Nancy Pelosi's "Failure" Statement WAS HARSH

Unfortunately, it was still not HARSH ENOUGH!

Yes, Nancy Pelosi will be thoroughly gutted by the time you read this. I really pity her. The avalanche of ugly criticism and mockery might bury her politically. But people should take into consideration that the statement was more courageous than foolhardy. Probably the only foolhardiness in her diatribe was in the timing: either she's beating a dead horse, or she's encouraging Bush's (few) supporters to do what America loves doing: rooting for the underdog. In either case, she was trying to be honest and not vicious in what she said. Her statement implied that George was incompetent.

There is a difference, however, between incompetence and villainy. The Bush administration has become a conspiracy theorist's wet dream: the secrecy and lust for more powers make it extremely suspect. A small rundown: Cheney's secret conversations with energy companies; executive "privilege" invoked too many times; the transparent WMD statements; warrant-less wiretapping; Downing Street memos; refusal to testify for an fact-finding 9/11 Commission; extreme cronyism; secrecy in war fatality situations; ignoring the Geneva Conventions; connections with the Saudi Royal family; no-bid contracts; cummuting the criminal sentence of an administrative aide without proper reason.

And then there is the theory of prior knowledge of 9/11. Yes, I've seen the seven minute video of Bush in the school listening to the story of My Pet Goat. His demeanor is not just calm, but almost - resolved: "Well, this is it, there's no turning back. Saddam will be sorry." But there is another disturbing fact: three months after 9/11, he told a school (video-taped) that he had seen flight #11 hit the first tower on a TV before he went in to the classroom. That would have been impossible: there was no live coverage of the plane crashing into the first tower - that footage was provided by a French documentary film crew THE NEXT DAY.

I'm not happy thinking about these things. They make me angry and depressed. And sad. Americans place their trust in people. Yes, they know that public officials can be downright crooked, but they place their trust in them anyway. In a sense, they have no other choice: they cannot elect someone to the high office of President, then monitor his/her every move. The Presidents of the 21st century will be hampered by Bush's secrecy: either they will be scrutinized and harassed mercilessly from the moment they take office, or they will be forced to use "executive privilege" and look to be even more secret than Bush.

Whatever Bush's legacy may be in future generations, it will not be "Honesty."

Just a thought. Oh, and I thought you might want to see this: