Republicans are funny people. Not "funny" as in "Chris Rock is funny" but "funny" as in "there's something funny going on here." It's been established by the Republican party that a president getting a hummer from an intern in the Oval Office is a far greater crime than intentionally outing a covert CIA operative for political payback.
Funny. Hysterical, even.
The Democrats in the Senate sent a letter today to the majority leader, "Dr." Bill Frist, demanding a Congressional investigation into the Plame affair. I'm sure it's already been filed under "as if."
But the Dems are having a little "fun" with the situation in their own way. When you're the minority party, you have to do what you can to make your point. My favorite part of this web page is the last two points.
Minimum number of hearings held by Senate Republicans to investigate accusations against President Clinton involving the "Whitewater" case: 20
Total hearings held by Senate Republicans to investigate the leak of the covert identity of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife: 0
I know it's a lot to hope for, but wouldn't it be great if the populace woke up to staggering corruption and partisanry of the GOP and voted them back into the minority in '06? I have a picture in my mind of Shrub, Rove, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Libby, and McClellan being frog marched out of the White House and into a US Marshal's van.
Now THAT would be "funny."
6 comments:
schidlap, surely you jest when you say:
"I know it's a lot to hope for, but wouldn't it be great if the populace woke up to staggering corruption and partisanry of the GOP and voted them back into the minority in '06?"
As the great Bill Hicks once said:
"Go back to bed, America, your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed America, your goverment is in control. Here, here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up, go back to bed America, here is American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on the living in the land of freedom. Here you go America - you are free to do what well tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!"
I've spent the last 5 years hoping that one of these scandals will stick, and just enough of the world will realize that W is not a nice guy surrounded by people who want to help, but a liar, thief, terrorist, mass murderer, and damn, there's just not enough bad words for him. I've been disappointed so many times that it's hard to get enthusiastic that any given new crime will be the one that brings the evil ones down, but this one seems to have some traction outside of the left. The So-Called Liberal Media even has managed to wake up a little bit, and realize they don't *have* to write what Goebbels tells them, and that sometimes, lies are actually lies.
Oh, and just wait until the next set of Abu Ghraib photos comes out (that is, if they ever get to see the light of day). Durbin was right.
BTW - aka Baby Maddux
Durbin is an ass. He did nothing but deflect criticism of Gitmo from Bush. Even bringing up Hitler's name in relation to that situation was a horrible PR mistake.
And then he issued the non-apology apology after that.
Maybe my problem is that I expect more out of the Dems.
Durbin was 100% right. The fact that people couldn't read the whole quote, realize what it meant, and kill the president means the rest of us are the dumbasses. Daley, Lieberman, and the rest of the Dems who jumped on Durbin should have their membership cards revoked and have to spend the rest of eternity listening to Ann Coulter. If Bill Frist came out tomorrow and said that all Democrats like to impregnate their children just to make sure they get their first abortions out of the way by the time they're 14, you wouldn't hear a peep of criticism from the right, and they'd label anyone who said anything negative as a baby killer who makes their pets have abortions once they reach menopause.
OK BM, here's a quote:
(referring to prisoners who were chained in the fetal position either very hot or very cold and forced to listen to loud rap music:
" If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."
He is evoking the names of people who have murdered what, 50 million people in response to forcing people to listen to loud music while cold in the fetal position - people who may or may not know something about future terrorist attacks.
I'm not saying that Gitmo is pleasant or even the right thing to do. But clearly this was an asinine PR blunder. The only effect of his speech was distracting people from the potential issue. Whether his message was valid or not is irrelevant. The speech was completely counter-productive, and that should have been completely obvious before he gave it.
And if you want to compare to the republicans, then you're really lowering your standards.
What did Durbin say that was factually incorrect? Not a thing, and that should have been the point.
On the other hand, I know that the effect of using the word Nazi in any other context than discussing German politics in the 1930's is verboten (unless, of course, you're Rush Limbaugh referring to Feminazis or Seinfeld referring to Soup Nazis - I wonder why those are acceptable). What we're doing at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib is sick, and the point that some of the things we do there are things the Nazis did is 100% true. Are we executing millions? No. But saying "well, we're not as bad as the Nazis" is a pretty weak standard.
I guess I'm just pissed that in no way was the message listened to - that we're doing sick, wrong, torturous things to prisoners who have no legal standing - but that the message was easily perverted, and that none of the members of Durbin's own party had enough balls to stand up with him and say "what we're doing is wrong."
The other thing is that I love what Durbin has done since becoming whip. He's been an absolute attack dog, which is a change from Dem policies of 2002 and 2004 (being Republican lite), and a necessary role. What the Dems have to do now is convince the country that, now that they know the GOPpers suck, the Dems have a better plan.
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