Former senators Sam Nunn and David Boren have invited at least 17 prominent political figures, many of them former office holders, to meet in Norman, Okla., on Monday, Jan. 7.

This story appears to have attracted less attention than most straight-to-video movies. (I found it as a subheadline from the Atlanta Constitution on news.google.com, and the only other references I could turn up were a Dec. 30 AP story at SanLuisObispo.com, and a story in the Norman, Okla., paper. A Dec. 18 Washington Post story is referenced, but washingtonpost.com didn’t find it for me.)

The meeting, at the University of Oklahoma, where Boren is president, will include Chuck Robb, Gary Hart, Chuck Hagel, Christine Todd Whitman and former GOP chairman Bill Brock. Nunn and Boren’s invitation letter expressed dissatisfaction with the tone and substance of the national debate to date. As if the meeting were not worth attention on its own, the stories make sure to point out that invitee NYC’s mayor, Mr. Bloomberg, is said to be considering a third-party run for president.

The utter lack of interest in the mainstream media, and what this disinterest says about the sad state of today’s mainstream media, are notable. To digress: unless I missed it somewhere, the Sunday morning TV blatherfests, which I just glanced at (looking directly at the sun destroys your eyes; listening too long to Sunday morning news TV destroys your vision), devoted themselves to — what else is there? — our political campaigns. And, of course, they continue to flog the horserace model, which allows them to nap while others are speaking and doze while speaking themselves. And who are guest expert blatherers on some of these shows? Why, only such wholly discredited figures as Bill Kristol and Joe Klein (Joke Line). This intellectually insipid lineup delivers the same old stuff for shameless week after shameless week — without a single alternative voice. So, of course, the only Democratic candidates mentioned without a smirk, sneer and snicker are the three who lead in certain polls. And so this meeting of state elders doesn’t even count as news.

It is news. The fact that two former senators have to call such a meeting, and that it is going to happen, ought to be on the front page of every newspaper, because it is a substantive expression of dismay from a number of prominent, respected adults to the continuing criminality of the present administration. They don’t put it that way, of course, but the mere fact that such a meeting has to be convened, and outside the confines of normal politics and all of the mass media at that, says a good deal about the violence that seven years of President Bush has done to our institutions and our culture, not to mention the law and the Constitution.

Will its proceedings sink into the same undeserved obscurity as did the 911 Commission and the Iraq report?