Making a brief comeback to resurrect his career, name and lobbying future from the gutter after the Bush administration and Republicans threw him overboard over his racist remarks at a Klan like birthday celebration for Strom Thurman, apparently good old boy Trent has bailed just in time to qualify to get in on the lucrative lobbying industry in Washington before the rules change.

With a smooth line and contacts in place, many special interest groups are likely lining up to get their hands on the future former Senator’s rolodex for the purpose of gaining access to the tax payer gold mine. Via earmarks, favors, deregulation and contract hookups, Lott will undoubtedly be one of the best, as he has had over thirty years to build the right links to a corrupt moneyed infrastructure to have himself positioned to rob and pillage with a simple wink of the eye.

No one can say for sure that Senator Lott will act in his own self interest and not the public’s, but if history of American politics is any guide, we think America had better nail down everything she holds dear, be ready to do a finger count after every handshake and keep abreast of every ultra fine printed legalese laden contract that comes in the mail changing the terms of any previous agreements one might’ve signed with financial institutions, cable/satellite companies and cell phone/internet service providers.

When these newly released thieves from the confines of limited congressional thievery begin to descend the national treasure from their high perch of the lobbyist’s; I am entitled to steal to offset my decades of public service mindset, the average tax payer won’t know what hit them.

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From this writers viewpoint, ones expectations should be lowered as low as the 1/8th full, 7/8th empty glass analogy, as the primary entity that is indispensable to completing the proper guest list for the summit, has not been invited.

Unfortunately, invitation or no, Hamas that 800lb invisible gorilla that will be in the room every minute, influencing even the most miniscule of steps towards anything resembling a breakthrough. Without Hamas, having the Syrians, the Jordanians, the Saudis the Egyptians, the Israelis and only half and of the Palestinians represented by Abbas is setting the meeting up for another pre-planned failure that will ultimately lead to Hamas playing their only two cards; the spoiler and terror.

As a result, Hamas will continue the get their support from those in the region that sympathizes with their plight as well as those that have a vested interest to keeping the status quo the status quo. The Israelis, of the hard right ilk will get to hold on to all the land they can for as long as they can. And the Americans can say they tried to do something, anything to get the warring parties to the table.

Why do we think this issue should qualify for our Vote Smart series? Because, to date the candidates for the Democrat and Republican nominations have been allowed a pass on this pressing issue and have only dealt with it from the extreme periphery. Every one of them has confidently expressed a plan to deal with the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan and to a lesser extent North Korea. But to a person, we have failed to see much coverage of the Democrats or Republicans expressing their concerns and planned policies to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We have continued to state that the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians and the way the United States have dealt with it, or not has always been at the heart of our problems in that volatile region of the world. That is why we think it unfathomable that the primary process could get this far down the road without making the candidates address this fundamental issue that has caused the United States so much blood, treasure and world standing.

In defense of the candidates, we are not sure if they were even asked by the mainstream press to take a position and or offer a solution on this problem. But, to let this election process continue without forcing an open debate by those that seek to be the leader of this nation, of the most obvious and pressing problem that they will face the first day on the job, is in its very nature, a corruption of that process.

We are sure the candidates would love to avoid this problem at all cost, as they can’t even seem to handle simple questions of whether or not an illegal alien/undocumented worker should get a drivers license. But we, the people, the new press must do the job the contaminated mainstream press can’t or won’t do. And that job is to weed through the BS and challenge those that want to lead so badly, to prove they will have the balls (Hillary notwithstanding), to standup to the lobbyist and put forth an independent strategy to bring the United States to the next Mid-East peace conference ready to deal in good faith.
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