I seriously don’t want another four years, much less eight, of Republican rule. But if the Democrats lose the upcoming elections, it will be because they are cowards, and American’s can’t help but notice. And the Democrats will have earned that loss, to the shame and probably irreparable detriment of our nation, though it begins to seem obvious that the Democrats are not capable of leading, anyway.
We vote them in because we want an end to the war. We vote in opinion polls saying that we want out, and that a majority of Americans are even willing to let Congress use it’s purse strings to do it. And what do they do? Bow down for the sake of a cushy Memorial Day weekend:
CONFLICT IN IRAQ / Dems bow to Bush on funds for war
Not wanting to leave town for
their weeklong Memorial Day break being accused of failing to support
the troops fighting in Iraq, the frustrated Democrats dropped any
withdrawal timeline from the final version of the bill. . .. . . The new version of the spending bill is likely to gain Republican votes while it loses those of anti-war Democrats in both houses. It is expected to include benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet on political reconciliation and war efforts in order to receive about $5.7 billion in U.S. economic and reconstruction aid. The language proposed by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., however, would allow the president to provide the money even if the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fails to meet the performance goals.
Benchmarks! What the hell are benchmarks except arbitrary road signs along a path? What do they mean if no one’s compelled to take that path? The Democrats have ceded to a meaningless acknowledgment of milestones instead of insisting on results. If Republicans were in the same position, you can bet impeachment hearings would already have begun. Fucking Democrats.
It’s like telling someone they need to quit smoking, then telling them that, “Well, you need to at least acknowledge that, if you do quit smoking at some point in the future, the rest of us will certainly be able to tell because you’ll be coughing less. . .”
It’s an unfortunate comparison being that more and more of Iraq is, quite literally, smoking, but the comparison is nonetheless apt for all that.
So, now I’m waiting for Representative Obey to explain how this was all a carefully-crafted plot to end the war much, much earlier. Bullshit. And, oh yeah, The Gavel is noticeably silent on this issue. Big surprise, that.
I’m not happy. You might have noticed.
Harumph.
Technorati Tags: Democrats, Iraq, Spending Bill, War, Bush
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8 replies on “Cowards”
This result is a total capitulation by the Democratic Leadership. And I thought the message that the elections last November was supposed to send was “CHANGE DIRECTIONS!” I thought that’s what the polls are saying consistently.
It’s hard to see how the Dems could lose by sending the same bill back to Bush that he vetoed, given the mood of the nation and the polls. It’s hard to understand why all Dems don’t support Reid-Feingold, given the mood of the nation and the polls. Keep 100% of the pressure on Shrub.
Having Dem majority in both the house and senate has been good so far, but we all have expected more accomplishments, particularly on the issue of Iraq.
Exactly. I can understand wanting to ratchet up the pressure slowly, but this isn’t it. This is like letting a kid off the hook because the whole problem with George Bush is that he’s willing to flout any rule you put before him in the first place.
I think that this is one of those times when we need to chew our representatives ears off about this issue. Fine that they know we’re pissed, but they need to take it seriously and get pissed themselves. If the Democrats don’t have it in them to grow a spine, we need to shove one up their asses.
I don’t really know what else to do. For the last year, I have sent e-mails, snail mails, signed petitions and called the offices of our Congressmen (and CongressWoman) to address this particular issue (Iraq) as well as many other issues. Sometimes I think it has had the same impact on the Congressmen as when I sit in my living room watching Green Acres re-runs. Do you have any suggestions?
Paige:
I would suggest letting Democratic politicians know that you can always stay home or vote Green in 2008. Mentioning primary challenges might be a good idea too.
Democrats think that they can take the votes of war opponents for granted. As long as they think so, they will continue to support the war.
@LibHomo ~ all those are valid options, except that all we succeed in doing is watering down the closest thing to a way out might be. I think that the threat is fine, but following through should that prove necessary is a bad idea. There’s more than a reason to believe that the Nader vote in 2000 got us Bush in the first place.
@Paige ~ I’m completely at a loss. Green Acres is an awfully good television program, though. It seems to me that something needs to be done about the leadership, since it’s ultimately Pelosi and Reed who decide what to do. How we go about that is beyond me, though. I’m steamed, but I’m not exactly full of ideas at this point.
I can’t even bear to follow this any further. I think I need to stop reading to the news for a few days, watch some obscure NCAA championship on the tube, and wait until my blood pressure comes down before I look at the news again.
Yeah, I’ve gotta admit that this whole affair, while predictable, has really taken the starch out of my collar. I’ve been working on my RocWiki Monroe County Legislature dillio for the simple fact that I have next to nothing left to say about national politics. I think I’m just going to enjoy my Memorial Day weekend and I suggest you do the same.
I recommend margaritas at Salinas as a curative. Many, many margaritas.
Olay!!
[…] screw it up somewhere along the line, but at the moment, I’m so exhausted by the latest Democratic triangulation/capitulation bullshit that I can hardly think of a good reason to bother commenting. Certainly, national politics are […]