There is a critical lesson in the un-endorsement by the 8th Day Center for Justice and the ISO (and the disinclination by other groups to endorse in the first place) -- namely, we have a right to expect minimum standards from the antiwar 'leadership', and those minimum standards do not include inviting politicians who torture, illegally imprison people for exercising their constitutional rights, and otherwise abuse the public trust to speak at a public pro-peace rally. In addition, I'd add that minimum standards to not include being lectured by politicians like Durbin, Obama, Schakowsky or any of the other Illinois senators and congressmen who've voted to bankroll this war -- and they all have at one point or another.

Minimum standards. Don't give your opposition political cover. That's very different than building a united front in which all unite under one main slogan or slogans and push from that core place of unity. None of the invited elected officials -- not one, with the exception of the local aldermen -- have not acted at one point or another in DIRECT OPPOSITION to the will of their constituencies in terms of the war (and in Daley's case, in terms of a basic respect for human rights at home).

It's an insult to anti-war sentiment across the political spectrum, from right to left, to invite these yahoos -- but it's a mighty tasty sop to 'leaders' in projects like the CPUSA and union locals who are desperate to hold together their shaky/shady ties to some Democratic Party elected officials.

How sad that Carl and his fellow organizers cannot see that this decision moves in exactly the opposite direction of sentiment on the ground in this nation, including folks from Goldwater conservatives to ardent anarcho-communists. How the hell did they get it so wrong? In part, because they refused to extend the initial organizing conversation beyond their own tiny circle.

Democracy has many uses, including helping some of our 'leaders' see beyond the myopia of their own shortsightedness.