Dear Readers,

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 14, 2003

Byline: Paul M. Rodriguez, INSIGHT

Dear Readers,

Controversy is nothing new in Washington and certainly there is much happening along the corridors of power which is controversial that can raise tempers. But lately something a bit more than normal politics is afoot. And this bodes ill for the nation regarding you and me the average citizen. So in the spirit of lightheartedness, we suggest that all good men and women keep in mind that while politics ought to be serious it also can be fun just check out the California gubernatorial mess. What a hoot!

What brings these thoughts to mind are the various hearings, speeches and mudslingings involving the war in Iraq, the federal budget, presidential politics on the campaign trail and the constant yammering from the nattering nabobs of negativity. The result of these truly mean-spirited and angry catfights is that problems do not get rationally analyzed and questions don't get answered. It's as though agendas are more important than fixes.

For example: Congressional leaders have known for many months that the cost of the Iraqi "occupation" was going to be a staggering sum of money and that no firm timetable could be set for the turnover. Yet listening to Sens. Ted Kennedy and Bobby Byrd (and others) one would think they just woke to realize what most everybody else understood: War ain't cheap and neither is reconstruction.

What's overlooked by these stalwarts of democracy and ignored by too many in the press are the many good things occurring and how the money to stabilize Iraq is being spent. J. Michael Waller took time to dig and provides an in-depth report of what many have missed. Beginning with a bipartisan context is helpful. Just because one is a partisan ought not mean that everybody on the other side of the aisle is a malignant cretin. Consider Timothy W. Maier's investigative article on Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel. Just because conservatives disagree with so much of what that clan does doesn't mean that Kennedys should not be accorded justice and fair play. And in the case of Skakel, there appears to be much more to the story on his conviction than meets the eye.

That's why the press and we say this often is such a vital element of our collective freedoms. We all need to get at the truth and have hard discussions about disagreeable subjects from all the angles. John Berlau's follow-up on the Columbia shuttle disaster is a good example. He earlier had reported on questions about some of NASA's eco-friendly policies and whether changes to a freon-free foam may have contributed to the orbiter's demise. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert and a top aide had a conniption and made varying demands for a correction to state that in no way, shape or form did any environmentally friendly NASA policy, such as new foam, cause the accident. We were prepared to run the congressman's letter and leave it at that were it not for persistent calls for a retraction. This prompted still more questions and Berlau discovered his initial sources were not the only ones who had questions, but so did a prominent member of the board investigating the shuttle's disintegration. Check it out.

Kelly Patricia O'Meara's cover story on the evildoers Osama and Saddam helps put into perspective other hard lessons some still being learned it seems. The same can be said of Jamie Dettmer's article on Tony Blair and Kenneth R. Timmerman's expose on Jacques Chirac.

Hopefully our story on Afghanistan also will help some folks who seem blind to what's needed in that war-ravaged country. Without full-bore security there can be no reconstruction. But somehow, while in Iraq that lesson sank in, it's been lost in Afghanistan where the plans for 9/11 were hatched.

Sometimes asking questions isn't enough. Sometimes it requires putting questions into context so that the answers that emerge will make sense.

From your newsman in the nation's capital, God bless.