‘Two Wings of One Bird of Prey’

That's the phrase my old high school history teacher used to described the two political parties in America, and the evidence for her case just keeps piling up. Take for instance, this blog entry, by investigative reporter Robert Dreyfuss, who noticed that the Republican incumbent in Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district, Donald "Capital Hillside Strangler" Sherwood, is sending out mailers citing the article, "The Lie Factory" which Dreyfuss co-wrote with Jason Vest for Mother Jones in 2004. This article remains one of the best reports on the neocon "cabal" in Douglas Feith's office which lied the American people into war in Iraq. Now why would the Republican be highlighting such malfeasance? Because the Democrat, Chris Carney, worked for Feith in the "Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group" making up tall tales about Iraq's relationship with Osama bin Laden. Ha! Now Richard Perle is holding fundraisers on his behalf. I suppose Jane Harman plans to appoint this guy to the House Intelligence Committee if he and the Democrats win in November. Interestingly, Dreyfuss and Vest never mentioned Chris Carney in "The Lie Factory," but his role has been mentioned elsewhere, such as this New Yorker article by Jeffery Goldberg. From the New York Sun:

"Voters in Pennsylvania's rural, conservative 10th Congressional District received an unlikely mailing earlier this month accusing a former Navy lieutenant of helping start the Iraq war.Quoting a 2004 article, "Lie Factory," that appeared in Mother Jones magazine and relied on interviews with a former Pentagon analyst turned White House foe, Karen Kwiatkowski, the mailing highlights Christopher Carney's role in a small intelligence analysis shop inside the Pentagon before the Iraq war. The top of the mailing warns voters, "Chris Carney failed our nation once." "Don't give Chris Carney a chance to FAIL us again," the next page says. The mailing may seem par for the course in an election season in which Republican incumbents are vulnerable to attacks on their support for an unpopular war. But its return address is the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania. The mailing's target is Mr. Carney, who some see as one of the national Democratic Party's brightest hopes to wrest control of the House of Representatives in 2006. The political dissonance was amplified on October 19 when President Bush stumped for Mr. Carney's rival and the Republican incumbent, Donald Sherwood.Two days earlier, Mr. Carney was in New York for a fund-raiser hosted by one of the president's original foreign policy advisers in 2000, Richard Perle. ... Mr. Carney stands by his intelligence work. Yesterday, nearly two weeks before Election Day, he said: 'Some of the party disagrees with me on this, but I know what I saw. Nonetheless, the party respects that I was in a unique position to know this. They like the idea they have a Democrat strong on national defense joining their ranks, especially on the war on terror.'"

Since we seem to be stuck with this two party system, we should consider replacing the Republicans and Democrats with the War Party of Taxes, Tyranny and Death for the members of both and making a brand new one for those of us who care about liberty. We'd probably still lose, but at least we could have an honest debate. Comments welcome at Stress.