Are Tough Questions Out of the Question?

I once found myself at the crossroads of rational decision-making. Oh, it wasn’t some insane moment where life and death were being decided (well, perhaps my life and death). It wasn’t some moment where a major earth shattering event was unfolding. Nope…. I was in a bar. It just so happened that it was a biker bar. I used to frequent those when I was younger and thought myself a whole lot tougher than I am in my forties. There were buckets of testosterone on each table. Boxes of manhood and muscle were stacked behind the bar. The lighting was dim, the place was filthy, and the steady pounding of hard rock music was only broken every now and then by a selection from one of the superbands of the 70s. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot of value placed on intelligence in that bar. They dealt in respect and feats of strength. It was the kind of place you didn’t walk into unless you were part of the regular scene or you really did believe that you were a pretty tough hombre. I sat at a table with a group from a well known national biker gang, and the discussion turned to racism, and it weren’t good (bad grammar intentional!).

There were some pretty harsh things said at that table, by some dudes that looked like they had wrestled Grizzly bears for the right to have first swing at slappin a Yeti. I still to this day believe I was sitting at that table with men who had done bad things to a lot of people. But I didn’t like what was being said at all. I liked these guys. I have found that under all that tough guy attitude, bikers are often some of the most loyal and misunderstood people around. But I didn’t like what they were saying, and I wanted to “educate” them a little bit, or at least make them think about what they were saying. I faced a choice. I could remain quiet, and run no risk of alienating myself, or worse, angering the Grizzly bears. Or I could take a risk and engage in the conversation. I sat there pondering whether it was OK to ask tough questions of tough men…

I was watching a video tonight of the President giving an interview to Brian Williams down in New Orleans. As I watched the interview, which for the record I thought was a pretty good interview, I noticed that the President did what he does best, speak whatever words the American public wants to hear. And Williams did what interviewers of the President do best, lob softballs up there to get hit out of the park. I didn’t get past the discussion on New Orleans without a statement being made that would have prompted a serious question if I were the interviewer. Williams remarked that Katrina was about class, race, and government and the environment (a BULLSHIT statement to begin with) and asked what happened to the debate that was supposed to happen around it? Obama answered that we are still having that debate. A somewhat honest answer. He then made the statement that Katrina re-awakened “a sense that we are all in this together.”

Huh? I would have to ask, exactly how can you say that when the overriding rhetoric coming out of Katrina was based on race or class? Blacks claimed Katrina was a conspiracy against blacks. The poor claimed it was a conspiracy against the poor. I don’t recall anyone ever claiming that Katrina showed us that we were all in this together. But did Williams pop that tough question on Obama?

Nope.

In fact, no one ever pops any tough question on the President. Ever.

In today’s Rose Garden speech, the President urged Congress to pass a bill for small business that is up right now. He blamed Republicans for blocking passage, saying, “Holding this bill hostage is directly detrimental to our economic growth. I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade.” There is a familiar theme. Republicans who oppose the bill for one reason or another, be it because they think the bill is a bad idea or they think it will make things worse, are called the “obstructionist Republicans” or even better, “the party of NO.” Does anyone ever call the President on this claim, perhaps pointing out the reasons the Republicans are opposing his bill and asking him to address their concerns?

Nope.

In fact, no one ever asks ANY of the Democratic mouthpieces to defend their statements about the party of no claims. Not Pelosi. Not Reid. Not Emanuel. Not Franks. No one.

Don’t fall into the trap that this is nothing more than the media bias at work. That is a part of the problem. But it is no different for Republicans who make outlandish claims. Did anyone ever see anyone directly confront Sarah Palin on the fact that death panels weren’t exactly in the law as she claimed? Sure, the MSM liberal vestibules ranted on and on about her claims. But did anyone ever actually confront her on it?

Excuse me... you can't ask that question.

Nope.

What about minority leader John Boehner? He liked to throw around things such as the health care bill being debated then provided health care for illegal immigrants (granted it was a bill that neither Boehner or anyone else in Congress actually read, but I digress). Or what about his claim that the energy bill had a provision that required homeowners to replace appliances with more energy efficient ones before they would be allowed to sell their home. Did anyone directly challenge Boehner on these lies?

Nope.

I think you can all see that we could go on with this all day with just about every single member of Congress. In fact, the only time members of Congress ever get tough questions is when they commit some act that is so bad that they face jail time or censure and the media cannot ignore it. But let’s face the facts here. The fact is that no nationally prominent politician in America ever faces tough questions. Especially the President.

Why doesn’t anyone ever ask the President directly in an interview why he refuses to produce a copy of his original birth certificate to public scrutiny? Why don’t they ever ask him directly in an interview why his writings from college are sealed and unavailable for review? Why doesn’t anyone ask him directly how he thinks it is possible to have sat in Reverend Wright’s hateful church for twenty years without knowing what Wright was all about?

Why are no major politicians in America ever put on the hot seat? Further, why is this accepted. The true answer to the hot seat question is that no major politician would ever allow themselves to be put into a position where that is a possibility. Interviews are screened and planned. Questions are decided before-hand. And it is common knowledge that if your network ever challenges the President directly in that manner, their network will be shunned and will never have access to the President again.

Put another way, the media can play ball with the politicians or be shut out. But the biggest question I have to ask is why on earth do the American people tolerate this as a practice in the American political system? Is it not the most ridiculous premise that you have ever heard?

Our national politicians exercise more control over us than our families do. They spend more of the money that we earn than we are allowed to keep. They send us to war. They regulate our lives. They dictate our choices. They destroy our country and our way of life. And we are supposed to accept that we don’t have the right to ask them tough questions. If you are afraid of answering the tough questions, you don’t have what it takes to represent me, I can tell you that.

And you need to see nothing more than the reaction from them if they are asked a tough question. Joe Biden has given us some great insight into the rage that the modern politician feels when he is questioned. Recall his reaction when WFTV-Channel 9’s Barbara West asked him tough questions. He was appalled at tough questions, and his people promptly sent a letter to WFTV letting them know they were cut off from the campaign. There are plenty of examples on both sides of the aisle of politicians having a fit when asked tough questions.

We talk about accountability for our federal representatives. How is that even possible in an environment where we don’t even have the ability to ask them tough questions? Our politicians should be challenged in a hard way every single day. They should have to answer for every single statement that they make. They work for us. And when a large percentage of the people have a question, it should be answered, not avoided. Our media needs to grow some cajones, especially when it comes to the Democratic candidates that they love so much, but with the Republicans as well. If you can’t answer the questions, you don’t deserve to represent the people of the United States. And if you are afraid to ask the questions, you don’t deserve to be the one doing the interview.

And that is why, faced with the prospect of angering the grizzly bears in that bar many years ago, I decided to speak up. I figured that if I was going to respect the men at that table, they were going to have to answer the questions that I had, and rationalize the stances they were taking. What ensued was a two hour conversation about race. Sure, some voices were raised and some feelings were hurt. But what happened was that both sides learned a lot about the other. Both sides were given some things to really think about and process. But most important, both sides gained respect for having an honest conversation that many would have been afraid to start. I was really glad that I spoke up, because I found that what was on the surface didn’t at all represent what was in their hearts.

Wouldn’t it be nice if our media did its job and exposed what what really in our politicians hearts?