Moderates...no help at all....

From David Sirota:

http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/09/moderation_extremist_refusal_t.html

"Moderation" = Extremist Refusal to End the War
By David Sirota
Working Assets, 9/19/07

Roll Call's headline today blares "House Centrists Seek a Little
Moderation on Iraq." The story is about "a small band of moderate
House Democrats and Republicans is hammering out a bipartisan
position on the Iraq War."

This story has been written over and over and over again on every
single issue. It is as if reporters have a template set up in
Microsoft Word, where they just fire up the story and change the
names and issues. You know how it goes. It starts out with a
declaration that the Brave And Serious "Moderates" are going to "put
partisanship aside" and rescue America. Typically, the plan to rescue
America is at best a non-binding gesture, and more likely one that
runs roughshod over what most Americans actually want - but that kind
of context isn't reported in the template.

Yet in this particular Roll Call story it actually is (although
perhaps inadvertently).

The article first informs us that the Brave And Serious Heroes "have
drafted a letter backing a series of proposals" - the diversionary
haze of paperwork about paperwork (letters about proposals??) being
one of Washington's tell-tale signs that this is much ado about
nothing. This paperwork suggests that the Brave And Serious Heroes
may be willing to support non-binding legislation "aimed at shifting
the Iraq mission." And then comes the giveaway:


"'None of this leads to the end of the war,' Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE)
said, but it would mark a departure from the polarized debate over
whether and when to withdraw troops."

The story goes on to trumpet the Brave And Serious Heroes who are
part of a bipartisan Washington dinner party circuit called the
"Center Aisle Caucus" spearheaded by New York Democratic Rep. Steve
Israel (D) - but the punchline has already been delivered.

As we can see so clearly here, the term "moderate" in Washington when
it comes to the war means guaranteeing that whatever bill takes center
stage in the war debate - well, that "none of this leads to the end of
the war." It means making sure that we "depart from the polarized
debate over whether and when to withdraw troops" - you know, the
debate over the actual issue, the debate that the latest Gallup Poll
shows almost two-thirds of America wants Congress to have - and want
Congress to conclude by passing binding timetables to end the war.

As I have written before, when you look at actual public opinion
data, you see that the terms "moderate" and "centrist" in Washington
are wholly and completely divorced from the terms "moderate" and
"centrist" out in the rest of the country. The term "moderate" may be
defined in the dictionary as "avoidance of extremes or excesses" but
in D.C. it means the opposite - embrace of extremes or excesses, in
grinning defiance of what the public wants.

And that's what it is. When it comes to the war, the so-called
"moderates" have taken on the qualities of the smiling Darth
Vader-ish poster boy for extremism - Dick Cheney. Remember, it was
our Vice President who told ABC News last year the Iraq War "may not
be popular with the public - it doesn't matter." I guess he's a
"moderate" now too.

Wrap...