We all have duty to ask tough questions

We just had the sixth anniversary of the smoking gun memo, i.e. the infamous Downing Street memo of July 23, 2002 which proved beyond a doubt that the Bush administration was going to take out Saddam.

And of course, we know this administration went through the charade over the following eight months of convincing the American people that war would be its last option.

Many people, including the "liberal press," who could have stood up to this administration did not.

Additionally, we just had the fourth anniversary on July 14 of Robert Novak leaking the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

I thought this would be the end of this administration in that the American people would never stand for this.

But here we are, finally, coming to the end of what might be the worst presidency in history.

Joe Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame did their best to stand up to this administration.

But as we found out, Bush would just pardon the offender.

Scott McClellan provides a very interesting analysis in his book in that, if anything, the "liberal-oriented media" is a "good thing." This coming from a conservative.

As McClellan states regarding the run up to the war: "The 'liberal media didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served. It can stand up for the interests of people and causes that get short shrift from conservative or mainstream politicians."

With these two anniversaries, let's hope there is transparency in future presidencies so that we don't have to put up with, as McClellan states, Washington's culture of deception.

Maybe we need that special prosecutor again if Congress will not do its job.

We needed it for the current administration. The Republican congressional majority through 2006 was a disgrace and the current Democratic majority leaves much to be desired.

But this will only happen if the American people and the mass media, both progressive and conservative, take an active part of this democratic process.

We can accomplish this by being much more critical of what the agenda is of those in power who want to manipulate information.

Kevin Martin

Schaumburg