The Sellout

In true Barnum and Bailey fashion, the Bush administration has used the hucksters' credo, you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, to great advantage.
According to Bill Moyer’s Journal, the Bush foreign-policy camp was investigated by two independent groups, The Senate For Public Integrity and The Fund For Independence In Journalism, to determine how many false statements were made prior to the invasion of Iraq. They concluded that the top seven officials, including the President, the Vice President and the Secretary of State, gave false or misleading statements at least 935 times. On at least 532 separate occasions, Saddam Hussein was said to have links to Al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction; statements later proven to be false. In his words, Bill Moyer states “the war in Iraq was a public relations propaganda campaign based on one big lie". Nevertheless, we are still in Iraq for an indeterminate length of time and at a continuing cost in the billions.
We the taxpayers are spending millions of dollars annually for junkets to the Middle East to keep our lawmakers informed, but we should wonder what they do there. Congressmen and senators are the most highly paid and pampered public servants in our nation. However, only a few voices seem willing to speak out against "the lie" and to vote against funding a clearly illegal and immoral war. It would seem to be clear that laws need to be passed providing penalties for those lying to the American public while in the publics' employ. How this can be done is hard to imagine. After all, this group has been responsible for approving massive pay raises and perks for themselves while working Americans' paychecks have remained flat over the past seven years. For a group which considers themselves above taxation (that's right folks, congressional and senatorial salaries are not subject to federal taxes) it would be completely unrealistic to expect self-censure. Although they make a huge deal out of consensual oral sex, oral obfuscation and outright lying are under their radar.
Somewhere along the line the reason to become a public servant and to put the public interest first has become an ideal whose time has passed. With big government in bed with big business, the resulting bastard child is the sellout of America. The poor boy from the backwoods of Illinois has no chance of moving up the political ladder while keeping integrity and honor intact.
People who keep score have determined a winning presidential candidate needs a war chest of upwards of $100 million to win an election. If you think anyone stands a chance of raising that kind of money on principles, think again. Every politician begins his career (one would hope) as an idealist. After a few backroom compromises are made to get the support of special interest groups, idealism is replaced with pragmatism. The reasoning is simple. With ideals, I don't get elected; with compromises I do. By the time anyone reaches a high public office, he (she) has compromised their soul. To recall an old phrase, once you have them by their purse strings, their principles and politics will follow.

Bob Parmelee Parmsplace