US Politicians Who Dared to Question 9/11 and Their Fates

[spooked911]

1) Robert Torricelli, former Democratic Senator from New Jersey, represented where thousands of 9/11 victims lived. Torricelli wanted a real hard-hitting 9/11 investigation back in 2001-2002. He got driven out of office before the Nov. 2002 elections by trumped-up corruption charges.

2) The late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, Democrat, who was a political opponent of the CIA and covert operations. Wellstone pushed for real answers about 9/11. He died in a highly suspicious plane crash right before the Nov. 2002 elections.

3) Cynthia McKinney, Democratic Representative from Georgia, dared to suggest that Bush might have wanted 9/11 to suit an agenda of invading middle east countries. She also said Bush had warnings and wanted an investigation into why the warnings were not heeded. She was widely ridiculed in the media, also smeared for taking donations from middle easterners, and then lost in the 2002 election primaries to a Democratic challenger apparently pushed strongly by the right-wing. The good news is that McKinney won back her seat in 2004.

4) Howard Dean, Democratic former governor of Vermont and Democratic candidate for president during the primaries for the 2004 presidential election. When Dean was on the Diane Rehm radio show in December 2003, Dean suggested that Bush might have gotten warning from the Saudis about 9/11. Dean didn't actually say that Bush had warning of 9/11, merely that Bush's secrecy was fueling conspiracy theories. Nonetheless, not too long after that, the media went bezerk on Dean (after he had the audacity to yell at a post-primary rally) and Dean went down in flames. The good news is that Dean is now a virtual lock to be the chairman of the DNC, a prospect that the elites in the mainstream media and in the Democratic party are upset about.

5) Tom Daschle, former Democratic Senate Majority Leader from South Dakota. He intially pushed for a strong investigation into 9/11 then caved quickly under pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney. Daschle's office was hit by an anthrax letter around this time. Daschle was kicked out a office in a contentious election in Nov. 2004.

6) Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont, dared to question Attorney General John Ashcroft and some of the provisions of the USA Patriot Act. He was sent an extremely potent anthrax letter that was intercepted by the FBI before it reached his office. He was re-elected easily in Nov. 2004.

7) John Buchanan, Republican, ran for president in 2004 as a "9/11 truth candidate". A speech he gave on 9/11 truth is here: http://www.serendipity.li/wot/buchanan01.htm
Buchanan was completely ignored by the media and of course lost his bid for Republican candidate for President.

Anyone see any patterns here?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. I am from NJ, and...

I can say, with great assuredness, that Torch got brought down fair and square. A life-long "machine politician", he got to the point that the little emmoluments he was accepting had grown out of control and he was selling influence to those who offered their tributes.

He's an ass, out-of-control and was dirty. He played the game and ended up in the woodchipper.

[spooked911]

2. do you think if he was Republican who toed the party-line that he

would have been brought down?

I am not claiming Torriceli was Mr. Clean by any means, but he was initially cleared from wrong-doing by a federal prosecutor.

[DaveinMD]

3. he was forced out by Dem Party leaders

because he would have easily lost re-election and any other Democrat would have won. Lautenberg came back to win the seat easily.

[shance]

7. Wake up and realize some "Dem Party" leaders arent necessarily Dems.

He was intentionally booted out because he wanted the truth for his constituents.

[karynnj]

9. Wanted to save the Senate seat

Many surveys showed that the race was becoming close and would not have even been close except many Democrats did not want a Republican to win (and definitely not a conservative one). I was very relieved when Lautenberg agreed to run and they worked that out.

[shance]

14. How about defending one of your own?

Or on a larger note, defending those who are attempting to do what is right. It's safe to say there are no saints in Congress, and the team you are on is the team you are working with.

When Democrats abandon each other, we show how easily we can be controlled by threats and false accusations.

We are dictated by our own cowardice and their bullying. It shows weakness in character and a lack of loyalty. Two things needed to survive in civilization.

If we don't learn how to stand by each other than we will not survive. That simple.

No wonder Republicans are in power. We leave each other out to hang when the going gets tough.

[karynnj]

16. Your response mischaracterizes the point I was making

NJ votes for Democratic Senators and has for years. In 2002, Torichelli was intially considered unbeatable. As corruption charges came out his numbers started to sink to the point there was real danger that he would lose to Forrester. This had the potential of swinging the Senate, (other Democratic loses did cause the loss of the Senate, but at the time the decision was made, it was conceivable that NJ (a very blue state) could give the Republicans the Senate. No one could force Torichelli to step down, but he did when Lautenberg (who immediately was way ahead of Forrester) volunteered to run.

If Torichelli has been cleared, his old seat will be up in 2008. Corzine's is up in 2006 and will likely be held at that point by a Democrat appointed by Corzine when he becomes Governor.

[shance]

21. Apologies. That was not my intent. I was addressing the larger issue

of what seems to be creating/inflaming 'scandals' and attempting to ruin individuals careers when they are trying to do what is right.

I believe that to apply a bandaid to the problem, by reacting to manufactured scandals with a replacement candidate does not address the core problem. On the contrary, I think it excacerbates it. Not to mention the speed in which a new candidate is brought in to replace an office holder. How much time do we have to actually find out how qualified that candidate may in fact be?

Unless we defend those (and their offices, which are OURS as well) who are being rather conveniently accused, we continue to allow those who are intimidating individuals who are simply doing what is right and in the best interest of their constituents.

At the very least, we should encourage and defend those who are being accused (but not proven to be guilty) to fight and stay in office until there is legitimate proven evidence of wrongdoing.

[karynnj]

8. NJ 's Republicans had the same problem and it brought them down

The Acting Governor DiFrancesco (?) who took office when Whitman left and another Republican (can't remember name- was from Essex county) who wanted to run for governor both dropped out for ethics charges. McGreevey really left for ethics reasons (our local paper remarked it was a sign of the times and place, that he would say he was gay rather than admit he was corrupt)

[whistle]

4. I've never heard of John Buchanan, Republican....

...but then I paid very little attention to republican politicians except for who they ultimately would run for president. Purhaps there are a few sane republican politicians still around.

[paineinthearse]

5. What has Spitzer done?

Have NY AG Spitzer resulted in findings or actions?

[AP]

6. McKinney and Dean are sort of success stories.

Dean was never going to win the presidency, but he's ridden his primary popularity into a very powerful position within the party. McKinney is back in congress.

Daschle was brought down mostly by fellow Dems like us at DU who refused to stand up for a moderate Dem doing everything he could to win in a Republican state.

Leahy got anthrax because he's a liberal from VT who does good liberal work on the judiciary committee, and not because of 9/11.

No?

[Ashamed_American]

10. AP

you're probably right about Dean. As he has stated many times how he will not use the DNC Chair position as a springboard for the presidency of 2008, if he finds a way to turn this party around and into the right direction (which I believe he will), then nothing can stop him come 2012. If the party will follow the path he plans to lay in front of them, the future can be a glorious thing. Not to mention by then his popularity will be sky high, hence, 2012 baby!!



www.BlackEyedSundays.com

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. No, AP...but then we'll always disagree.

I don't have a crystal ball, but no one will ever be able to know how the elections would have played out with an anti war, rapid response oriented candidate. :hi:

[AP]

22. I think '68 is an instructive lesson.

Vietnam and Nixon were way less popular than Bush and Iraq. The Democrats ran a candidate who talked mostly about being against the war. RFK (who approved of his brother's vietnam policy when he was AG) wanted to talk about class and race and poverty, but was shot. He wasn't going to run as an anti-war candidate, probably because he knew that it's incredibly hard for a Democrat to win on the issue of being against war. I think RFK would have won. McCarthy did lose.

I think the bigger problem is the Democrats running a campaign focused mainly on FP. I think it misses the bigger picture of what is going on in people's lives. RFK saw the bigger picture and wanted the war to be only one part of that bigger picture. He didn't miss the forest for a tree or two.

Dean had already been running a primary campaign that had defined him as the anti-war candidate -- a persona he admittedly embraced during the primaries and regretted later (he said in an interview later that he wished he had run on health care instead of being against the war). I really don't think that being anti-war was going to win, and even being the "health care candidate" is a little too narrow.

What Lakoff argues about how Democrats should campaign is that they shouldn't be running a laundry list of what kinds of trees are growing in the forest. They need to describe the forest so well that voters can imagine what kind of trees are growing in it without being told.

I know a lot of Dean supporters believe that Dean had the forest down cold, but I don't think so. I think he was really embraced as an anti-war candidate willing to take it hard to the Republicans.

The winning candidate would habe been one about whom people felt, 'yes, this guy believes that we're all better off when we're all better off, and that our society is abandoning that principle, and therefore we're poorer, there's less opportunity and work is less rewarding and dignifying, and this candidate is going to change that and take us back to our founding principles.'

Being "anti-war" and being willing to take it to the Republicans don't tell you enough about those overarching principles. It also leaves a lot of room for Republicans to define your values and beliefs. The canidate has to define those things first. If they don't, somebody else will.

I think that was the problem McCarthy had in '68, and it's a problem RFK would not have had.

[BurtWorm]

11. No.

No patterns there. Seriously. A pattern would be something in which everyone died or everyone lost. You've put together a mixed bag.

[rman]

12. same pattern for journalists who were on the trail

of wrongdoing by the government and certain secret agencies.

of course it's all coincidence. it's just that there's a lot of coincidences.

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Most definietly

I'm glad Cynthia McKinney came bouncing back. She did great on the Ohio election hearings. :bounce: I do see they're trying to cover up. In Alex Jones' documentary "The Road to Tryanny" and it's pretty interesting. Do you think they all knew about PNAC?

[John_H]

15. LOL! Yes, Tom Daschle: Radical anti-establishment bombthrower

[Sparkly]

17. General Clark and Richard Clarke

both said the Bush administration didn't do all it could have to prevent 9/11, and both said the Iraq war was planned before 9/11 and the attack provided an excuse. Clarke was attacked as partisan, and Clark got a lovely debate question from Peter Jennings that began, "General Clark, you've blamed the Bush administration for 9/11..."

[ArkDem]

18. More like a anomaly.

[theboss]

19. Oh boy....

Let's go through these one-by-one.

1. The Torch was/is a criminal. The people of NJ are better off without him.

2. Wellstone was a good man. No one has come close to convincing me he was murdered.

3. McKinney is whacky and back in the Congress.

4. Dean's problems went way beyond 9/11.

5. The fact that Daschle is being championed as some kind of hero is laughable.

6. Leahey is a reach.

7. I have no idea who this person even is.