My questions for all of the Democratic candidates...

[journalist3072]

And now...for today's installment of "Questions for the Democratic Candidates."

Here are just some of the questions that I'd like each Democratic candidate to answer:

1. Where do you stand on the issue of voting rights for D.C. residents? If you don't support voting rights for D.C. residents, why not? If you support D.C. residents having representation in both houses of Congress, what will you do substantially to make that happen? I'm not talking about symbolic steps, such as placing the "No taxation without representation" tags on the presidential limo. Bill Clinton did that. What will you do substantially?

2. What do you view as the proper use of signing statements? Do you believe it is appropriate for a President to use signing statements, to declare themselves except from following the law that they just signed?

3. One of the practices of the Bush White House, has been to edit reports originating from cabinet level departments, when the facts in those reports don't square with White House views. For example, the Bush White House edited a Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) report on racial disparities in health care, making the report LESS critical of the racial imbalances in health care. Will you give cabinet level departments the independence necessary, to release evidence-based, factual reports, even if those reports contradict some of your personal views?

4. It also seems that another habit of this administration, has been to attempt to delay the release of controversial reports, especially when the content of those reports, is not expected to be favorable to the administration. For example, in 2004, Sen. John Kerry questioned the Department of Agriculture's delay in releasing its annual hunger report, which was supposed to be released just weeks before the presidential election. Will you pledge to release routinely scheduled reports ON TIME, even if those reports might negatively impact your administration during a politically sensitive time?

5. What do you believe you can do, policy-wise, to try to narrow the gap between the overall national unemployment rate, and the African-American unemployment rate?

6. What policies do you believe need to be enacted, to decrease the number of those living in poverty?

7. What will you do to restore integrity to the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice? Will you pledge to support the career civil servants in the Voting Rights Section, who were left out in the cold and kept out of key decision making, during the Bush Administration?

These are just some of the questions I have. What are your questions for the candidates?