For me, and this is purely personal, Harry Reed's tenure as Leader of the Senate has been, for the most part, perturbing. His actual ascent to his current position has always mystified me, although liberal on many issues close to progressive hearts his pro-life leanings and limp wristed management of the Senate has not endeared him to many on the left and even to a plurality in the center. The 110th Congress came to DC with a true mandate and Harry squandered the opportunity by trying to placate rather than finish off a realing minority. To a great extent his hands were tied by the oppositions unconstitutional insistence upon a sixty vote majority for all important - read Democratic - policy initiatives, the mere threat of filibuster supplanting the very need to actually sustain one, but, Harry could always have threatened the 'nuclear option' as did Frist, this reluctance, on his part, to do so or even threaten such will doom him to a lesser role in the 111th Congress.
I am perfectly OK with that if it plays out. My prefered choice to lead the senate is Hillary Clinton and I'm sure this scenario has been gamed by both Obama's team and Hillary's. She is the logical choice and perhaps the most qualified to fill that role, plus, the thought of wingnut heads exploding at the very mention of such an outcome is nothing short of delicious.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Reasoning Of A Child
To many on the right, both moderate and wingnut, the idea of the masses voting for McSame purely for the purposes of keeping DC in a perpetual state of stasis is very appealing. It is, by their reasoning, a necessary check and balance on the more progressive Congress that will surely be ushered in on November 4th. It satisfies their new found concern for the workings of a Government that actually survived Grover Norquists bathtub drowning exercise. It also satisfies their own conceit that they are the adults and without their serious, applied supervision Washington will run amok and who knows what might happen. That gridlock is preferable to an actual mandated progressive policy agenda is no shock, the last thing most conservatives want to see is a successful government especially a Democratic one, so rather than tell the truth about their pretentions they wrap this particularily loathesome, pompous and unAmerican proposition in feathers and call it macaroni.
For six years of the Bush administration the Republicans controlled all aspects of government, not once did I hear them say that this arrangement was dangerous or contrary to how good goverment should function, not a whisper of discontent was uttered from the lips of either the moderates, of which there are few left, or the extreme right wing, which for all intents and purposes, ran the party and the country. Infact, they were working and conniving (See Texas) to create and maintain a permanent republican majority or as we like to call it on the left 'Rove's Wet Dream' (RWD). Their new found zeal for 'checks and balances' is therefore a strawman, a pile of fetid fear, a sister soulja moment of apoplexy at the realization that the 30 year struggle to impose their vile set of descriminatory prejudices, disguised as policy, upon America has failed.
It is this failure, wrapped in the failure of this administration, that they wish, through the election of John McCain and his Alaskan atrocity, to continue. It is without doubt the worst thing that could happen to this country because the status quo, as of right now, represents the absolute nadir of the American experiment. We are fighting three wars, the GWOT, Iraq and Afghanistan, all three, by anyones estimation, do not go well through either miscomprehension, neglect or rank stupidity. The Constitution may as well be a doormat, since when did America, rendition, torture, secretly and indefinitely imprison anyone? What the hell happened to Habeas Corpus? What is Posse Comitatus for that matter? And what happened to privacy... since when was it OK to spy on Americans, both here and abroad, to listen in on the most banal, everyday longings of soldiers calling their wives and husbands and children back home? What the hell does that have to do with catching terrorists? We are planetarily reviled by both friend and foe. Through our own greed and hubris we have come perilously close to destroying the global economy. And the SCOTUS teeters on the brink of becoming a rubber stamp to every right wing fancy out there.
No, this is no time for stasis, this is no time for seamless transition, this is no time for McSame and Mooseburgers... we need boldness, we need policy and we need a White House and Congress committed to thoughtful, progressive purpose.
For six years of the Bush administration the Republicans controlled all aspects of government, not once did I hear them say that this arrangement was dangerous or contrary to how good goverment should function, not a whisper of discontent was uttered from the lips of either the moderates, of which there are few left, or the extreme right wing, which for all intents and purposes, ran the party and the country. Infact, they were working and conniving (See Texas) to create and maintain a permanent republican majority or as we like to call it on the left 'Rove's Wet Dream' (RWD). Their new found zeal for 'checks and balances' is therefore a strawman, a pile of fetid fear, a sister soulja moment of apoplexy at the realization that the 30 year struggle to impose their vile set of descriminatory prejudices, disguised as policy, upon America has failed.
It is this failure, wrapped in the failure of this administration, that they wish, through the election of John McCain and his Alaskan atrocity, to continue. It is without doubt the worst thing that could happen to this country because the status quo, as of right now, represents the absolute nadir of the American experiment. We are fighting three wars, the GWOT, Iraq and Afghanistan, all three, by anyones estimation, do not go well through either miscomprehension, neglect or rank stupidity. The Constitution may as well be a doormat, since when did America, rendition, torture, secretly and indefinitely imprison anyone? What the hell happened to Habeas Corpus? What is Posse Comitatus for that matter? And what happened to privacy... since when was it OK to spy on Americans, both here and abroad, to listen in on the most banal, everyday longings of soldiers calling their wives and husbands and children back home? What the hell does that have to do with catching terrorists? We are planetarily reviled by both friend and foe. Through our own greed and hubris we have come perilously close to destroying the global economy. And the SCOTUS teeters on the brink of becoming a rubber stamp to every right wing fancy out there.
No, this is no time for stasis, this is no time for seamless transition, this is no time for McSame and Mooseburgers... we need boldness, we need policy and we need a White House and Congress committed to thoughtful, progressive purpose.
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