There was the time when Tom Sawyer was given the task of whitewashing the fence. Being naturally loath to do work of any kind, he found a way to convince all the other kids to do his whitewashing for him - and pay for the "privilege".Now, the Bush administration, always loath to do any real work or take responsibility for anything, has turned the job of whitewashing over to congressional leaders. In this case, the clearly unconstitutional, warrantless spying program is being whitewashed. The Senate won't bother to investigate George W. Bush's criminal activity at all. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts has already postponed a vote to investigate, and will certainly continue to delay until he gets an "investigation" that investigates nothing.
On the House side, the ball is in the Intelligence Committee's court. Yet despite the protestations of Republican committee member Heather Wilson, the committee's chairman, Peter Hoekstra, will only focus on how to change the law to pretend that Bush's choice to the constitution should have been legal.
Republican leaders are counting on three things to bring this whitewash off. First, they are counting on their own party members to toe the party line, something they didn't seem able to accomplish only a week ago, but somehow managed to pull off. Second, they are assuming that Democratic leaders failing once again to fight for the truth - and the history of this Democratic leadership indicates that the Republicans can smugly assume away. Third, Republican leaders are hoping that the mass media will continue to play lap dog, quietly repeating Republican press releases as if they are "all the truth that's fit to print."
Unfortunately, the mass media is doing just that, and nothing more. Even the New York Times, which in recent weeks has finally begun blasting George W. Bush for his administration's crimes in their editorials, barely mentions any opposition to this whitewash. They merely note that one (and only one!) Democratic senator is "fuming".
So the Republican whitewash will probably succeed. Again. And Democrats, along with the supposedly "free" press, will fiddle while our constitution is burning.
Tom Sawyer is, for most of the story, unabashedly lazy, snotty, uncaring and irresponsible. But at the end of the story he begins to grow up and take responsibility for his actions. Will this ever happen with George W. Bush? Probably not - and certainly not while he has Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Karl Rove around him, whitewash experts like Senator Pat Roberts down the street, an opposition party that won't stand up and be counted, and a corporate media that refuses to tell the truth.
Copyright 2006, Dan Jacoby
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