Special Comment By Teh Keith

[filkertom]

Essential viewing, gang. See, the other day, the Dems, entrusted to smack Mr. Bush for his horrific war of lies and to get our troops the hell out of Iraq... folded like a map.

Keith is not happy.

Comments

[whouseknecht.livejournal.com]

Hm. Lessee...

- the president does something that the opposition party doesn't like
- the opposition party makes all kinds of noises that They Will Stop Him!™
- the president won't stop
- the opposition party decides that they'd rather Keep the Power™ than Fight the Power™
- the press wags its finger(s)
- schnapps and cocoa all around except for the people being effected by all of this

Welcome to America! We hope you have a lovely stay!

Why anyone expects any better out of either side of the aisle is beyond me...

[madfilkentist]

The Democrats want it to look as if they fought the good fight but were defeated by Bush's veto. They're hoping -- probably with good cause -- that most people won't notice that Congress holds the purse strings, and that all they had to do to end the war was not pass an appropriation.

Neither party, at the Congressional level, is interesting in anything but getting themselves re-elected and increasing their own pay. I'm supporting Ron Paul as the only tolerable candidate (though I have to hold my nose at his stance on immigrants).

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Two thoughts:

1) By comparing the Democrats to Neville Chamberlain, Keith just pulled off the subtlest Bush/Hitler analogy I've seen. :)

2) On one point, Keith is a little bit behind the curve. His montage of Democratic Presidential candidates included John Edwards. But Edwards had already denounced the bill late Tuesday.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

He did, however, mention a bit later that both Edwards and Chris Dodd had done so.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

I cringed a little at the choice of analogy only because it sets up an obvious and yet flawed retort of "You want us to stop fighting the war and *you* get to invoke Neville Chamberlain???"

Still this was one of Keith's best. The Dems really need to learn that Dubya doesn't fight fair (like the recess appt gimmicks doesn't tell you that).

Screw this no-confidence vote stuff. It's not binding either. Congress can impeach any federal official. Impeach Alberto Gonzales and be done with it. See the smoke pour out of George's ears because he can't get his way.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

You think this "deal" might persuade Al Gore to get into the race? God, I hope so.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

I can't BELIEVE I thought they were real!

What could they do?

[moquif.livejournal.com]

The Democrats don't have enough votes to override a presidential veto. Then dragging the fight out would have been used by Republicans in their "Democrats don't support the troops" garbage. Unfortunately sometimes you have to pick your fights. Best they should do is keep putting bills on Bush's desk until he signs one. Be honest. Be forthright. Take the moral high ground. Don't be like Bush.

Re: What could they do?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the thing: They didn't take the moral high ground. They screwed up completely, and let the Chimperor have his funding for the next phase of the war without any accountability whatsoever. No timelines, no conditions, no progress reports, not jack shit.

Can't override a veto? Why, then, hammer the living fuck out of everyone who voted to keep the military in a war the country doesn't want. No, this is easy stuff. Every damn time Bush blathers about this, say, "What the hell is wrong with our president? He is not listening to the people, and he is denying reality. Something is WRONG WITH HIM. And the people who vote to support him? Something is WRONG WITH THEM. They are ignoring the realities of the situation, and the demands of the people they serve and represent, and they must be held accountable. Meanwhile, we will continue to try to stop this insane war."

Re: What could they do?

[moquif.livejournal.com]

I thought they did include benchmarks. It's not quite nothing, but it's a start. The problem isn't that the Democratic leadership doesn't talk about how Bush is denying reality in favor of his own perspective. They are, the problem is that not enough people are listening or has accepted that Bush won't change his mind. And why should Bush change his mind? He doesn't have to worry about re-election. When things start looking bad, his cronies will go back to scaring people with terrorists again. As long as he thinks Iraq is central to his "war on terror" Bush won't budge. So we got to make him accept the fact he is wrong and accept responsibility for being wrong. Once that happens we can finally get around to repairing the damage he did, starting with bringing our troops home.

Iraq started as a country mashed together after a war. The only way for it to live is with powerful dictators. The best thing for everyone is to let it die and let the region heal on its own.