Out of step and into the fire

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 16, 2002 | by Jennifer G. Hickey

A year-and-a-half ago Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat, had just garnered 60 percent of the vote, while Republican Rep. Bob Barr snagged 54 percent, sending both back to Congress. Representing divergent viewpoints on the left and the right, McKinney and Barr had been allied in recent months expressing concern about the potential loss of civil liberties under the USA PATRIOT Act, passed in response to the attacks of Sept. 11 [see "Police State" Dec. 3, 2001].

The changes that made the difference this year in their respective primary defeats, however, were redrawn congressional districts and constituencies uncomfortable with McKinney's outlandish and anti-Semitic rhetoric and Barr's misfiring rhetoric and real misfires. Tight pre-election polls in both districts had failed to predict the drubbings that both experienced on Aug. 20. Judged to be out of step by an electorate fatigued with political showmanship, they were voted out of office. Perhaps they will move in together in an apartment fitted with cameras and star in their own reality TV program. If so, it probably will outdraw the even more out-of-step Phil Donahue.

The not-so-peachy Georgians were not the only source of political confusion. With many of his colleagues spending "quality" time in their districts, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) convened a Capitol Hill forum to attack President George W. Bush for so much as considering a pre-emptive military strike against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. In laying out his argument against military action in Iraq, where the United States for years has been engaged in a frequent exchange of gunfire while patrolling the no-fly zone, Kucinich was joined by David Cortright of the Fourth Freedom Forum (FFF). The goal of the FFF is "a more civilized world based on the force of law rather than the law of force."

Joining in this adventure was a former U.N. weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, now an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in the Middle East. "This has less to do with national security and more to do with domestic American politics" said Ritter, who resigned his post in 1998 and only recently emerged as the David Brock of foreign-policy circles. Ritter now insists Saddam is no threat to his neighbors and alleges the U.S. government employed weapons inspectors in Iraq to spy on the dictatorial regime.

Kucinich said he would hold several more briefings when Congress returned from its recess on Sept. 3. The second of the forums is scheduled for the same week as the 30th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics at which members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September killed 11 Israeli athletes.

As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice met with Bush in Crawford, Texas, to discuss budget issues--not Iraq, the administration insisted--House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) laid out a case for action in a speech in Houston. He reminded the State Department that "it answers to the president of the United States, not the European Union" and dismissed both domestic and international opposition to an invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam by detailing the dictator's warlike record during the last decade.

"Our commander in chief's timetable must be dictated solely by national-security considerations ... [and] when that hour arrives, I'll lead the effort to provide President Bush unified support," said DeLay, who likely will ascend to the post of majority leader after November if the GOP retains control of the House. The current holder of that office is Rep. Dick Armey, also of Texas, who has been urging caution with Iraq and is one of a handful of GOP figures to whom opponents point when asserting the administration has not built enough support within the ranks of Congress [see political notebook, p. 8].

While the debate about Iraq largely has involved an exchange between former officials of the administrations of Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, D Congress will be looking to advance the debate in September. While Kucinich was not in Congress in January of 1991 when 183 representatives voted against authorizing the use of force in the Persian Gulf, many of his Democratic colleagues were.

In fact, several representatives who opposed the action now are seated in the Senate, where their voices will be heard in the coming weeks. These include Democrats Barbara Boxer of California, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Dick Durbin of Illinois. Rep. Connie Morella of Maryland is one of only three Republicans who voted no, the only one still in office and, in a redrawn district, will face stiff opposition from Democrats in the general election.

Both Bush and Rumsfeld dismissed the "intense speculation" and "frenzy" in the media concerning the administration's military plans, but neither attempted to put out the raging fires of speculation. The administration did, however, announce plans more effectively to combat forest fires, which continued to burn throughout the Pacific Northwest.

With wildfires this year claiming as many as 6 million acres of land so far --an area the size of New Hampshire--Bush announced his Healthy Forests Initiative, a proposal to streamline approval for thinning out federal forests and removing dead trees and undergrowth. After meeting with Oregon officials--including Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber and Sens. Gordon Smith, a Republican, and Ron Wyden, a Democrat--Bush outlined his initiative, characterizing the current policy as "misguided" in its priorities.