Editor's Note
Rothschild, Matthew
Editor's Note Matthew Rothschild Vanishing Candidates Iwas reading the Sunday New York Times on August 12 and was surprised to find the lead story headlined "Democratic Field Says Leaving Iraq May...
...This wonderful short story writer and poet had a great gift for language...
...I was impressed with her skillful-ness, her passion, and her rectitude...
...Actually, neither...
...We who oppose this war "support the troops," she said, because we want to bring them home safely...
...She was the sole member of Congress to vote against the authorization of force after 9/11—an act of great bravery and foresight...
...Iwas taken aback by the news that Grace Paley had died on August 22...
...Not only is this a prime case of inaccurate reporting...
...Not so they can continue to fight the war, but to roll up the occupation, come home, and get the care they need, she argued...
...An uninformed reader who came upon the story wouldn't even have known that Gravel or Kucinich was in the race...
...I met her four years ago at the Wisconsin Book Festival and had the pleasure of interviewing her on my Progressive Radio program...
...And an otherwise-informed reader would have been forced to assume that Kucinich and Gravel were now in favor of staying in Iraq...
...This month, we offer you an interview with Representative Barbara Lee, whose peace credentials are also unimpeachable...
...The article, which went on for two dozen paragraphs, never even mentioned Gravel's name or Kucinich's name, though they have consistently been the most outspoken advocates of withdrawing our troops...
...She was adamant about getting our rhetoric right on the Iraq War...
...You'll see all of that on display in the revealing interview that Andrea Lewis conducts with her...
...One of the strange things about our democracy is that people don't use it at all," she said, and she stressed "the importance of not asking permission...
...It's also a perfect exhibit of how the leading media outlets in this country take it upon themselves to narrow the field before the voters ever have a chance to cast their ballots...
...Or by Mike Gravel...
...Down to earth, engaging, and defiant even at eighty, she left me with some key insights...
...The "one exception" The New York Times was referring to was Bill Richardson of New Mexico...
...Had I missed a new, hawkish policy statement by Dennis Kucinich...
...And she was a proud subscriber and supporter of this magazine...
...Editor's Note Matthew Rothschild Vanishing Candidates Iwas reading the Sunday New York Times on August 12 and was surprised to find the lead story headlined "Democratic Field Says Leaving Iraq May Take Years...
...An ardent feminist and peace activist, she also had a twinkling sense of humor...
...I heard her address a group of progressives at the Take Back America conference in June in Washington, D.C...
...And we want to "fully fund, not defund" the troops because we want to give the Pentagon all the money it needs to get them out of there in an orderly fashion...
...The secondary headline said: "With One Exception, Even Critics of War Plan Gradual Exit...
...That's one way to dispose of peace candidates...
...So I read on...
...We're not fully funding the war, Lee insisted, but we are fully funding the troops...
...I knew that several of the leading candidates had bobbed and weaved on this crucial question, but I didn't think the whole field had...
Vol. 71 • October 2007 • No. 10
