for a pullout from Iraq within six months. But most House Democrats are taking their marching orders from Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., the second-ranking House Democratic leader, who believe in a go-slow strategy. <skip>