Posted on 12/03/2004 7:05:12 AM PST by johnny7
It didn't take George Bush long to become a lame duck president. While he was off in South America, two congressional Neanderthals, Representatives James Sensenbrenner and Duncan Hunter, at the urging of the Pentagon, scuttled the intelligence reform bill. All the years of work in establishing the committee and producing its lengthy report went down the drain, though it was supported by the president, the vice president and, somewhat weakly, by the secretary of defense.
There were plenty of votes in the House to pass the bill, but Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, something of a Neanderthal himself, refused to permit a vote on it, lest it require Democratic votes for the compromise hammered out by the House and Senate to pass and go to the president's desk. It is worth noting that none of the three Neanderthals come from districts which by any stretch of the imagination could be targets for terrorism. Come to think of it, the comparison of the threesome with the onetime denizens of the Neanderthal river valley in Germany may be unfair to the latter.
President Bush was re-elected because the majority of Americans thought he was doing a good job in the so-called war on terrorism. Now it turns out that he doesn't have enough clout with the Republicans in Congress to win approval for an anti-terrorism reform that almost everyone in the country supports, including the Republican members of the commission that recommended the reform. The three congressmen figure, doubtless correctly, that they'll be around much longer than Bush and they can do pretty much whatever they want because of their mandate to impose "moral values" on the rest of us. Strong president indeed! He can't even force two members of the House of Representatives to back down on a bill that he professes to believe is crucial for the country.
But does he really believe it? Might his support for reform of the nation's intelligence-gathering apparatus be of the same order of sincerity as his off-repeated support for a "strong dollar"? Perhaps it's only verbal -- the kind of support that is expressed but not supported by any action. The euro has appreciated 30 percent against the dollar, yet the president sustains his image by proclaiming he's for a strong dollar. Similarly, he supports intelligence reform but won't do anything to push it through Congress. He has been re-elected and thus surpassed his father. He doesn't have to worry about re-election ever again. One must remember that Bush opposed the establishment of a commission to investigate intelligence failures at the time of the World Trade Center attack. He was forced into establishing the commission by the protests of relatives of the victims. At first he resisted the report and then caved in again when pressure from the relatives gained national media attention. Might it be that he's just as happy to let the issue die, now that it is not a possible re-election issue? Might it be that the Republicans in Congress sense that the pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney for passage of the bill is something less than enthusiastic and that he and the president would be just as happy to forget about the whole thing now that the election is over? Strange things happen in Washington all the time, especially when the national media have lost interest in a subject.
One might suspect that "now the election is over" a lot of issues will slip down the drain -- who made the bad decisions about Iraq intelligence; who leaked the name of a CIA agent to the media; who was responsible for the torture of prisoners in Iraq; how long the detainees are to be kept in Guantanamo; who made the decision that airport security should paw and undress women. These are fringe issues that must not interfere with the president's mandate to take more money away from poor people and give it to the rich.
The verbiage about the "war on terror" goes on, but in fact it must be over. Otherwise, the president would not permit intelligence reform to sink beneath the radar screen. Maybe the congressmen from Illinois, Wisconsin and California are not the only Neanderthals around.
This a$$-wipe has all the DNC 'talkin points down pat. It's a shame that he forgot Karen Breitweiser... the 9/11 MSM darling/DNC sock-puppet. Some of the best MSM/DNC collaboration of the election campaign!
The clueless left don't even realize W hasn't even taken office for his second term yet.
"One might suspect that "now the election is over" a lot of issues will slip down the drain -- who made the bad decisions about Iraq intelligence; who leaked the name of a CIA agent to the media; who was responsible for the torture of prisoners in Iraq; how long the detainees are to be kept in Guantanamo; who made the decision that airport security should paw and undress women. These are fringe issues that must not interfere with the president's mandate to take more money away from poor people and give it to the rich."
Maybe Bush should also ignore things like:
Sandy Berger
Richard Clarke
Oil for Food
Mark Rich
Senator Leahy's leaks
Kerry, the DNC and Moveon/ACT cooperation
Fraudulent voting in Democrat districts
The Clinton Librarys funding source
CBS forged documents
Four years of liberal backstabbing during a war for political gain
And on and on....
As a side note, Ben Veniste and Jamie Gorelick will never dictate what US intelligence policies should or should not be.
Fred Barnes made a good point -- there should be discussion and consideration about making these vast changes in bureaucratic structures before rushing into something half-cocked merely because the 9/11 Commission said so.
Recommendation: Secure identification should begin in the United States. The federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as drivers licenses. Fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft. At many entry points to vulnerable facilities, including gates for boarding aircraft, sources of identification are the last opportunity to ensure that people are who they say they are and to check whether they are terrorists.41
I believe the terrorists on 9/11 had something like 50+ valid state issued drivers licenses in their possesion. Not having these licenses would have made it harder for them to complete their evil plan...
This is exactly what I voted for when I voted for BUSH. I want the phony "issues" of the left to slip down the drain.
Hey, Greeley, why don't you stick to writing stuff that you understand, like cheesy crime potboilers?
I'm tired of these clowns pretending to know what We the People support. Most people in the country don't have a clue what is contained in this bill, so how could they support it?
It just irks me to no end, that the Sun Times still uses a picture of this jerkoff in his priest collar next to his articles. He was booted out of the church long ago if I recall (maybe he left on his own).
The Sun Times does this so all the wax heads will think that Greeley speaks for the church.
Its pathetic.
It appears that the author Andrew Greeley doesn't like democracy in action!
Is he still a priest? If so, he should stick to writing about the Middle Ages and other ancient history. He might be able to understand that better than current events.
Technically yes, but he's been effectively removed from the ministry.
If so, he should stick to writing about the Middle Ages and other ancient history. He might be able to understand that better than current events.
Trust me, he's just as clueless about that stuff as well. The only thing he knows well enough to write about is the 1960s.
Wonder why this bill is the darling of the libs?
I love how everyone is quick to label Bush a lame duck president.
That 'chuckle' means he's heard that Bush really doesn't give a flying-f__k whether it's passed or not!
This is an outrageous lie, of course. But from the beginining Marxists like Greely have been trying to morph Abu Graib into outright "torture," presumably so as to bring the Administration up on charges befor some rinky-dink world "court."
As for intelligence reform, it's proceeding very nicely under Porter Goss to undo the grievous damage to America done by Jimmy Carter, Stansfield Turner, Frank Church, Bill Clinton and George Tenet, to name a few.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.