For some time I've been asking the question that Cindy Sheehan was asking herself this week about the Loyal Opposition. I've been wondering about why not a single Democrat from the U.S. Senate joined the Black Congressional Caucus to challenge the balloting and election of G.W. Bush in January 2001.

I've been wondering why there's been such attacks on American values - by Americans - including: incarcerating people without trial; the so-called "Patriot" Act, nullifying key provisions of our civil rights; legislation passed against "whistleblowers;" in favor of "tort limitation;" against middle-class "bankruptcy;" and, the unbridled tripling of gas and oil costs, without so much as an inquiry. All the while, as debt amasses and taxes have been cut on the super-rich.

I've been wondering how so many - including Hillary Clinton and John Edwards - could vote with the administration to invade a sovereign nation. If there was doubt then, what do we call it now as 116 and counting became splattered souls from shattered families during May?

I've been wondering why the Dems didn't play the same hard ball with this administration, as this administration plays against the majority, now.

I've wondered how Reid and Pelosi - with a majority in both houses and support by most governors and state houses - have laid down and played dead to a failed administration that took one of the biggest losses by the electorate since 1932. Yet, when Bush won re-election by a squeaker, he was talking about "spending political capital" the very next day.

I was wondering during John Kerry's campaign what people meant when they said Democrats have no conviction. No leadership. No ideas. I wondered why Kerry didn't tear into his chicken-hawkish opponents who, for the most part, couldn't tell a mess hall from a hit of Mescaline.

And then I remember wondering, decades back, as the animals - peeking through the window at the pigs and the people playing poker - could no longer tell who were pigs or who were people on the final page of George Orwell's poignant and timeless novel, Animal Farm.

But what scares me most is, just lately, it seems I've been wondering a lot less.