He Needs to Answer the Lingering Questions About His Pre-War Actions
This evening, the President of the United States will address the country on national television. His goal, we are told, is to reinvigorate support for a war that has grown increasingly unpopular as the American people learn more about it. I do not know if the President plans on answering the dozen senators, now 128 congressmen, and more than 560,000 citizens who have demanded a response to the Downing Street Minutes. But I am prepared to answer him. A few leads from yesterday and today's headlines suggest that he cannot afford to ignore us much longer.
Yesterday afternoon, CNN-USA Today-Gallup reported that the President’s disapproval rating has hit an all-time high for his administration—at 53%—and the 45% approval rating matches his worst performance as a sitting President.
At the same time, the Washington Post released the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. The numbers demonstrate an increased intolerance for stonewalling or dissembling in the White House. More than 77% of Americans disagree with the Vice President’s assessment that the Iraqi insurgency is in its “last throes.” And, for the first time since the invasion of Iraq began in January 2003, a majority of the country believes the Administration deliberately misled the American public in the lead up to war.
This morning, the front page of the Post features the most substantive coverage of the Downing Street Minutes yet afforded by the mainstream press. From the initial efforts of a few dedicated radio hosts, bloggers, and concerned citizens, our message has absolutely broken through. The trivial "victories" of the relatively insignificant right wing blogosphere and noise machine pale in comparison to the resusitation of a life and death issue that the conventional wisdom had long ago left behind.
No matter what the President tells us tonight, we can be certain that his persistent but diminishing camp of Administration loyalists will single us out. They will accuse us of playing politics with an issue they claim to have settled long ago. I am prepared to respond, and I hope that you will join me:
Questioning the President is not an agenda item, or a plank in the party platform. Questioning the President is our obligation—and I, for one, will not rest until we have been answered.
http://www.conyersblog.us/dp
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