Jane Chastain : Politically Direct

The nation’s senators have spent weeks debating a resolution to condemn President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq. Lawmakers in the House of Representatives now are spending a week on the same useless activity. This could best be described as the “Anna Nicole Resolution.” It is a sexy piece of legislation that has no real meaning, like the life of the infamous gold-digger centerfold, who died last week an untimely death.What a spectacle! What a waste of airtime and newsprint!Congressional resolutions have no force of law. Most resolutions are for things like expressing condolences or to praise the work of an organization or civic leader. These things are rarely mentioned by the news media and are completed in a perfunctory fashion. It’s a pleasant little diversion for our lawmakers that takes up little time and does no harm.

This is not the case with the Iraq resolution, which empowers our enemies, undermines our military leaders and destroys the morale of the men and women we have sent into harm’s way. Read the rest of this entry »

The meteoric political rise of Barack Obama is something rarely seen in American politics. In 2000, he was soundly defeated in his first and only bid for a spot in the U.S. House of Representatives. Four years later, he was propelled into the Senate and, after serving one-third of his term, is a presidential front-runner with the wind at his back.Most Americans choose their president the way a 7-year-old chooses her Barbie doll. If you simply want a president who is handsome, charismatic and articulate, then Obama is your candidate. Read the rest of this entry »