Obey Is No Obi-Wan...

I have just completed reading David R. Obey's autobiography - Raising Hell For Justice: The Washington Battles of a Heartland Progressive.

I heard him talk about it once at a FightingBob Fest. He decided to write it because he was disgusted by former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson's claim that:

"he and his conservative allies were the true, modern-day inheritors of the La Follette Progressive tradition. That claim is preposterous. In fact, the Thompson administration in Wisconsin, and the Reagan and Bush administrations nationally, restored to economic and political ascendency the very economic elites that LaFollette fought all of his life."

From my perspective the evidence presented by Obey in his book confirms that Thompson was aided and abetted by none other than David R. Obey.

More than anything else, Dave has demonstrated that he wants his job more than he wants to do it.

Long, long, ago...in 1972 to be exact Watergate was coming to the nation's attention. Dave wrote out a press release on the campaign trail that said that:

"...if the White House linkage should prove true, Nixon should resign.

I do not believe I have ever been more angry in my political life than I was that night. The idea that the leader of the free world would be corrupt enough to condone the kind of thuggery represented by Watergate blew my mind. But what made me even angrier was my conviction that Nixon would get away with it..."

One can't help but wonder where that sense of outrage has gone.

In his chapter on Presidents, Obey points out that he has served "with", not "under", seven Presidents - I'll let you read his book if you want the difference between "with and "under" explained - my conclusion is that the American people have been "under" all seven of them and all the Congresses that Dave has been part of. At some length, Obey finally concludes:

"That is why I am left with the judgement that Nixon may in some ways be surpassed by the present occupant of the White House in comparative damage done this country...

His 'My way or the highway' mind-set demonstrated that he was determined to advance his uncompromising agenda...

It (the Bush administration) unilaterally declared that it would wage preemptive war in Iraq under the misleading banner of antiterrorism, even though the administration's own intelligence could not demonstrate in any way that Iraq was connected to Al-Qaeda's 9/11 attack on our country.

Bush led the nation into war on the flimsiest of intelligence, and when the information that was used to drive the nation to war was found to be wildly off the mark, the administration questioned the patriotism of those who challenged the misuse of that information...George W. Bush has mired us in a quagmire that will hold us captive for years to come..."

And David R. Obey, now one of the most powerful Congressman, insists that "impeachment is a waste of time" and that "impeachment is off the table." Did he support Feingold's motion to censure or was he one of the silent democrats?

This book is full of names but noticeably missing from his book are the names of people who have challenged this administration from minority positions - Paul Wellstone, John Conyers, and and Dennis Kucinich. He only makes grudging mention of Jack Murtha after the 2006 elections - "Jack Murtha and I worked more closely than we had in our entire careers in the House." But he laments:

"What Nancy (Pelosi) and I found especially frustrating was that even though the Bush White House and the Republican Party were vehemently opposed to our actions, several groups of far left antiwar protesters were targeting us for demonstrations and sit-ins at my offices and at Nancy's home. I told the press that their actions were akin to someone on a football team trying to sack their own quaterback."

Actually Dave the question is what team do you play for?

And I think that is summed up way back in your career during the Nixon days:

"McGovern was one of the most decent, conscience-driven men I had ever known in politics. He was a genuine war hero, a World War II bomber pilot in the
European theater, but almost no one knew it. I knew that, in November, the country would be more willing to bestow its trust on that paranoid in the White House than they would on a soft-spoken war hero who had sense enough to know the difference between a war worth fighting and a misguided adventure that we were sucked into by our leader's own lies. The futility and outrage of it gnawed at my gut, but I knew that there was nothing I could do about it. I hated the thought of four more years with such a political savage in the White House. McGovern was going down the tubes. The question was: Would he take people like me down with him?"

Like I said earlier - Obey wants his job more than he wants to do it. Standing on principle might lead to defeat - or - in these times - benching by the corporate team captains.

The heroic McGovern still stands - he wrote "Why I Believe Bush Must Go - published on January 6th, 2008.

David R. Obey knew that resistance to the empire was futile a long time ago - he is no Obi-Wan Kenobi . Only the "far left antiwar protesters" might have different expectations of what "raising hell for justice" might mean.