With Murtha's Defeat, the Lights are Already Going Out

News that Rep. John Murtha has been cast aside for another candidate is a signal that the Democrats still don't get it. The selection of Murtha would have been a clear signal that the party was prepared to move for rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Should they temporize on this issue and allow the U.S. presence to linger, they will seal their fate as a viable political party with a significant sector of the voting public, a public that clearly wants the bleeding in Iraq to stop. The Democrats are living on borrowed time. Evil in its own right, the war is the political right's and the large corporations' greatest weapon of mass distraction from the myriad other issues that require remediation following the long years of corrupt Republican rule. There is the environment and a host of other "quality of life" issues that range from FCC deregulation to disinvestment in the infrastructure to the evisceration of the union movement. If we are to be treated to endless hearings and investigations about the war and the treatment of prisoners to the exclusion of all other issues, there is little doubt that there will be another Republican in the White House in 2008 and the opportunity for meaningful reform will be postponed possibly for decades. U.S. politicians often treat elections as popularity contests rather than as mandates for substantive change. We didn't vote for you, boys and girls; we voted for you to get something done. Trent Lott and Steny Hoyer are place markers for business as usual. Really shameful.