Dems returning to form: Running scared.
I apologize to my loyal reader that I haven't been blogging too much lately. Since I got my second job -- see how great the economy is, I need two jobs! -- I haven't had a whole lot of time to get my thoughts together to comment on all the news that's been going on the past week or so.
Let me just start by saying how gratified I am that the voters of Pennsylvania have sent Rick Santorum and Curt Weldon packing. Halleluiah! I actually heard Curt Weldon, who even on a good day isn't too tightly wrapped, blaming the "pagans" for his crushing defeat. It looks like the voters of America are mightily PO'd and they have sent a strong message that 'enough is enough.' Whether this will make any difference in changing business as usual in Washington is yet to be seen.
I'd like to think the Dems would go in there like gangbusters and start cleaning up the joint, but Nancy Pelosi doesn't exactly inspire a great deal of hope in me. Part of the reason is that the Dems strategy was to find "moderate" candidates to run against right-wing Republicans, which worked pretty well, but the result is that the party has moved even further to the right than is was before (if that's possible.) I hear a lot in the media about how the Democratic Party is moving to the "center," but the center has moved so far to the right that someone like Richard Nixon wouldn't even be able to run as a Dem. I can just imagine David Brooks ridiculing him as some sort of left-wing radical: 'Price and wage controls? Decriminalizing drugs! Expanding welfare!!! This man is too far out of the mainstream!'
After six years of Bush, everyone has gotten used to the idea that the way things are today has always been the way it's been. Of course, the government funds religious organizations, and; of course, we've always had secret prisons around the world where we torture people who may or may or may not be actually guilty of anything. Habeas Corpus, evidence, fair trials? That's all code for 'soft on terror.' The vice-president of the United States can actually go on a radio show and say he thinks water boarding is a no-brainer, and the media, instead of discussing how we can get this dangerous loon out of office, has a debate about whether water boarding might not be a useful tactic in gaining intelligence. Is there any other country in the world where pundits openly discuss how much torture is too much torture?
In any case, the Dems have just won a huge election; from taking the Congress, to picking up governorships; to state houses and already they're playing into the GOP's hands. Most folks in the Party's base like me would like to see the majority start the supeonas flying, looking to Iraqi war contracting, Jack Abramoff's visists to the WH and about a million other things the GOP congress ignored. But all Bush has to say is that he's been the good guy all along and the, "The Democrats will have to make up their minds how they are going to conduct their affairs," and Dems like Pelosi and Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown say, "if Democrats go in and seek retribution, we lose."
This isn't about retribution, don't play they're game. My God they've let a bunch of corporate crooks run off with half the government and started a war that's killed 2,800 US troops and cost almost a trillion dollars!
Please, grow a pair Nancy!
Let me just start by saying how gratified I am that the voters of Pennsylvania have sent Rick Santorum and Curt Weldon packing. Halleluiah! I actually heard Curt Weldon, who even on a good day isn't too tightly wrapped, blaming the "pagans" for his crushing defeat. It looks like the voters of America are mightily PO'd and they have sent a strong message that 'enough is enough.' Whether this will make any difference in changing business as usual in Washington is yet to be seen.
I'd like to think the Dems would go in there like gangbusters and start cleaning up the joint, but Nancy Pelosi doesn't exactly inspire a great deal of hope in me. Part of the reason is that the Dems strategy was to find "moderate" candidates to run against right-wing Republicans, which worked pretty well, but the result is that the party has moved even further to the right than is was before (if that's possible.) I hear a lot in the media about how the Democratic Party is moving to the "center," but the center has moved so far to the right that someone like Richard Nixon wouldn't even be able to run as a Dem. I can just imagine David Brooks ridiculing him as some sort of left-wing radical: 'Price and wage controls? Decriminalizing drugs! Expanding welfare!!! This man is too far out of the mainstream!'
After six years of Bush, everyone has gotten used to the idea that the way things are today has always been the way it's been. Of course, the government funds religious organizations, and; of course, we've always had secret prisons around the world where we torture people who may or may or may not be actually guilty of anything. Habeas Corpus, evidence, fair trials? That's all code for 'soft on terror.' The vice-president of the United States can actually go on a radio show and say he thinks water boarding is a no-brainer, and the media, instead of discussing how we can get this dangerous loon out of office, has a debate about whether water boarding might not be a useful tactic in gaining intelligence. Is there any other country in the world where pundits openly discuss how much torture is too much torture?
In any case, the Dems have just won a huge election; from taking the Congress, to picking up governorships; to state houses and already they're playing into the GOP's hands. Most folks in the Party's base like me would like to see the majority start the supeonas flying, looking to Iraqi war contracting, Jack Abramoff's visists to the WH and about a million other things the GOP congress ignored. But all Bush has to say is that he's been the good guy all along and the, "The Democrats will have to make up their minds how they are going to conduct their affairs," and Dems like Pelosi and Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown say, "if Democrats go in and seek retribution, we lose."
This isn't about retribution, don't play they're game. My God they've let a bunch of corporate crooks run off with half the government and started a war that's killed 2,800 US troops and cost almost a trillion dollars!
Please, grow a pair Nancy!
posted by William Duane at 4:34 PM
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