Nelson writes "...Democrats remain rudderless and devoid of a coherent idea".

What does it take for the Democrats to get credit for having ideas? How many speeches? How many policy papers? How many proposed bills in Congress? Are these efforts just considered a shotgun approach by all of the Washington elite? Or have the GOP talking points become completely absorbed by the Conventional Wisdom?

Just wondering...

HI...thanks for this. In prior Nelson Reports I have made the point that us Dems are under the obvious handicap that we do NOT operate in a parliamentary democracy with a coherent "Opposition", with it Shadow Cabinet, and clearly articulated FULLY ACCEPTED OFFICIAL policy positions, spokespersons, etc.

So I didn't mean it as a throwaway cheap shot so much as a short-hand reference to an institutional lack of organization, to which there is really no obvious solution.

Last night I was way too short-hand, obviously, and I understand how you read it as you did. My main concern, of course, was to flesh-out the incredible Wilkerson cris de cour.

Chris N.

"genuine cris de cour"

WHY are these people only uttering these heartfelt cris de cour NOW? Why didn't they say something BEFORE THE IRAQ INVASION when it might have done some good? Or did they all just not want to leave the ship til it was obviously sinking?

As for Colin Powell, I hope you meant to say he was an "UNwitting" tool for these people. If he went along knowingly -- in other words, if he knew enough NOT to go along but did anyway -- then I'll spend my compassion on somebody who actually deserves it.

thanks again, steve, and thanks, chris... all of this (wilkerson, chris nelson, and soon-to-be scowcroft) deserves the broadest dissemination possible... meanwhile, the deconstruction of our country proceeds apace...

Mr. Nelson --

Would you be so kind as to parse the following baffling sentences?

"Yet the number of deeply patriotic, honest, self-less and effective men and women in this Administration is no less than any other, and a great deal more than some. It is literally heart-breaking to witness the death of a dream."

What dream? And in what conceivable sense could the "implosion" of this Administration be "literally heart-breaking." Do you mean that you feel for the decent people in this Administration (we will have to take your word for there being more than in some other Administrations), one of whom has only just seen fit to speak out wrt the entirely irrational manner in which foreign policy has been conducted? But, once again, you say we are witnessing the "death of a dream" (some might say "nightmare"). What dream? Whose dream? That of the Republican Party in its neoconservative incarnation? I ask you, as a Democrat and brilliant pundit weighing a potentially devastating political vacuum to come, is mourning the order of the day?

Dear Steve and Chris Nelson,

THANK YOU for the "Nelson Report." It's wonderful. So much is happening, and you guys are making it happen.

Thanks.

bw

TO "ANNIECAT" AND "ELSe":

1. On whether I meant "witting" as in "intentional", yes, but it referred to Powell's even then thinking Rummy/Cheney et al were nutso dangerous creeps, to indulge in understatement on this rainy Friday.

2. To Else, parsing is always in the mind of the beholder, but I've been in DC pretty much since 1970, and while there are plenty of these current folks whom I think are genuinely functionally evil...Feith comes to mind, and Cheney since his triple bypass unglued his emotions...by and large most Republican staffers that I know are perfectly normal decent people who sincerely believe they have a good program going (on whatever) and that it's us Dems who don't get it.

That's by and large. Of course on Katrina or the size of the Iraq occupation army, etc., they see as clearly as anyone the stupidity.

Well, Rove would qualify as genuinely evil, given his cynical use of race and gay bashing. And Scooter Libby can play hard-ball to the point where it ain't kosher...so sometimes him, too. But what I wrote about the "dream" and the nice normal folks who inexplicably are Republicans was really aimed at my friends there...and also to you...to remind you that real monsters are damn rare and I am uncomfortable demonizing a whole class of folks just because I think Bush is a dirt bag. Geeze I sound like Jed Bartlett. Have a good weekend...let's talk about Gina Davis next week. Chris N.

Been visiting Steve's site since Bolton; and while I haven't been checking in lately, I'm delighted to see the Wilkerson speech, and Chris Nelson's great follow-up. I'm delighted to see some of what's "behind the curtain" in this administration!
Thank you Steve, and Chris!

A suggestion:

Given the genuine love felt by so many on both sides of the aisle and the very serious honest statements coming from so many senior people on the very grave problems we now face, it is vital that the cleanup effort being launched Monday be deeply coordinated across aisle.

Rather than this being a repeat of Watergate it should become one of the finest moments in American history; elder statesmen and stateswomen of ALL stripes coming forward together to acknowledge the problems, apologize for them, and guide the nation back on course. Hard to imagine in this era of partisanship, yet if Wilkerson's beliefs in prowess of Bush Sr's diplomacy skills are warranted, it should be no harder for him to successfullly reach across the aisle than it was to complete his many previous stretches across national lines.

There can be nothing more reassuring to the nation and the world than to see the respected heroes of yesteryear put down philosophical differences and join together to right these wrongs, and perhaps even forgive each other in the process.

After the immediate transitions of authority necessary for this process of cleansing, both those patriots who have departed office under the current troubles, as well as those who were deterred from their career by "accusations of fulmination" and are now long retired, should be invited back to mend what is now broken. An active perusal of the rolls and the community should find many willing hearts.

The metaphor of the campaign should be
"We love our children, but they have done wrong and we are ashamed. What has been done in our name does not reflect who we are as a people. We will set aside our differences to restore the greatness of this nation not for our sake but for the sake of our children's children."

While upsetting to those who oppposed the Kerry McCain ticket and a clean house after elections, look where we are now and judge the cost of partisan bickering, against a nation whose people rate both parties performances at all historic lows. Courage, Humility, and Honest need take the day.

Chris Nelson (if and when you return to the board) --

Your answer re "heart-breaking... death of a dream," I take it, comes down to this:

- "by and large most Republican staffers that I know are perfectly normal decent people who sincerely believe they have a good program going (on whatever) and that it's us Dems who don't get it.."

- "...the nice normal folks who inexplicably are Republicans..."

Your capacity for empathy and solidarity with your friends is surely commendable. I might add that the style of your remarks here is considerably less "edgy" than that of your newsletter (which I covet from afar). Nonetheless, you are particularly well-placed to explain *how* "perfectly normal decent people" can subscribe to and work to further a very particular program. If the program equates with the "dream," then we are forced to seriously question the understanding or analytical powers of these "perfectly normal decent people." The "sincerity" with which they back what they consider to be a "good" program in no way alters the nature of the program: to reconfigure the Middle East, to undo checks and balances, to bloat the US deficit, to use the Christian Right to run the Party machine and, essentially, to put into effect neoconservative principles (we'll leave the corruption aside). Ultimately, this is not a matter of "nice normal folks" vs. a limited number of monsters. Historically, monsters have always worked hand in hand with "nice normal folks" by way of the "dream" -- a word well chosen because it conveys the idea of radical transformation and, as has often been the case, that means a delegitimation of the most basic institutions of liberal democracy. Consequently, the dissolution of those "dreams" has never been the stuff of lamentations.

Chris,
Yours is the first reference I have read to Cheney's personality change after his bypass operation. I have long wondered if his heart troubles have unglued his head from his blood supply, leaving him unfit for office; you are the first to confirm this. You probably know the term "pumphead"---it sounds like Cheney has a bad case of it.

patience, it's hard to see how anyone can "come together" as long as george bush is still president. the best we could hope for would be something along the lines of cheney resigns, bush appoints, oh, hell, i dunno, his father for lack of a better choice (i mean, al gore would be a better choice, and so would john kerry, but let's not be too silly here), and then bush ii resigns, while bush appoints, oh, hell, i dunno, bill clinton as his veep (now that they're such pals)...i mean, you see how hard it is to imagine?

this isn't a parliamentary system, and while there are many ways in which i'm glad it isn't, in the face of a complete breakdown of governance like we're seeing here, we are truly stuck for a very long time.

because dennis hastert becoming president just isn't a solution....

marky, as you know, i don't rule that theory out either....

This is the crisis it is because we lost the war. It's incumbent on the enablers of the disaster to quit the field and regroup so they can go back and shoot the wounded.

It's fun that insiders think Rummey is nuts and Cheney without a soul. That Rice is drool cup head protector stupid goes without saying. I mean in both ways. Even the janitor at AEI knows it and no press member or pudit this side of Vladivostock will mention it.

Except for the odd hundred billion here and there and a few tens of thousands more willing terrorists it's not really such a big deal as long as the stock market hangs in there. The pigmen seem to have that covered so I'm registering strong reservations on this crisis in confidence thing. As long as the financial markets hold up this is all just inside baseball.

In the past the markets followed the political but it is the othe way around now. If the asset inflating financial machine keeps ticking then no amount of dead bodies literally in any Gulf, or figurativlywithin any beltway means a thing.

howard -- if you think your idea was a goof, check out norm ornstein's at huffingtonpost:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norm-ornstein/the-way-out_b_9217.html

Dream? How about the dream of a peaceful world? The world that appeared to be moving in the direction of no fear of nuclear destruction, where the formerly implacable enemies of the Cold War era were able to untarget their nuclear arsenals, hopefully to have them rot in their silos and at their sub bases.

This was Reagan's seemingly quixotic dream, almost miraculously achieved on the watch of Poppy Bush. This dream has been cast aside by the monsters of the BushCabal, with their chimerical fantasy of imperial hegemony in the Middle East and elsewhere: "national greatness" that is no greatness at all. The BushCabal would freely loose the nuclear Djinns of Hell and sentence the whole world to eventual destruction.

George W. Bush--"as like to his father as I to Hercules"--witlessly presides over corrupt megalomaniacs who have failed every foreign policy test they have essayed, disgracing the good name of the United States of America in the process and condemning Americans to the obloquy of the decent opinion of mankind for the foreseeable future. To know that he was reelected by a vote of the American people will rankle me til the day I die.

It is bracing, if not actually satisying, for Chris Nelson to come right out and say that which has been so obvious for so long to anyone who ever took a course in international relations at the college level. It is nothing short of maddening to watch Condoleeza Rice, abject failure as National Security Adviser and now promoted to her absolute level of incompetence as Secretary of State, rewarded beyond her wildest dreams merely for assiduous proctosculation of George W. Bush. It is beyond sad that a fundamentally decent and intelligent man like Colin Powell was reduced to shilling for the mendacious incompetents of the BushCabal. I can only hope Col. Wilkerson's regrettably belated witnessing on behalf of objective reality might bestir Gen. Powell's conscience for the good of this nation, once conceived in liberty and now mired in the rapacious grasp of fascist fools.

Heartfelt thanks to you, Steve, for providing a forum for this cri de coeur. I can only pray that the the sensible, realist voices of the center--that you so excellently embody--can help reassert the power of rationality and rescue our nation from disaster.

Steve-

It is too convenient for people like Wilkerson and now the General to attack the Cheney cabal when the bush wagon is losing its wheels.

I think the Bush's loyalists ie Papa's troops are trying to save Jr's ass because you have to remember that Bush still have 3 more years in office. Congress is not going to impeach Bush unless Democrats retake the house which is unlikely. JR is going to be around for another 3 years.

It is all Darth Cheney's fault. It is Darth Cheney's people Scooter, Rummy, Wolfie etc...

When Fitzgerald indicts Scooter and Rove next week, Darth Cheney will resign too.

linda, thanx for the link.

unbelievable: i swear i hadn't read it before my posting.

AnnieCat,

I think bob answers your question, they are speaking up now because they know Cheney is going down. It was too dangerous to speak out while he was in power.

Perhaps Mr. Nelson or one of the other more astute readers can shed some light on this quite puzzling paragraph..

As a Democrat who has spent his professional life in Washington, you have to feel deeply for your Republican friends, and what they are going through right now. That it brings back memories of Bill Clinton's personal abuse of his colleagues, and his country, is just one shared moment.

I was in my formative years (teen) during the Clinton presidency and so was not as captivated by Clinton's first term or his rise to power. That said, I hardly think that the abuses suffered by Clinton's "colleagues" (a point which I am not entirely cleary) rival this present confluence of events. I'm not trying to say that Clinton's lies under perjury and his lies to those around him regarding the Lewinski affair was anything less more than unprincipled but as many are fond of saying, at least Clinton's lies never killed anybody. So, unless I've missed something, a bit of context to the above quoted paragraph would be greatly appreciated.

That said, thank you very much Mr. Clemons (been a reader since day 1!) and Mr. Nelson.

I hear that there are honest, decent, competent Republicans. However, it was patently obvious to anyone with a brain stem that GW Bush didn't fall into that category.

The critics like Wilkerson have a special debt to the country: they VOTED for this incompetence. That's right: Powell, Bush Sr., Scowcroft, Odom, Wilkerson, etc. voted for someone that shouldn't have been elected mayor of a small town. Now they turn on him.

I don't see any honor in this, it is plea-bargaining with history.

I'd like to know where Rummy is vis-a-vis Fitzgerald's investigation. Everybody's mentioned WH and VP connections, but a lot of this folks were connected to the Pentagon's OSP as well as WHIG. What did Rummy know and when?

searp: "they VOTED for this incompetence"

Exactly, I'm delighted to see Wilkerson speaking up,but three years after the "cabal" invaded a country under false pretenses, then stonewalled their way to re-election--it's a little late---and the country he is so loyal to, is stuck.

Bob: saving Jr's ass? To put it in another way, is this a way to maneuver or position Colin Powell to once again head the call of his commander in chief and accept however reluctantly the offic of the vice-president?

I agree that Wilkerson and now Skowcroft independently deciding to level their respective broadsides is a bit much.

LJ-

Colin had been a bad soldier since his VN days. Remember My Lai ? I hope all remember My Lai because we are doing it again in Iraq. I could never understand why people continue to admire Powell. Colin Powell is a coward.

I have no respect for Wilkerson who betrayed our country. Wilkerson is not a good soldier ; he betrayed his comrades and because of his betrayals 4 more soldiers were KIA today.

They are out there beating the drums now because they too can see the writings on the walls. Fitzgerald will indict bunch of them including Rove, Scooter, Hadley, Matalin so they want to get ehead of the news cycles if you will. Darth Cheney did it. Jr is just a dumbass who knew nothing except signing executive orders to invade Iraq.

Oh, BTW we are attacking Syria.

What I read from all this recent soulsearching on the part of Wilkerson is:
1) These guys in the administration were disastrous for our country. What a shame...
2) I certainly didn't approve of what was being done!!!!!
3) Are there going to be any new jobs opening soon? Can I be National Security Advisor?

Re:Nelson writes "...Democrats remain rudderless and devoid of a coherent idea".

What does it take for the Democrats to get credit for having ideas? How many speeches? How many policy papers? How many proposed bills in Congress? Are these efforts just considered a shotgun approach by all of the Washington elite? Or have the GOP talking points become completely absorbed by the Conventional Wisdom?

Just wondering...

I think that is exactly it. It has been a GOP mantra for a long time now. "You know us Goopers may really suck at leading, but at least we have big ideas. The Dems have no ideas." And the latter point gets repeated over and over like telephone tag. Gag.

In re petronius's and patience's posts (wow, try saying THAT ten times fast):

I'm afraid it's too late for bipartisan, centrist consensus now. What would it amount to except a plea for liberals not to press their advantage?

Since the early 1990s, at least, the Republican party has declared war on the Democrats, and especially on liberal Democrats. Now Katrina, the failed Gulf War II, revelations of cronyism, corruption, and ineptitude at the highest levels, and economic stagnation are all combining to vindicate liberalism. Good government is not only possible, it's important. Government isn't the problem: corrupt elites in government and in business are the problem.

Now that the failures of conservative sloganeering are becoming apparent, we are beginning to see signs of "bipartisanship." But why should Democrats agree to this? So President McCain can preside over a Republican-controlled Congress in 2008? And we can all agree that what happened under Bush was just a fluke, an accident that will never happen again? And we can get back to the business of screwing the poor, enabling corporate corruption, and creating a new aristocracy of inherited wealth?

Nothing doing. This is the failure of the Republicans, of conservative dogma. Make them own it, and make them pay for it politically.

Steve, I've been critical of you from time to time, mainly in what I saw as your tendency to overlook, or perhaps tolerate, some of the more egregious positions and players from the Republican side. There were times I wished you were not so...diplomatic.

But I see the wisdom of your ways. The series of conferences you have organized are invaluable. It is a wonder indeed that yours is the venue in which Wilkerson chose to unburden himself at last.

And I am exceedingly grateful for the glimpses you give us of the Nelson Report and the opportunity to hear directly from Chris himself.

I am not so ready to assume that administration staffers are really just good, patriotic people suffering the heartbreak of lost dreams. I personally don't respect their dreams because so many Republican dreams exclude too many Americans. So many Republican dreams make a mockery of our Constitution and the rule of law. So many Republican dreams have brought this country as low as it's ever been since WWII.

They may be good people, but there's something wrong with people who toil to make those Republican dreams come true and work in the service of people like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice.

I guess I'm just not a diplomat.

Max:

Many thanks for your note. I think dissent is important -- even from those who read my blog and post here. . .and greatly appreciate your posts.

There is a method to the madnesss of what we are doing -- and very glad you see it emerging.

best,
Steve

Dear fellow-angry-people:

We are all entitled to be angry. The situation is appalling.

Nevertheless. Regardless. In spite of all. For the good the nation and the world, please remember a fundamental reality. The people who voted for the current Administration are fellow Americans, Sticking with them is part of what we mean by "one nation" and by "indivisible." Valuing them as neighbors is part of what we mean by the word "united" in "United States." If they vanished in the night, the nation would be weaker with only us, and we who were left would be lonely with them gone.

The witty barbs and the ferocious objections are fun, but they are also poison. Until we speak with respect and integrity about treasuring what we share with the "other" Americans, we lose, and we deserve to lose. Cuomo's too old and Obama's too young, but we remember them becaue they get this point.

Extend an olive branch to the Bushies and they'll bite your hand off at the shoulder. That is, IF they deign to notice what they see as an admission of weakness. I write these words with anger but also with grief, and not because they amuse me. There's no point in treating Bush voters as enemies, and I doubt that the great majority of liberals/Democrats do treat them that way. After all, they have no more real influence than we, even they think they do. But their boy and his pals in D.C. have excluded Democrats from any meaningful place in the government, in an entirely unprecedented way. So I side with ChristianPinko: "This is the failure of the Republicans, of conservative dogma. Make them own it, and make them pay for it politically."

If Colin "Good Doormat" Powell wants history to look at him kindly, he needs to do it himself, not through cryptic clues left by obscure aides.

I took extensive notes during Powell's big Feb. 5 UN presentation. Looking back over them now, I run out of fingers and toes counting the mistake/lies. That is what history will remember unless Powell clears the record himself.

I respect Wilkerson for speaking his mind. But trying to divine Powell's thoughts from Wilkerson is folly. If Powell cannot speak for himself, he does not deserve to be rehabilitated.

My Republican friends have repeated endless lies and deceptions to me, supported an incompetent and corrupt regime irrespective of fact, and have literally called me names for daring to question the wisdom of the Party. As the truth comes into the light, I don't feel sorry for them at all.

When you watch the Wilkerson speech (or read the transcript), the most disturbing part that no one is talking about is his brief reminder of DW Eisenhower's famous "military industrial complex" warning, and how (to paraphrase him) "it's there and dont deny it!!" During the cold war, where a Soviet opposing force was a "uniter" (to use a Bushism) that helped to focus military spending against a potential foe..... and the current scenario, where in the vacuum that followed the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the M.I.C politically united stateside simply based on economic self interest. He notes how they do everything in thier power (references to Senators, lobbying, etc....) to keep the gravy train rolling. Watching Senators plead for weapons systems that even the military says it doesnt need is sufficient evidence of this effect. Certainly, Cheney's change of heart (a bad pun, yes!!) COULD BE attributable to his bypass (unlikely) but more reasonable explaination could be his post-GHW Bush tenure at the mother of all military industrial complexes, Haliburton. Certainly, he now views the world in a different light, and Wilkerson notes that...... high praise for him in Desert Storm I as Sec of Def, complete contempt for him in the current admin. Before threats were threats. Are they now just viewed as potential business opportunites, that may be good for the economy (and the stock price) in some twisted way? Combined with neocon ideology, a dangerous combination? Provacative? THoughts? KC in LA

"WHY are these people only uttering these heartfelt cris de cour NOW? Why didn't they say something BEFORE THE IRAQ INVASION when it might have done some good? Or did they all just not want to leave the ship til it was obviously sinking?"

Have you forgotten who did? The patriots that spoke up, were visciously attacked, yet stood up again and again? Remember "sexed up", and who died?

"It is bracing, if not actually satisying, for Chris Nelson to come right out and say that which has been so obvious for so long to anyone who ever took a course in international relations at the college level."

When did framing for elephants become a placebo for critical thought? More importantly, when will it stop?

I can remember when those in power seeked advice from advisors with knowledge, intelligence and differing viewpoints. And the person in power possessed the ability to assess/process this information to make wise decisions for our country.

Now corrupt addictive power and greed have taken over our government. Ordinary people might as well be living on another planet they are so distanced from this pack of leeches who suck the very blood from us citizens.

Courage from Wilkerson, Scowcroft...no. Interesting reading but they are abandoning a sinking ship.

Paul O'Neil, Joe Wilson, Richard Clarke who spoke the truth BEFORE the ship leaked were courageous. Not enough of us listened, did we?

You think we should feel pity for the good republicans....the moderate republicans who could have made a difference but chose not to?
They controlled the political agenda in Congress a few votes against the administration and the path the country has taken would have been much different. I am not sorry for them I am furious with their lack of courage i.e......"ability to conquer fear". Fear of what? I wish I knew.