U.S. Mainstream Media's manufactured "War on Women" campaign is fine with them up until it actually backfires on Obama, then, surrogates are tossed overboard and MSM shakes head disapprovingly like they weren't willing participants. Same old after-the-fact moralizing and editorializing...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NBC-TV News video: Meet The Press, April 15, 2012: Democratic media spokesmodel Hilary Rosen's controversial comments about Ann Romney’s lack of employment and stay-at-home Mom status, and the Obama Administration's forceful distancing of themselves from her remarks via Social Media, perhaps too forcibly to be believable, are analyzed for future portent by former Democratic congressman from Tennessee and DLC Chair Harold Ford, Jr., GOP campaign strategist Mike Murphy, and Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie and MTP host David Gregory.


As regular readers of the blog may recall, I'm a longtime fan of Savannah but had to give-up watching her on MSNBC after Obama got elected once it became largely a West Wing echo chamber, and as others have noted, became both too predictable and chick-ified thru the likes of not-as-bright-as-she-thinks Contessa Brewer. I rarely watch NBC's Evening News broadcast, and if I watch Meet The Press at all, which is not that often anymore, it's always the repeat on MSNBC. 

Bruce Reed to succeed Al From as CEO of DLC, Democratic Leadership Council

March 6th, 2009 11:25 a.m.

I just received this email from Washington an hour ago regarding DLC founder and CEO Al From stepping down and Bruce Reed succeeding him.

Use the slider under Al's letter to read the entire thing.

After 24 years at the helm, I plan to step down this spring as chief executive officer of the Democratic Leadership Council. Bruce Reed, the DLC's president and former domestic policy advisor to President Clinton, will become CEO.  I am immensely proud of the DLC's success. The DLC has exceeded the dreams I had for it when I formed it in 1985 with a small group of reform-minded governors, senators, and house members.  It has played a vital role in resuscitating the Democratic Party, and it has championed ideas that have changed our country for the better.  For those who were not active in national politics in the mid 1980s, it may be hard to imagine the predicament in which the Democratic Party found itself. Akin to where the Republicans are today, Democrats were wandering in the political wilderness. We were out of power and out of ideas. The Democratic Party hit bedrock in 1984, losing 49 states in the presidential election for the second time in four elections. It was on the verge of political extinction as a national party, and many political observers believed that the Republicans had a lock on the White House.  We formed the DLC to change our party -- to redefine and rebuild it, to restore its sense of national purpose and its proper place as America's majority party. We believed that if we held firmly to the first principles of the Democratic Party but furthered those principles with fresh ideas and modern means; if we built a modern, progressive, centrist Democratic Party that tackled America's most difficult challenges with bold and innovative ideas, the American people would once again turn to us for national leadership.  That is what we did, and we proved the experts wrong. In 1992, Bill Clinton, former DLC chair, was elected President of the United States. Four years later, he became the first Democratic President in six decades to be re-elected.  Our political success was grounded in the ideas we championed -- bold and innovative reform ideas that challenged old orthodoxies. National service (AmeriCorps), an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, welfare reform, charter schools, community policing, expanded trade, fiscal responsibility, and re-inventing government -- all ideas the DLC championed -- have changed America for the better. Together they came to define a political brand -- identified with values like opportunity, responsibility, community, strength, service and reform. They helped redefine the Democratic Party and breathe new life into progressive politics.  Now, with a new Democratic President in the White House and strong majorities in both houses of congress and among statehouses, the mission we set out to achieve in 1985 has been accomplished and the first phase of the DLC's work is finished.  But our party and our country face new challenges. And, in its next phase, the DLC, under the leadership of Bruce Reed, will address them. Today, for all our political challenges, what matters most is coming up with ideas and solutions that work, and the new DLC will be devoted to the battle for reform and ideas, not politics. It will be a reform think tank dedicated to developing, promoting, and enacting an agenda as bold and pragmatic as America's new president. It will work closely with allies in Congress and the administration to make sure President Obama and his reform agenda succeeds. Its efforts outside Washington will focus on grooming the next generation of reformers. And, it will partner with other organizations to develop post-partisan policy solutions to the country's key challenges; build reform coalitions across party lines; produce impartial reports and analysis of what works and what doesn't; and provide a virtual home and online outlet for thinkers in both parties and around the country.  After I step down as CEO, I intend to take the time I have not had to write a book on political change and to pursue new avenues to fight for the ideas and values for which I have long stood. And, of course, I will always remain part of the DLC.  Sincerely,    Al From

Democratic Leadership Council | 600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE | Suite 400 | Washington | DC | 20003

http://www.dlcppi.org/

Bruce Reed's blog at Slate.com, The Has-Been: NOTES FROM THE POLITICAL SIDELINES., is funny, insightful and anecdote-filled: http://www.slate.com/?id=3944&cp=2120447

re Sarah Palin's appeal and Katty Kay's FINALLY being right

As to Senator McCain's selection of Sarah Palin... as a DLC Democrat who'll definitely be voting for John McCain in November, I think it's a fantastic and bold pick!
But not for the reasons I keep reading about online or in the newspapers.

One of my reasons is because I think that it will be very interesting to see the very same insider reporters who tried to sell us on the idea of narrative as resume in Obama's case, suddenly now split hairs and say but not for Palin.
But, as usual, they won't be able to help themselves as we've already seen, and that can't but help McCain and Palin.

Frankly, I'm practically giddy at the prospect of Frank Rich's first lacerating attack against her, using that big brain and vocabulary of his to attack her like she's some poor schlub understudy from Alaska who's not quite ready for the big time of Broadway. As has been his wont so often away from Broadway, he'll reach too far, be too clever by half and in the end, be hoisted on his own petard, even as liberals cheer his columns but wonder why they aren't persuasive to the rest of the country.

But history is replete with examples of people who rose to the occasion -or didn't, like John Kerry four years ago- and there's plenty of evidence to suggest that Palin is, in fact, such a person, since the consistency of her record is in marked contrast to most of what passes for serious policy analysis in Washington: she says what she means and she means what she says.

Fifteen years of being around Capitol Hill and K Street taught me that much.

How crazy is it that this is considered "maverick" behavior in the Year 2008?

The compelling narrative of Palin's track record, of personal integrity and feistiness above party, will prove especially popular and endearing in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan that
Obama has to win, but each of whom has been riven with political corruption fairly recently.

You don't have to be Michael Barone or Mickey Kaus or John Harwood to know the country is emotionally fatigued after years and years of the same Washington insiders and career politicians
forever fighting the last political war and trying to get even.
Though I personally like Joe Biden, let's not forget that he is yet another career senator with a son who's a Washington lobbyist, and while I think it's commendable that his son is an Amtrak Board member, let's not kid ourselves that he is there but for the influence of... whom?

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2672.html
For the most part, as Gilbert and Sullivan might have put it, R. Hunter Biden is the very model of a modern major lobbyist. He has an office near K Street, a blue-ribbon roster of clients, and his firm, Oldaker Biden & Belair, made $1.76 million in lobbying revenue in the first half of 2006...

I think that there are plenty of people who are tired of having to pretend that alternating party crews in Washington have been getting the kind of positive tangible results that are necessary, when it's perfectly clear they're really just running in place.

And given Palin's clear distaste for GOP royalty and familial over-reaching -Murkowski family-it's one of the reasons she was elected governor in the first place. Voters could see it was a visceral dislike, not a come-on.

Why do you suppose Teddy Roosevelt had such maverick appeal when he ran for president as an independent?

You can see the evidence all around you of what putting off hard choices has gotten this country, where Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is actually afraid to schedule a vote on the House floor on off-shore oil drilling because she knows that it will actually pass now, with moderate Democrats from competitive congressional districts abandoning Pelosi in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately for the country, as she has with so many other issues, Pelosi much prefers to have an issue she can manage and strangle, than she wants practical results and solutions that will result in more energy production for the country.

Naturally, here in the Sunshine State, there is no solar, wind or tidal energy facilities to speak of that anyone can point to with anything resembling pride or hope. It's so embarrassing in the year 2008!

One of my next posts will give a good example of this sort of political gamesmanship, writ large, where the interests of the country and people's safety and welfare are clearly placed second to party loyalty, and the offender is none other than local South Florida pol for life, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

And you know how I loathe her!

------------------------

Do you suppose this is the kind of Obama 'change' or leadership we can come to expect in the future, when he can't even prevent the Illinois Demcratic Party from engaging in the very activities he continually decries?

It sounds like old-school corporate influence-peddling to me

ABC News Reporter Arrested in Denver Aug. 27, 2008
DNC Money Trail Aug. 25, 2008 PHOTOS: On the Money Trail at the DNC http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5670682

ABC News Chief Investigator Brian Ross is on the job!
DNC Money Trail Aug. 25, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5652779

You can tell how much the political axis moved with this selection of Sarah Palin because of how intensely the media people and pols who are always wrong -aka the usual drive-bys- are saying that it's a bad choice, or, condescendingly poo-poohing it.

Case in point: E.J Dionne and his crazy belief that Biden's Catholicism will somehow prove stronger in Pennsylvania than his actual voting record and reputation.

Now as I've stated here before, for many different reasons, I personally like Biden, as I wrote last Saturday, August 23rd,
2 Hillary Visits in South Florida, 3 Different Media Views; Biden anecdotes
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/2-hillary-visits-in-south-florida-3.html but there are PLENTY of people who live there who'll tell you that rather than the blue-collar brother-in-law you love spending time with on weekends, barbecuing and watching Eagles games with, he's the know-it-all boss who never stops talking.

The sort of person in your life whose voice you hear when you can't go to sleep and who causes you to grind your teeth.

For the next few months I'm afraid we'll be hearing more than we ever wanted to from MSNBC's Chris Matthews about the subject of Catholicism and PA voting trends.
Except for the fact that as much as Matthews says he admires Jack Murtha, he's a chip-off-the-old-block, etc., Matthews would never ever want to live in a small town in Murtha's congressional district.
------------------------------
Did you happen to hear the condescending NPR coverage of the Sarah Palin announcement?

Even for them it was amazing. I turned to NPR while watching a muted FOX News, just to hear how elitist they'd be, and as usual, they didn't disappoint.

Condescending and patronizing now, yet within weeks, I strongly suspect that she'll be catnip to voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, WV and Michigan, and the NPR reporters will act like their remarks were never uttered.

And they'll do that as they describe the enthusiastic family crowds that turn out for Palin, and get interview after interview with ex-Hillary voters who say they're going to give Obama the big thumbs down.

It just reminded me all over again how tinny NPR's internal vibes have been for years, given that the night the U.S. invaded Iraq, and I was listening to WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C., NPR's first story on All Things Considered was about a teenage murderer who was imprisoned in the Midwest -who used poetry to cope with his unique situation.

They never spoke about the victim's family.

Some things never change.

When I was living and working in D.C., partly because of being in an office downtown so much, I listened to NPR for about 6-9 hours a day, but now that I'm in South Florida, just Diane Rehm, and only if she has a good guest, plus the Friday round-ups of domestic and international news. http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, that Obama's campaign people immediately and rather foolishly thought to downplay and mock Palin's small-town roots, only plays into the lingering suspicion among many Americans that regardless of what he says, Obama and his crowd are thoroughly elitist and phony to a fair-thee-well.

In America, but not of it.

It only makes one recall Obama's much earlier and much-maligned comments at a San Francisco fund raiser, when he launched his full-throated attack on people who used to be the backbone of the Democratic Party, saying that Pennsylvania voters "cling to guns or religion or antipathy" out of political frustration." http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/04/11/Obama_Some_Pennsylvania_voters_bitter/UPI-66831207967499/

All these pieces of the puzzle begin to add up after a while.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if among the most passionate of the Obama campaign staffers, the ones who really thought that attacking small-town America was the route to go in their initial public stink bomb attack against Palin, that their favorite part of It's a Wonderful Life was actually when Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey character tried desperately to leave the small town of Bedford Falls behind, and instead become a sophisticated person who traveled the world.

Not the part when he stayed and helped the town survive. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/
Seriously, I really wouldn't doubt it.

Frankly, I was hoping McCain would pick Palin a few weeks ago, but felt that he might succumb to pressure from some of his trusted aides, like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham to pick Joe Lieberman, or select a more conventional pick like Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

I'm VERY pleased and think this show of political courage and faith by McCain in what he thinks he's hearing from American voters, will help cement McCain's victory in November, even though I disagree with him on a whole host of issues.

Most notable among those issues, of course, was his strong support for the ridiculously lenient illegal immigration policy -amnesty- proposed by President Bush, Sen. Kennedy and himself, which nearly ended his political career prematurely after it proved so unpopular with American voters.
He says he learned his lesson.
We'll see.

In case you're late coming to the Hallandale Beach Blog/South Beach Hoosier party, I voted for McCain in 2000 when there was no Democratic primary in Virginia, and as a matter of fact, much to my surprise, sat next to and spoke with McCain's sister-in-law for just under an hour at a McCain Straight Talk Express rally in Old Town (Alexandria) while we waited for the bus to show up.

I'll definitely be voting for him again in November.
----------------------------------
Future headlines: Oprah to be dispatched by Dems for cross-country trip to explain Obama loss to disheartened minorities and Lib Dems.
Maybe she'd boil it all down to this: tough love.

"I guess when people were saying that they simply didn't think Obama was experienced enough to be president, and some of you said that they were just being racist, you were wrong, huh?
Those voters told you exactly what they thought and why they were voting the way they were -and you chose not to believe them.
That's on you, not them."

Which is my oblique way of bringing up the fact that despite my longtime antipathy to her over the years, well-known to my friends in D.C., as I've commented here before, it's time for me to give the devil her due. In this case, the devil being the BBC's Washington correspondent, Katty Kay.
She's FINALLY right about something!

She's someone whom I've rightfully disparaged in the past for good reason -her chronic lack of knowledge about facts, concepts, phrases and theories which someone in her position ought to know. But -quite maddeningly- doesn't!

That, of course, hasn't prevented her from trying to be the authoritative voice of U.K. sophisticated sobriety when she's spoken on myriad American public policy programs, most notably, the Diane Rehm Show on NPR, as both guest and guest host.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/bbc_world/kattykay.shtml

Eventually, over time, my friends finally caught on that I was right about what I said about Kay, because of the mounting amount of evidence.

It became sort of a parlor game among us to catch her on radio or TV saying something perfectly absurdly with her customary serious voice.
I'm not joking.

We actually got to the point where at parties or get-togethers, like the Oscars, Super Bowl or Final Four Weekend, 4-5 of us could, upon request, actually recite a favorite Kay declaration.

When we were in public somewhere together, like a ballgame or outside at a park, whenever we'd
hear someone say something factually wrong but doggedly insistent on their righteousness, we'd look each other in the eye and mouth the words, "Katty Kay."

More recently, thru plain old American persistence, I've come close to converting two Herald reporters into believers of the Katty Kay Syndrome.
But it wasn't easy.

Now by wrong, I'm not talking about personal opinions, since Kay is free to be as dopey or mis-informed in her personal opinions or private life as anyone who's a chronic caller to radio talk shows.
Or, the sad folks who, like obsessive compulsive serial criminals, return over and over to the same newspaper website comments sections to share their invective, rants and nonsense, like so many people in Broward County who seem to practically live on the Herald and Sun-Sentinel reader comment forums, a matter which is readily apparent when you read them.

No, here I'm talking about rather concrete things Kay's said in the past that were directly contradicted by reality or the BBC's own news reports and website. Like, well, to choose but one subject off the top-of-my-head, the actual background of the British prime minister, Gordon Brown.

How about this letter to the Editors of the BBC blog that I found?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/06/audience_off_the_mark.html
on 29 Jun 2007:
I am suspect when Katy Kay gets her facts absolutely wrong. In her report last night she said that a small minority did not approve of the immigration bill. The Gallup Poll reported 47 Against and 30 In Favor. To make matters worse the only guest she had on discussing the matter was a far left immigration activist. I don't know if I should chalk it up to bias or ignorance, probably both are to blame. Why not give fact based journalism a try and an even handed discussion?

More recently, there was this comment to the Newsnight blog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2008/08/thursday_21_august_2008.html
on 21 Aug 2008:
Katy Kay's piece tonight was shockingly lopsided and well below my usual expectations for a Newsnight segment. Having just spent two and a half months in America, it was quite clear to me that the 'smear' campaigns were not exclusive to conservatives, as Kay's piece strongly implied. Both sides have been thoroughly engaged in back-channel internet attacks. The obligatory mention of liberal smear tactics does not in itself create a balanced report when one spends roughly 90% of the segment obsessing over conservative e-mails and cartoons. Surely Katy Kay is cognizant of that? It was a good choice (on several levels) to place it last, but, unfortunately, a few of us do enjoy staying up for the entire programme. I adore Newsnight, but this was one of the most imbalanced reports I've seen from one of your contributors. Deeply disappointing.

That sort of makes her, what, the poor man's U.K. Andrea Mitchell, to name but another D.C. insider justly infamous around town among colleagues of mine for her faux pas, faux facts and big-footing.
Plus, there's Mitchell's whole reluctance to always report news she knows, like the way she avoided naming the U.S. senators whom she said never read the pre-war NIE report.
She loved to talk about the story on the NBC family of outlets, esp. MSNBC -up to the point where she'd actually have to name the members she claimed never read it.
Is that journalism?

But I'm getting off on a tangent, and I should confine my comments here to momentarily praising Kay.

On the BBC-TV this past Thursday night, immediately prior to Obama's acceptance speech, Kay alone among the army of big-footing campaign reporters in Denver made a point that I've long suspected would prove to be true, much as some will try to ignore it.

Trust me, when Katy Kay and I both agree on something, that's what noted New York philosopher George Costanza meant when he said 'worlds collide!'

For my purposes, it means that it must be true!

Kay said -and I'm paraphrasing here, because I didn't have a videotape running at the time and have not been able to find a recording of her comments yet- that based on what she's seen and heard for herself, among both the Obama campaign staff (and assorted hangers-on) and ordinary Democratic voters she's dealt with in various states throughout the country, especially Hillary Clinton supporters, there was ample evidence of a growing party cleavage that would prove very difficult to heal in the future.

Per my hypothetical words above in Oprah's mouth, a sharp divide that the Obama supporters
were ignoring, perhaps because they can't quite imagine that their own personal narrative and that of Obama's will be one where he actually loses the race, when it may well have been within his grasp.

So, on the one hand you have Obama supporters who think that any white Democrat who votes for McCain is doing so almost entirely because of core racism.
They won't accept any other explanation but that one, because that one neatly fits their world view.

On the other hand, of course, were those moderate and conservative Dems who said that regardless of Obama's soaring oratory or charisma, he still lacked the kind of tangible political abilities or experience they wanted in a potential president: someone who had a track record of
actually accomplishing something in Washington that the average person has heard of or could point to as proof, much less, constructively worked across the aisle to get results.
Obama has done neither.

There's a reason that The National Journal rated Obama as the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate -he was.
There are a lot of voters in this country who don't want the "Most" anything senator to be in The White House, and I'm one of them.

And as someone who was actually around Washington at the time to attend the Foreign Relations hearings, enough of the Obama supporters' name-dropping of Hoosier Richard Lugar.
It's embarrassing, already!
Lugar was already doing the Nunn-Lugar shuffle with the Russians when Obama was just out of Harvard Law School.

For once, momentarily, Katy Kay is 100% right

See the BBC's US Election 2008 webpage -http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/usa/default.stm
-----------------------------------
Though I'll still be voting for McCain, I wanted to draw your attention to this web site as it's what led me to originally watching the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials online a few weeks before the Olympics.
I was mesmerized!

Well, I received a phone call on Friday from another DLC friend up in D.C. telling me that the Barack Obama acceptance speech would be on Microsoft Silverlight, and that I should watch it at some point after first seeing the speech on TV. He's right.

I did that late Friday night and it's absolutely amazing to see the way everything looks!
It looks better than life-like!

I suppose it'd be too much to think that they'll also be doing that for the RNC in St. Paul, where Hallandale Beach resident and former Rudy Giuliani supporter Ed Napolitano will be this week.
http://gallery1.demconvention.com/
________________________________
Microsoft Silverlight homepage is at http://silverlight.net/

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. By using Expression Studio and Visual Studio, designers and developers can collaborate more effectively using the skills they have today to light up the Web of tomorrow.

Thoughts on Memorial Day 2008

Iwo Jima Statue, U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery
Looking east towards The National Mall.

No matter how often you've been there, the view and the monument's significance always takes your breath away. The east-facing slope is especially awesome for photos and snow rides in the winter, whether on snowboards, or going 'old-style' on cardboard.
My sister Linda, a 1986 IU SPEA grad, chose as her first marathon to run in, the 2006 Marine Corps Marathon, and raised $4,000 for Marines injured in Iraq & Afghanistan.
2003 Photo by Werner J. Bertsch, www.wernerjbertsch.com

I thought the chattering class had already decided that using war metaphors to describe public policy -War on Poverty, War on Drugs, et al- was verboten? That was what the memo I got said. I actually found this recent cover more off-putting than the 'Dark O.J.' cover of 14 years ago.

Above: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage ; Best 500 coverage at:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPORTS0107



Just wanted to share some random thoughts on what's shaping up to be yet another steamy, miserably hot day in South Florida.



Fortunately, it's race day in Indianapolis, so I'll be in the house most of the afternoon, and needn't concern myself with the weather outside for awhile. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage



At 1:11 p.m. Friday afternoon, after showing dueling taped comments by Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain regarding military service and religion, with McCain pointing out for the record that he'd never been to Rev. Hagee's church -and to the church of another very conservative religious supporter whose name I forgot- much less, been a regular attendee for 20 years, highlighting the contrastwith Obama and Rev. Wright in Southside Chicago.



MSNBC's Chuck Todd once again showed that despite being a smart and pretty well-informed guy, the former Roll Call-er has, for my mind, a disquieting propensity for conveniently forgetting facts that would undermine his on air talking points.



Todd told Andrea Mitchell that McCain had often defended those who had never served in the military, including "Cheney and Bush..." an obvious reference to the whole Chicken Hawk syndrome, which was written about to death in just about every magazine, popular and otherwise, that you could ever hope to find at Borders or Barnes & Noble.



While it's true that over the years McCain has done that for people like former Sen. Trent Lott, it's equally true that McCain has just as frequently said that he doesn't support the notion that not serving in the military should disqualify someone to run for president.
But he never had to do that for President Bush.



While you can argue whether G.W. Bush flying planes over Texas and Louisiana during the Vietnam War was much of a deterrent to the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, or whether he should've just enlisted, clearly Todd is wrong, since why have so many liberal groups rather quixotically spent so much time and money trying to figure out where Bush was for months at a time, when he apparently wasn't with his Texas Air Reserve group???
(Campaigning for Republicans.)



You remember, back when liberal activist groups didn't blanch at saying that the Reserves were really little more than the cozy redoubt of White "weekend warriors."



But once we invaded Iraq, in large part due to the important role of Reservists, and they saw lots of action -too much?- it became a case of "Oh, well, never mind."



Suddenly, it wasn't such an easy uncontested lay-up for these groups to parrot their old nostrums and knock the contributions of Reservists, and expect the TV/radio/print reporters to just let it slide and not call them on it.

Oops!

Just to give some point of reference for my remarks here, I'm the son of someone who was Air Force active duty and Reserve for over 25 years, before Hurricane Andrew blew away Homestead AFB, and someone who shares Sen. McCain's belief that not serving does not disqualify someone for running for president.

My thoughts are also informed by the fact that my mother was the secretary for the Base Commander at Kelly AFB in San Antonio (where I was born), Col. Howard J. Bechtel, and my father was in the Medical Corps there.

Both of my parents saw President and Mrs. Kennedy in person the day before he was assassinated in Dallas, when Air Force One landed in San Antonio at Kelly AFB and they did the inevitable one hour meet-and-greet tour.

Later, once LBJ became president, Air Force One always stayed at Kelly whenever he and Lady Bird flew home to the Johnson Ranch.

Speaking of lack of military service and letting others make the sacrifices on this Memorial Day weekend, do you know how many female Members of Congress have actually served in the military?

Almost ten years ago next month, Republican Heather Wilson of New Mexico was elected thru a special election and became the first female veteran in the U.S. Congress.

http://wilson.house.gov/About.aspx

I was still living in D.C. then, of course, and recall how Wilson's unique story was one that many publications covered with great interest, if for no other reason than to highlight the shrinking percentage of Congressional Members who had any ties to the U.S. military, compared to earlier eras.

Nearly everyone in the Beltway punditocracy at the time agreed that it was only a matter of time before there'd be Persian Gulf War vets serving in Congress at some point, adding their own unique perspective to congressional discussion of military and foreign policy, and that the Congress would be better for it.

That some of them would turn out to be be DLC Dems, maybe even women, seemed like a foregone conclusion.

Certainly many of my friends and I hoped that'd be the case, so as to keep the party more reflective of the country as a whole, and not its élites.

One particular hyper-active DLC Dem friend of mine even went so far as to say that, given the demographics of who actually serves in the military, she was convinced that the first female Dem vet in Congress would likely be an African-American military officer from the Detroit area, where she herself was from.

Someone who got fed-up with the same old familiar faces representing Michigan in DC -decade after decade! (The Dingell family has held one Michigan congressional seat continuously since 1932, when FDR was elected President.)

Someone who could articulately argue that there was a crying need for some new blood in Washington that more accurately reflected changing times and persepctives.

Based on our own knowledge and first hand experience in dealing with the various Members from Michigan, my friends and I were quite convinced that these points would have great resonance in a place like Detroit, but, of course, first you need an actual candidate.

Which brings us back to Heather Wilson, a bright, able and personable woman, an Air Force Academy grad, a Rhodes Scholar, the Ranking Member of the important House Energy and Commerce Committee -a committee that I followed very closely for many years while in D.C.-
AND a U.S. Senate candidate for the seat of longtime and retiring Sen. Pete Domenici.

Ten years later, she is STILL the only one.

So, on Memorial Day Weekend 2008, I ask you two questions:

1. How is it that in the year 2008, an accomplished woman like Rep. Wilson is never on the Sunday morning network TV chat shows, while the usual and oh-so predictable political suspects continue to mouth the same ol', same ol' platitudes?

2.) Where are all the Private Benjamins and Sergeant Yorks in Congress, and the Democratic Party in particular?

Meanwhile, as if to prove my point, here's your diversity-laden roster of talking heads on the Sunday morning chat shows for Memorial Day Weekend 2008:

Sunday news show lineup
By The Associated Press

May 24, 2008; 2:25 PM
Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

ABC's "This Week" - Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff; David Axelrod, campaign adviser for Sen. Barack Obama.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Howard Wolfson, campaign adviser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Panel discussion of 2008 presidential election.

CNN's "Late Edition" - Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq;

Reps. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and David Dreier, R-Calif.; former Labor Secretary Robert Reich; Gene Sperling, Clinton campaign adviser; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, campaign adviser for Sen. John McCain; Mary Tillman, mother of deceased Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe; Reps, Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Yeah, that very reflective of the country as a whole.