Sunday, January 14, 2007
2 points for playing a safety except in Washington
In today's Chicago Tribune, John Kass eloquently summarizes the growing public discontent with the ultra-cautious Democratic leadership and its Iraq strategy. Non-binding resolutions? Tough questions? There's nothing we can do? Come now. The Democratic party complained bitterly about the actions and policies of the Republican majority, and now that the Democrats are the majority, we'd like to see them step up and drive the changes they campaigned on and were elected for by the people. One might think with the apparent divisions in the Republican party, the new majority party might be able to find a way to move its platform forward?
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8 comments:
Try this:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=156916
I don't think the Dems need to turn into Newty blowhards to be effective. And they don't particularly need to be shrewd. They just need to make sure that they don't create a bigger disaster than we've already got in Iraq. Just because Bush made making the mess look easy doesn't mean it's going to be easy to get out of it. There are serious consequences for withdrawal, both intended and unintended. I am certainly not comfortable with just cutting off funding for the troops as a way to reign in Bush -- there are soldier's lives on the line over there. The Dems are right to hold hearings (which didn't happen AT ALL under the Repubs) to ensure accountability from this administration.
One of the grossest things I've heard in the past few days is this absolutely m*f*ing ridiculous Bushism that the war critics who don't like escalation should come up with a better plan for winning. How someone who has created a foreign policy nightmare like this could turn around and demand that someone else clean it up is beyond me. It's a bit like me killing the cat and then insisting that, before criticizing me for killing the cat, you'd better have a damned good suggestion for resurrecting it.
Good response, except myself or my referree, Kass, didn't say anything about any of that. All I am saying, is the Dems are being too cautious and are not being clear with their message. They need to be very clear on their message, and very forceful (not stupid, not Newty) on the implementation of their message.
I got that... what I'm saying is that I can't see ragging on them for not providing leadership when there's nowhere for them to lead. You want congress to take a decisive position against Bush but it seems to me that the Dems really only have two choices:
1. Insist that we start a troop withdrawal and cut off funding for the war. Accept the public outrage against (and possible truth of) endangering the lives of our troops by limiting access to funds. Accept responsiblity for the brutish mix of civil war and genocide that will inevitably result when we leave. Accept the consequences for creating a playground for terrorist groups in Iraq.
2. Formally state disagreement with the president's conduct of the war. Conduct congressional hearings and make him explain, defend, and be accountable for his decisons and actions. Pray that the surge works and that we haven't made things less safe for our children.
Looks like they're choosing #2. I'm not sure I disagree with that. What would you have them do?
Well option #2 is essentially just rhetoric, and in their campaigns they did not say, Please elect me, if you do, I will verbally disagree with Bush but not actually DO anything. So #2 is unacceptable. It seems like they have several options in terms of reducing or cutting off funding, re-voting on the war itself, etc. I do agree with you that none of these are necessarily great or easy options. However, we voted for changes, the Democrats insisted they would make those changes, now they need to step up and do it - even if its hard!
I think oversight and forced accountability is a nice start, we haven't had that before.
I don't think the problem is doing what's 'hard'. It's about doing what is in this country's best interests and what changes the Dems can affect in a positive way with the power they have. They can't unshit the bed, and it's intellectually lazy to demand that the Dems cut off funding without talking about the consequences of doing that. A lot has changed on the ground in the past few months.
That said, you already know I'm waffling on this topic. Withdrawal is probably just as good as anything else. I am only struggling because I don't see any 'winning' scenarios.
Do you remember what movie this is from (and googling it doesn't count!):
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
Yes, I remember WHOPR (sp?) saying that in War Games. Sorry, I still find it laughable that after whining about having no power as the minority party, the Dems are now willing to do nothing and make excuses for it as the majority party. I am not really even advocating any form of withdrawal, I am just asking the Dems to grow a spine and match their campaign rhetoric with real, meaningful action. And their actions should be meaningful and well thought-out, and how can it be they don't know what to do or have any plans, since they stated they did during their campaigns to get elected? How can I be intellectually lazy for asking the Dems to implement the plans they claim they had which they claimed were carefully thought out and were in the best interests of the country?
It's strange that you don't seem too interested in what particular action is taken as long as the Dems take action immediately. I guess you're entitled to that... the 110th has been in session for almost two weeks. And since all the new and returning Democrats ran with identical platforms, plans, and opinions on what should be done, I would have expected them to have reached consensus on an alternate strategy already. I mean, we're already 8 working days into the first 100 and they have not crafted a formal legislative response to cut off funding for the escalation request Bush hasn't submitted yet.
All we've gotten so far is a letter to the President from Reid and Pelosi, a resolution to set the stage for the pending constitutional showdown with Bush, and a smattering of press releases.
I am so totally voting Republican next time. :-)
This is great info to know.
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