Instead of 'No War for oil,' Kerry should have touted 'No Food for Oil.'

New York Press:

Excerpted from PLEDGING THEIR TIME
A few liberal journalists finally wake up.
By Russ Smith

"... In contrast, the American Prospect's executive editor, Michael Tomasky, is still in denial. The former New York magazine columnist (where his intelligent commentary is missed) took the opportunity on Nov. 22 to complain about the admittedly aggressive recent actions of the GOP-controlled Congress. One can agree that Tom DeLay's recent maneuver to protect himself if he's indicted is sleazy, but if in fact the Texan faces criminal charges, he'll be moved out of the Majority Leader's chair in a flash. Tomasky argues '[N]o Congressional party has governed like this in modern American history, because today's Republicans are less interested in the will of the people than in awarding their large contributors and pursuing their ideological crusades.'

Lay off the sour grapes, Mike. No one was forced to vote for congressional Republicans earlier this month, and if the 'ideological crusades' are unpopular, many GOP leaders will be sent packing in 2006, even those in safe gerrymandered districts. Tomasky was further annoyed that 'not a single Republican bothered to show up on the Senate floor during the floor speeches bidding adieu to Tom Daschle, who gave a quarter-century of his life to the body.' So what? Daschle was a divisive Democratic leader and I'm sure he got plenty of bear hugs from his real friends, and probably would've been ticked off if his opponents shed crocodile tears for the evening news on the occasion of his departure.

In retrospect, John Kerry could have picked off hundreds of thousands of votes—maybe in Ohio!—from lukewarm Bush supporters if he'd demanded, perhaps at his Boston convention, that Kofi Annan resign as secretary general of the United Nations. It's not a hard case to make, given the corruption Annan has shoved under the Persian rug in his well-appointed digs, but Kerry, afraid of alienating the world community, kept mum. So did Bush, for that matter, but he already had the upper hand on foreign policy. A smart Kerry adviser would've counseled the candidate to angrily tell his far-left supporters to leave the "No Blood for Oil!" posters at home and replace them with the words "No Food for Oil."

The Wall Street Journal's Claudia Rosett has been dogged on this issue, calling the scandal (Nov. 17) "the biggest fraud in the history of humanitarian relief," and it's only now that attention is being paid to the hearings led by GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and Rep. Henry Hyde, that will likely, even at a glacial pace, cause Annan to retire in disgrace before his term is up. His departure can't come too soon: As the Chicago Tribune editorialized on Nov. 21, Annan was quick to call the U.S. invasion of Iraq "illegal," and condemn the assault on Fallujah, but on the subject of Saddam Hussein funneling billions of dollars intended for humanitarian aid but instead diverted to his military and construction of palaces, the U.N. leader, who increasingly makes Al Sharpton look virtuous, looked the other way.