In the aftermath of the Rep. Gabrielle Giffords assassination attempt the governor of Arizona is describing it as a tragedy. As though nothing could have been done to prevent it. Her solution in answer to a question? Increased security. We listened to the Mayor of Tucson, the President of the United States, the President of Arizona State University, and the Tucson chief of police. To all of these people what happened in that Safeway Store parking lot was a tragedy. There was no mention — NOT ONE — about the fact that something other than a single-shot rifle must have been used to wreak this amount of havoc in so short amount of time.

Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Well this crime was not committed by a sling shot. Rep. Giffords was shot in the head at near point blank range by some sort of automatic rifle. The sort that hunters would need only if they wished to gun down entire herds of elk or deer.

The anchor staff at a local TV station in Tucson were clawing at the air trying to find words to describe their and their colleagues outrage over this incident. It was as though they were describing a natural disaster. These folks were plenty angry but not so angry they were willing to say something about gun violence. No one we listened to on myriad broadcast sources was willing to say the G word. It was as though they had an advance script supplied to them by the National Rifle Association.

This federal public servant was DOING HER JOB. She was giving the people of her district an opportunity to meet with her person-to-person. Retail democracy. If, as Gov. Jan Brewer suggests, the solution is better security, how practical or realistic is it for Rep. Giffords or any other elected federal official to be among the people who elected them? Our democracy does not function well behind concrete balustrades and concertina wire. And we should not ask citizens to put their lives at risk simply for seeking an elected federal office.

If we put a submachine gun in the hands of any citizen who wants one; someone is going to be off their rocker enough to go out and use one for the only purpose for which it is intended — shooting people. No amount of security can protect us. Not if we give a loaded handgun to every man, woman and baby in the United States. But the governor of Arizona won’t hear any of this. She backed Arizona’s constitutional amendment allowing handguns for everybody older than 21 with no background check or permit.  The President of the United States recently signed a bill that includes a rider allowing people to carry guns in their cars when traveling through national parks.

So we are left with no solution really. In my lifetime, Leo Ryan is the only member of a member of Congress to be gunned down while doing his job, 1978, Jonestown. This is truly a dark day for this country. A dark day for “the American experiment.” Can democracy survive if its elected officials must fear the very people who sent them to Washington?

Jean gets a closeup from the "Blue" standing area

NOW THAT HE’S GONE, I suppose we can begin reflecting on the eight years during which George W. Bush was our President … of the United States … of America. It really happened, right? All of those images flash by at warp speed. Mission Accomplished. Clearing brush down on the ranch in Crawford, Texas. As I review these things I can’t help but ask myself a very simple question: WHY?

Why did the compassionate conservative immediately get the poor into a vice grip from which they cannot escape until well into the Obama administration? Why did Bush listen to certifiable nut cases such as Paul Wolfowitz and Ron Perlman? Why did people in the Bush administration believe that if you have a football game but tell the referees to stay home, everyone will still play nice because it is in their best interest to do so (see Gordon Gecko and Adam Smith)? Why did our beloved Senator Ted Kennedy allow himself to be bamboozled into co-sponsoring what is now fondly known as “No Child Left a Dime”? Why did Bush do nothing in regard to the Middle East until his final week in office? Why did the American People elect him to a second term after knowing full well what they had got from the first?

The musical sound of helicopter blades spinning

SOMEHOW I DOUBT there will be a Bush version of “Nixon Frost” so I’m not optimistic I will ever have an answer to these among my many questions. The people who voted for Bush the second time probably aren’t talkin’. I know I wouldn’t. So I don’t think I’ll be eliciting any explanations from certain people most responsible for the mess we’re in – the people who voted for GWB in 2004 and the people who didn’t vote at all.

What liberal isn’t happy about the ascendency of the first real minority (other than Irish Catholics) into the American monarchy. We rejoice in the take-over of Congress (we can expect results from the Franken-Coleman race in Minnesota no later than next summer) by politicians who are more progressive than, well, the people who were in charge before. We breathe a collective sigh of relief as we contemplate the retirement of the handful of liberal voices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Just in time politics. A bit too close for comfort.

It’s easy to be happy that a smart, even-headed, even-handed guy like Mr. Obama has finally managed to become “the leader of the free world.” But what a mess he has to clean up. After so much promise and the enormous good will following September 11, so crudely squandered on a simplistic right wing agenda. The good news is people beyond our shores can’t possibly hate us more than they do now.

I won’t get my answer. But at least, now, I no longer need or want to ask the question.

Musical sound of helicopter blades growing softer with time and distance.

Ahhh. The quiet sound of a new Pres. Obama signing legislation into law. Probably the one that extends health insurance to little kids that was vetoed by that other guy.