A Stubborn Jackass Broke Their Spine: The Democrats Have Failed Us Again
Richard Nixon looks like a flaming liberal today, compared to a golem like George Bush. Indeed. Where is Richard Nixon now that we finally need him? Hunter S. Thompson
All political power comes from the barrel of either guns, pussy, or opium pipes, and people seem to like it that way. Hunter S. Thompson
Well, the Democrats backed down with regard to withdrawal timelines further proving that they are a rabble of gutless whiners who don't have the balls to fire the trigger when it counts. Why this is news to anybody, I'm not sure. The Dems have been playing Little League for years against a GOP that is as ruthless as it is organized, and even so much as George W. Bush has managed to chisel cracks into his party's foundation, he was just quick enough to realize that being pigheaded is not a bad way to force Democrats into a hole.
For once, George Bush had his head on the chopping block. He stood to lose all the juicy military contracts and have his PNAC-conceived foreign policy initiatives sacrificed to the Gods of Human Decency. Robert Kagan would have ordered Oval Office oysters for dinner, sautéed in Condi's tears and garnished with Dick Cheney's old and failing heart. (For the record, Kagan is probably more dangerous than any of them.) It could have been the end of Bush's stranglehold on the national government.
But no.
Obama and Clinton opposed the legislation knowing full well that a vote of "Yay" on the measure would quickly result in catastrophic losses in the polls, perhaps even enough to force either one of them out of the race within two weeks. Times are such that the American People, to varying degrees, are finally beginning to show signs of palpable disgust, and support of an unconscionable bill like the War Funding Bill that passed on Thursday could justifiably be viewed as mass murder by large swaths of the liberal constituency. Whether or not either Senator truly agreed with what came out of their mouths during the vote, it stands to reason they both considered the political consequences of their decisions. They are, after all, running two very high-profile campaigns and are subject to more scrutiny than the rest of the candidates put together, Republicans included.
If there is one sign of hope in this dismal affair, though, it is that the vote in the House showed well over half the Democratic caucus voting against the bill, which is not altogether too surprising considering that the first two drafts of it basically waltzed nonchalantly through the House and Senate while riding a wave of Total Support from the Democrats. At least the removal of withdrawal timelines spurred a good number of these career politicians--even those with very little to risk--to stand up and oppose what should be regarded as the largest legislative failure since Congress approved the war in the first place.
So it went down 280-142 in the House and 80-14 in the Senate. The second outcome of the two is, by far, the more depressing one considering the public mandate issued via the interim elections in November. Some people say it is overly simplistic to believe the overwhelming Democratic victories in the House and Senate constituted a direct order from the people to their leaders to end the war and concentrate on our domestic future.
It is an argument I refuse to buy.
If anything, the political landscape of this country has become progressively less complicated with every dead body and bombing. People are being pushed to either end of the spectrum with very few attempting to pitch their tents on the middle ground. The clear message George Bush refuses to yield to is that we no longer want this war. The consensus over this statement is nearly as complete and resolute as our belief in the Holocaust, which is a nice way of saying our President King is either a total ponce or a totalitarian. By all rights, he has acted like one by extending his presidential privileges farther than anyone since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A true cynic might even say Abraham Lincoln, but I have been chastised for being too radical in the past as well as recently for my support of Mike Gravel, whose plan for a National Initiative would have effectively prevented the passage of this disastrous legislative mutation.
Even in light of nearly universal opposition from the American People, the Democratic Party backed down, and the minimum wage increase cleverly sandwiched into the bill does not rightfully provide those that voted in favor any excuse for throwing over $100 billion into a floundering military abomination like the Iraq War.
As to the precise reasons for their legislative impotence, we can only guess knowing full well that we're probably right and that the Truth might be even worse than we care to admit.