Expletive deleted, I was just out working in the garden and listening

[Skidmore]

to Barbara Jordan's keynote address to the 1992 Democratic Party Convention.

Go here to read or listen: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordan1992dnckeynote.html

What the hell has happened to the Democratic representatives we sent to congress on this platform? What the hell happened to the platform?

This speech could be repeated today and nothing has much changed. Dems sold out to big business too.

Now go here http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordanjudiciarystatement.htm and listen to her speech to the Judiciary Committee regarding impeachment.

Whatever is wrong in DC is thoroughly wrong. It is rotten and stinks at the head. The whole putrid mess needs to be gotten rid of. Where is someone the stature of Barbara Jordan. We have Bidens, Kerrys, and who the hell else waiting to be anointed for being squishy. No one with moral certitude willing to speak consistently and frequently and who won't back down at the slightest reproach.

Damn them all to hell or whatever realm they can be sent to. Yeah, the Rs are reprobates, thieves, and warmongers. But the Ds are squishy in the middle. I don't want squishy middle.

Seriously listen to Ms. Jordans speeches. Then tell me what, if anything, is differently now. Effin' not much.

[tatertop]

1. Amen, deliver us from squishy-in-the middle

[redqueen]

8. Deliver us? Who are you talking to?

Isn't it up to US to support better candidates? And to shame & run candidates agasint those Dem whores that enjoy gerrymandered safe seats?

[CoffeeCat]

2. Basically...

...most politicians in DC have sold out to corporate interests. It's just how the system works now. As much as we don't want to admit it, most of our own are corrupt and have allowed the corporate power to supersede the bests interests of the American people.

Also--as tinfoilhattish as this sounds--I do think there was probably some kind of concerted blackmail effort. There really is no other explanation for the Dem weakness that we've witnessed during the most corrupt administration EVER in this country. Reps probably tapped their phones, orchestrated cameras in their rooms/offices when hookers or small boys from the Philippines were brought in.

The Dem "squishiness" hails from two sources: Corporate corruption and blackmail.

BTW--I STILL want to know why Jeff Gannon--from his Web site--was chiding Joe Biden. Remember Gannon saying, "You remember me...doncha Joe?" I think it's stuff like this that has closed the mouths of many Dem politicians.

[Warpy]

3. I think you're right about the blackmail

and I think any Dem who gets hold of the Justice Department has to squeeze Gannon/Guckert until he pops. I'll bet the little asshole is blackmailing half of Congress. If they're not in his little black book, they're in one of his associates' little black books because you know he knows every whore in town, gay or straight.

I think blackmail is what got him into the press corps in the first place. You do know he has to have a sugar daddy in the power circle, don't you? You do know he was whisked by all background checks and brought in under an alias, something neither the FBI nor the Secret Service would have allowed.

I've long thought Gannon/Guckert is the key to the whole mess Congress is in and part of the key to the inner workings in the White House.

All we need to do is squeeze that zit hard enough, and all the corruption will pop out for everyone to see. It's overdue.

[CatWoman]

4. I love that speech

I have posted it on DU several times myself.

That was the year I was formally inducted into politics, and voted for the first time.

[SmokingJacket]

5. 1992 was the most politically joyous time of my life.

I remember the convention, and I remember Barbara Jordan's speeches. Things seemed clearer in those days -- good vs. evil -- though I'm sure they weren't that simple.

I couldn't believe when Clinton won. I was in Little Rock at the time. Wow. Joy.

[CatWoman]

6. the overriding theme of that speech was "change"

[Rowdyboy]

7. She was the most astonishing woman of my lifetime and I remain in awe

of her character and achievements, and she spoke with the voice of God. And I remember that speech in particular.

Here's a link for the text...

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordan1992dnckeynote.html

Her words rang with the truth....

"There appears to be a general apprehension in the country about the future. That apprehension undermines our faith in each other and our faith in ourselves -- undermines that confidence. The idea that America today will be better tomorrow has become destabilized. It has become destabilized because of the recession and the sluggishness of the economy. Jobs lost have become permanent unemployment rather than cyclical unemployment. The public mind. Public policy makers are held in low regard. Mistrust abounds. In this kind of environment, it is understandable that change would become the watchword of this time."

And, yes, we do remember how to change...

"We are not strangers to change. Twenty years ago, we changed the whole tone of the nation at the Watergate abuses. We did that twenty years ago. We know how to change. We have been the instrument of change in the past. We know what needs to be done. We know how to do it. We know that we can impact policies which affect education."

Her words from 1972 are still just as appropriate...

"We calmed the national unrest in the wake of the Watergate abuses and we, The Democratic Party, can seize this moment. We know what needs to be done and how to do it. We have been the instrument of change in policies which impact education, human rights, civil rights, economic and social opportunity, and the environment. These are policies which are embedded in the soul of the Democratic Party. And embedded in our soul, they will not disappear easily. We, as a Party, will do nothing to erode our essence. We will not."

I miss her so badly. I'll never forgive Jimmy Carter for not making her Attorney General. Griffin Bell was one of his few decisions that I REALLY hated.