To Mitch "The Bitch"

TO: Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Sir:

Just as on the Recovery Act and Healthcare Reform, you and your party colleagues are now echoing the same mantra in respect of Wall Street Reform: “Let’s slow down and start over.”

I hope you appreciate that millions of Americans wish on a daily basis that it was possible to go back and start over – not with respect to the present initiatives of our President, but with respect to where we, as a nation, now find ourselves.

Many of us wish we could go back to November 2000, and slow down and start over. We can’t help but wonder how much better off we would all be now, had Al Gore been given his rightful role as president; had the powers-that-be in your party, sir, cried, “Let’s slow down and get this process right, and ensure that the will of the People is not circumvented through courtroom theatrics, nor a Supreme Court selection of our next president.” But you didn’t say that, sir.

We wish we could go back to the early days of the Bush administration, and hear you and your colleagues admonish the president to slow down and start over and heed the warnings of intelligence agents who predicted an imminent catastrophic event on our soil. We can only wonder if the attacks of 9-11 could have been avoided had you, or anyone of influence in your party, cautioned the buffoon you foisted on a nation to spend less time “clearing brush” and more time listening to those around him who knew whereof they spoke. But you didn’t do that, sir.

We wish we could go back to the lead-up of the invasion of Iraq, and witness you and your party members telling the aforementioned buffoon to “slow down and start over” before declaring that non-existent WMDs justified a call to war – a war which has resulted in ten of thousands of casualties among our troops, as well as innocent Iraqi civilians. But you never opened your mouth in that regard, sir.

We wish we could go back to the appointment of an inexperienced political crony as the head of FEMA, and applaud you and your cohorts as you railed against the idiocy of such a move. We will never know how many of our fellow citizens could have been saved – could have been spared the nightmare of watching their neighbors suffer and die as a result of such an irresponsible appointment. But you and yours were silent on the topic, sir.

We wish we could go back and listen, truly awestruck and of one mind, as you and your fellow GOPers railed incessantly against the lack of oversight of our financial institutions, along with the agencies that protect our environment, our food, the products we purchase, the toys we give our children. Again, sir, you and your political ilk never opened your mouths.

Yes, Mr. McConnell, a lot of us wish we could slow down and start over. We will always wonder how many of our troops, now dead in Iraq, would be living out their lives with their loved ones; how many Iraqi children would not be limbless orphans; how many NOLA residents would have survived; how many tortured innocents will now wage war against us; how many forests and waterways could have been saved from pollution; how many Americans would not be losing their homes; how many US citizens would still have their jobs; how many people would still have faith in a country that you and yours allowed to become the living embodiment of greed-is-good, war-is-everything, oversight-is-detrimental to the bottom line.

Yes, sir, we will wonder – and we will ponder the repercussions of your silence, your willful inability to say “let’s slow down and start over” when it actually mattered.

How sad – and extremely telling – that you and your party members suddenly find your voice, a voice now raised in faux concern.

A policy to advance financial recovery from the debacle you and your cronies contributed to? Let’s slow down and start over.

A policy to provide Americans with access to affordable healthcare? Let’s slow down and start over.

A policy to curb the excesses of the greedy who bilk American citizens in order to reward themselves with multi-million dollar bonuses? Let’s slow down and start over.

Mr. McConnell, with all due respect – and the respect that is due you is nil – you and your party have become as laughable as you are abhorrent.

Let’s slow down and start over indeed. Let’s rethink, revamp, revisit anything that even remotely sounds like it could be a step in the right direction; anything that puts power back into the hands of the citizenry who rightfully own it; anything that moves this country forward and out of the vast wasteland you and your party have created.

In closing, sir, I would just add this – in case you are, as I strongly suspect, too arrogant to read between all-too-obvious lines: You, and those who support your “let’s start over” diatribes, disgust me.

And I am not alone in that disgust.

Yours Truly,
Nance Greggs