Posted on 07/10/2007 3:48:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
I have a question for those dedicated Democrats who, despite their disagreements with me, nonetheless read this blog or listen to my radio show.
Your party’s leaders in Congress have, at last count, launched some 300 separate investigations against the Bush administration. Is this what you had in mind when you voted to turn the House and the Senate over to the Democrats?
It’s obvious, isn’t it, that this emphasis on partisan “gotcha” politics is one of the reasons that the approval rating for Congress counts as the lowest ever recorded---with even the badly weakened President boasting double the positive numbers of the floundering legislative branch. (30% approval versus 14% approval, according to a typical recent poll).
The Dems now threaten a Constitutional confrontation over some details and testimony regarding the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys who, according to statute, serve “at the pleasure of the President.” Unable to find a legal strong legal basis to allege the commission of any crime, the Democrats now want to criminalize the lack of White House cooperation.
This reflects the ongoing furor over Scooter Libby and the commutation of his sentence. The disclosure of Valerie Plame’s CIA position (by Richard Armitage, not Libby) constituted no crime, and produced no indictments, so Prosecutor Fitzgerald managed to criminalize testimony about activity that wasn’t criminal in the first place.
The indignation over the Libby commutation (he still must pay a $250,000 fine and go through two years probation) and the ongoing focus on the US Attorney firing, come from liberal activists and Washington insiders, not the public at large.
How does the commutation of Libby’s sentence harm the security, prosperity, or well-being of any American citizen? Why should ordinary Americans – worried about Iraq, health care, terrorism, paying the bills, the future of social security, illegal immigration, and so on – feel concerned about the dismissal of a tenth of the current United States attorneys who displeased their superiors I the Justice Department?
Congress displeases the public because its leaders seem obsessed with attacking the President on even the flimsiest basis (as did many Republicans under Clinton) rather than addressing real issues that impact the real lives of middle class Americans.
When Republicans fight against attempts to redefine marriage, one of the most popular lines by Democrats is a question: how would government sanction for the wedding of two gay people damage anyone else’s marriage? Actually, the redefinition of marriage would greatly and obviously impact an institution that touches all of us, and that most Americans hope to pass on to their children as a male-female union related to child-rearing. The alteration of traditional definitions of the core institution of society would re-shape the norms that apply to everyone’s kids and grandkids.
But how would Democrats answer a similar question regarding Scooter Libby’s potential jail time, or their unstoppable indignation about the US attorneys? What possible impact on outside-the-beltway Americans connects with these inside-baseball controversies?
If Democrats honestly evaluate the performance of their Congressional leadership, they ought to recognize that partisan carping over irrelevant non-scandals (do we really need to revisit the composition of Dick Cheney’s energy task force from six years ago?) helps explain their startling lack of accomplishment in their first half-year in the majority.
Republicans of the late ‘90’s made a bad political mistake to push relentlessly toward impeachment rather than accepting a bi-partisan resolution of censure – as suggested by Dianne Feinstein and other Democrats. Now the other party seems oddly determined to replicate the GOP’s fiascoes.
The millions of liberal, moderate and even conservative voters who cast their ballots for Dems in both House and Senate contests 2006 may not be able to define exactly what they intended to vote for—since many of them were voting against Republicans more than anything else.
But regardless of that confusion and uncertainty, it’s safe to say that most Democrats didn’t intend to vote for this: hyper-partisan gridlock regarding legalistic minutia with no real world impact on our present or our future.
Thoughtful liberals ought to feel embarrassed.
"Hardly, we were expecting a firing squad"
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
LOL! And I have to laugh, for if didn’t, I’d have to cry.
You’re just spot-on. You must be on the Dummie Funnies ping list, and see some of the Left’s bona-fide craziness.
I think they will keep it up. They are incapable of understanding “middle America”, and even if they did, they would pull out all the stops to crusade against it. It’s all beltway to them.
There are no thoughtful liberals.
No, they made a bad mistake not REMOVING Clinton from office! Yeah, yeah, I know. That would have led to an algore presidency that would have, theoretically, been impossible to beat in the next election. Still, the woulda, coulda argument will go on forever. The right thing was REMOVAL from office (and prison time for perjury) then at least algore could have "pardoned" him and life would have gone on from there.
Whats amusing is General Pelosi and Dingy Harry Reid have infuriated the far leftwingnuts, the centrists, and the rank and file Democrat voters to the same level....(chuckle)
Way to go Nancypants and Dingy Harry.
This is the RAT playbook from the 70’s. How does anyone think Carter got into office? The RATS made the country so sick of the Nixon administration that they cried to the nation to support massive change.
Hillary already has gone on record about “cleaning house.”
This is their strategy. Make the nation so sick of what is going on so that Hillary can ride in on her white broomstick and call for change.
And the country will vote for her because the MSM will make sure she stays clean as a whistle, while calling Thompson the ultimate insider.
This is the RAT playbook from the 70’s. How does anyone think Carter got into office? The RATS made the country so sick of the Nixon administration that they cried to the nation to support massive change.
Hillary already has gone on record about “cleaning house.”
Perhaps. The problem with this construct is Hillary Clinton is hardly a ‘massive change’ its a reverting to September 10th, 2001 thinking.
Nobody knew who the hell Carter was, and had no inkling of just how incompetent he would be in the job.
Can’t say that about Her Thighness....
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