Why is this Washington Post poll important?
Because the Democrats retreat at the slightest indication that their principled position might not be supported by the American public (although we are dumbfounded that with a president at 29% approval ratings that wouldn't be sufficient proof that the public wants the Democrats to stand up for the Constitution and competency, as well as the rule of law.)
So, as Firedog Lake reports , the Post poll quickly became the "conventional wisdom" benchmark of the mainstream media and Democratic conventional leadership, even though it never emphasized the real pertinent questions, such as: "If the Bush Administration was using domestic spying for purposes other than tracking Al Qaeda suspects, would you support it?" or "If it was highly unlikely that the kind of domestic spying being used by NSA, including records of virtually every call being made in the U.S. -- including your own, could effectively be used to stop much terrorism, would you support its use?"
Furthermore, the more that is revealed about the NSA wiretapping, the more it is revealed that Bush, Gonzales and Hayden lied about its extent and the illegal nature of the activities. These men broke the law: period. They engaged in criminal behavior, according to Congressional statue. This is what people are tried and go to jail for.
Congress set up procedures, through the secret FISA court, for obtaining eavesdropping and spying warrants -- and the Bush Administration intentionally broke the law and bypassed FISA. And they aggressively broke the law, as the USA Today story on May 12 reveals.
But the timid Democratic leadership in Congress gets brushed back by such faulty polls and stops counter-messaging the Bush lies. Now, Hayden is going around Congress as if business were usual, continuing to lie, and the illegal Domestic spying continues. Senator Dick Durbin, normally a shining star among the Democrats, even appeared to accept that Hayden "might consider" asking Congress to make legal what the Bush Administration is now illegally doing to violate the Constitutional right of privacy.
That's not a concession, that's an invitation to codify the Politburo tactics of domestic police powers control implemented by the Busheviks.
We have long criticized the Washington Post, despite its occasional exposes, for being a tool of the White House. Their infamous recent editorial, "A Good Lie" not only justified Bush leaking classified information to retaliate against Joe Wilson, but also ignored and misstated facts printed in the news section of the paper on the same day.
Editorial pages should -- the tradition goes -- be independent of the news section, but they shouldn't be blind to facts reported by their journalists. Anyone who still continues to think that the Washington is a liberal political party paper as far as partisan politics is dearly misled.
Despite supporting Kerry, it is, on a day to day basis, an enabler of Bush, from the Karl Bernstein hagiographies of Bush and his covering up for their crimes -- to the editorial pages -- to the burying of significant stories on Bush illegalities and failures to the back pages of the front section. The editorial pages may indeed take shots, now and then, at Bush on individual issues -- and it is liberal on gay rights and abortion, but it is politically aligned with keeping Bush in power, because the Republicans are necessary for giving the Washington Post the media consolidation regulations, tax breaks, and regulatory relief that it needs.
Furthermore, the editors and publishers of the Washington Post are of the clubby insider D.C. social/political crowd. They don't want to get their Bushevik dinner mates at socialite events rield up. It's like a country set.
But, back to the NSA illegal spying -- which is said to be much more extensive than we currently know about. When newspapers across the nation had headlines on Friday such as, "Bush: No Laws Were Broken" (an actual six column headline, above the fold in the Chicago Tribune), then the Bush lie is getting out to millions upon millons of Americans with no strong counterattack of the truth by the Democrats.
That's a damn shame and a betrayal of America.
