Pelosi was not alone

I am getting confused and tired by the revelations, accusations, and counter-accusations arising about what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it. She is, unfortunately, no different from a lot of other politicians of both parties when it comes to keeping what is important in perspective.

Leonard Pitts, jr. has noted, [link to article from which this was lifted]

In those days of heat, fear and panic, many of us — including, apparently, Nancy Pelosi — failed to consider what should be ever obvious: Our national identity is the one thing that makes us worth attacking or defending. We are a nation of laws, not men, we are better than those who attacked us, we are America and that has to mean something, even — "especially" — in days of heat, panic and fear.

The sad truth is that almost all of our national leaders, regardless of party, turn politically yellow when big national traumas arrive. Whether it be Lincoln suspending habeas corpus, the whole Congress after Pearl Harbor and the incarceration of American citizens of Japanese ancestry, the Oklahoma City bombing which prompted a GOP-run Congress [including the sainted Paul Wellstone] and Bill Clinton to create whole new categories of capital offenses, or the excesses of the PATRIOT Act after 9/11/2001, too many of them cower and stay silent. Willingness to stand up for what really should be considered our national principles is way too rare.

We might wish to remember one of Martin Luther King, jr.'s less-quoted statements, which Pitts used a week earlier on a different subject: [link]

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."