31
Aug
Gates is this season’s Powell; Dems are Washington Generals
The Bush administration have once again proved themselves the most effective minority executive branch in history. Bush, Cheney & Co. have persuaded Democratic leaders to avoid investigating even the possibility of impeaching the pair; they’ve persuaded the Democratic Congress to immunize the administration against prosecution for crimes it may have and may yet commit; they’ve convinced Democrats to vote en masse for a warrantless wiretapping bill that most of the hapless Dems hadn’t even read; they’re continuing to persuade Democrats that voting to end an occupation most Americans now despise is politically reckless.
It’s an astonishing record, but this week’s events have placed it once and forever beyond assault: the administration persuaded anti-occupation Democrats to support a new supplemental spending request for Iraq before the administration even submitted it and, most amazingly, before they even told the secretary of defense that that he would be requesting it.
That’s right: On the strength of a hallucinatingly optimistic report that they haven’t seen — the Petraeus/Crocker novella — Democrats are prepared to support a budget request that the secretary of defense didn’t know he was going to make.
The Washington Generals have a better record against the Harlem Globetrotters than this Democratic Congress is racking up against the Bush administration. It is to weep. The difference between the Dems and the Generals? The former make a lot more money with a lot less talent. Oh — and unlike the Generals, Democrats aren’t actually being paid to lose; they came up with this game plan all on their own.
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Your use of the google-hilite plugin causes links from google reader rss feeds to show these errors:
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August 31st, 2007 at 3:59 pmThanks for the heads up, Brothers. I’ve turned it off for now.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:19 pmSecrecy News, h/t this site generally, referenced a new CRS report on the FISA amendments with repeated hedging, since it is simply unclear what the law means. It would be useful if such a report was in place beforehand so the matter could be debated before the vote passing it into law. This, however, appears to be in bad form these days in the “whatever you want guys” stance of Congress.
This btw isn’t too promising either.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:26 pmBTW, Bernie Sanders url needs an upgrade.
September 4th, 2007 at 4:24 pmThanks, Joe. He’s probably been wondering why his traffic dropped off so much …
September 4th, 2007 at 7:21 pmWhile I have my deep divisions with how Congress operates, including no public hearing on legislation (CSPAN hardly counts because of low viewership), I believe you are too harsh on the Democrats. Congress responds to the will of the people. The American people are not calling for the changes you and I would like to see.
Take a look at last week. We had two major news events but one was of only local importance while the other dealt with war and peace. Compare and contrast the coverage of Sen. Larry Craig and the Bush speech in Reno where he spoke of a “nuclear holocaust” unless we take immediate action against Iran. The Craig coverage got at least 20 times the news coverage as the saber-rattling call to war against Iran or exactly the opposite of what we should have been seeing.
The biggest problem we face is the complacency of the American people. They don’t appear to care if the Bill of Rights is removed from that quaint document, the Constitution of the United States. There is an old saying “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”. The American people have been lead to the water trough but they are not drinking. Only when Americans start demonstrating in large numbers in the streets will be begin to see the kind of change that is vital. I keep waiting.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:07 amHey, Dallas. I agree that Americans are by and large a complacent lot, but the electorate’s message on the war was not what one could call ambiguous, and the Democratic leadership is not leading. On Iran, very few people want another disastrously stupid war, but Democratic leaders are not only doing nothing to forestall it, they’re placing themselves in the position of being unable to object on any grounds but timing. There are maybe 120 or so House Democrats who are consistently useful, and only a handful in the Senate, and none of them are in leadership positions. One of the jobs of a leader is to shape public opinion and rally public strength, not simply represent it as it stands — and certainly not to obstruct it when it’s presumably consistent with the leadership’s own goals — and they’re not doing it.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:51 amI think the importance of the people in our system, both good and bad in important to remember, but it only takes us so far in a system where said people expect their leaders to do various things. They delegate. So, when the leaders fail, it is useful to underline the point.
The average person, rightly or wrongly, don’t pay attention to foreign policy. In fact, Congress often doesn’t, leaving that in large respects to the POTUS. So, it seems unfair to now say “hey, the people aren’t pressing enough.”
True to a point, but it only takes us so far.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:43 amWeldon, you know that I greatly respect you for your deep thinking and forward looking positions. This is just one area where we are not quite on the same page, with me basically saying that this time you have your cart ahead of the horse.
The Democrats get beat up on foreign policy all of the time for taking “soft” positions. They need a way to be able to deflect this frontal assult. To provide backside protection the Democrats need a full-functioning think tank on foreign policy that is out front with the message and let them set the tone for the debate.
Much of this goes back to Bill Clinton and Terry McC. They wrongly focused on raising money for campaigns from fat cat contributors in the corporate world. Democrats strength is at the grass-roots level, witness the impact of Blogs in 2006. Howard Dean has started to reverse this failed strategy but it takes a little time to rebuild what was allow to rot by neglect.
Not helpful is a MSM that performs as stenographers with the talking points spun off by the right wing noise machine. Yes, we need a left wing noise machine (read think tanks) to level the playing field. Once this infrastruction is in place we can then hold our politicans more accountable. It just takes a little time to get the ducks in a row. I am willing to give them that time. You are more impatient. Perhaps I should be.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:33 amDallas, they’re certainly operating in a less than ideal communications environment, but there are some elements of Democratic identity that should be ingrained. When Democrats are offered a choice between supporting the credit card industry or working-class families, as with the most recent bankruptcy reform, they oughtn’t to come down on the side of the financial industry. Same with taxes: why did any of them support the regressive Bush tax cuts?
While it’s true that Democrats don’t have the echo chamber Republicans do, they aren’t completely bereft of resources. There are a fair number of organizations doing progressive policy research, and the information and policy recommendations they provide are there for the taking. And on top of that, there’s 200 years of progressive political history and theory to serve as a baseline guide.
The questions I have are “what does it mean to be a Democrat?” and “what does it mean to be a leader?”
September 5th, 2007 at 12:20 pmThose are indeed the two crucial questions, Weldon. Democrats as a party don’t know the answer to either of them.
They forgot who they are and what they do. Their political senility began when the DLC took over and, only partly in reaction to the unintended consequences of campaign finance reforms, moved the party way over to the right to be able to get some of that cash out of those who, ironically, were left in the campaign finance driver’s seat: corporations and robber barons.
That meant Democrats had to learn to speak and lead in a way pleasing enough to Republicans, and that’s what they’ve been doing ever since. Their subsequent failure of leadership and their abandonment of their traditional constituency – a large majority of eligible voters – have been replicating themselves like memes in the halls of Congress, and thus we have Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid: unsure exactly what they believe in and scared of their own shadows.
And thus we have this.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:08 pmYesterday, Slate’s TP linked to three articles on the new student aid legislation. The AP noted:
“The boost in financial aid to college students was one of half a dozen domestic priorities Democrats set when they took control of Congress this year. Two others — an increase in the minimum wage, and mandatory air and sea cargo inspections — have become law, and a third, ethics reform, is awaiting Bush’s signature.”
The Dems also passed a law making the 9/11 Commission Report suggestions official. I found it a bit weird an important piece of business was completed on a Friday. And, as Slate noted, two papers put it inside. The LAT did not.
Given the LAT and educational background of some here, I thought this might be of particular interest. It also shows that the stuff is there for a good “frame” … even on security issues.
September 9th, 2007 at 5:23 am