On June 3, CNN carried a "debate" among all eight
of the current hopefuls to win the nomination of the
Democratic Party to run for the presidency in 2008.
From left-to-right on the stage at Saint Anselm College
in New Hampshire, they were: Former Alaska Sen.
Mike Gravel, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, former
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, New York Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama,
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
Now. Imagine a young Daniel Ellsberg – like fellow smuggling thousands of pages of copies of "top secret" U.S. imperial – planning documents for the most recent wars and subversions — including the government's attacks on its own population in the name of "homeland security" — out of the Pentagon or a similar agency of the U.S. Government today, and approaching every one of the Democratic Party's eight presidential contenders who participated in the June 3 TV program.
Out of these eight, how many of them do you think would stick his or her neck out, and help the young Ellsberg get the documents entered into the public realm?
My own hunch is that, at most, two of them would. (But I won't bother asking for a show of hands.)
And neither stands a chance of receiving his party's nomination to represent it and run for the presidency.
"Don't Ask Hillary: She Still Doesn't Get It," Mike Gravel, Huffington Post, June 5, 2007
The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Volume 1, Chapter I, "Background to the Crisis, 1940-50" (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971). (Also see: Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy – Vietnam, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts.)
David Peterson
Chicago, USA
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