Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
By The (liberal)Girl Next Door
How many more examples do we need that George W. Bush doesn’t give a damn about the Constitution or the American people? When he gets caught breaking the law with his domestic surveillance program, what does he do? He hustles up support from his lapdogs on the hill and gets the investigation shut down, then quickly launches efforts to change the law and tosses in a provision to make further reporting on the program a crime punishable by up to a million dollars and 15 years in jail. Isn’t open and accountable government great?
As if that wasn’t enough, it appears that Bush now feels it is within his power to sign a Budget Reconciliation Act into law regardless of whether or not both houses of Congress have passed it. I’m not a Constitutional scholar, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a power the President has. Can’t you just see him in the Oval Office, looking at a budget act that requires Medicare to provide wheelchairs for seniors for up to 36 months and snarling at his aide, “This is way too much, that’ll cost us $2 billion that would be better spent on my tax cuts. Didn’t I see another draft around here that said only 13 months? Get me that one, I’ll sign that, but I ain’t givin’ them deadbeats three years worth of free travel, what am I, a charity?”
According to Rep. Henry Waxman, a call was made to the White House before the bill was signed alerting them to the problem. Bushie boy clearly didn’t give a good god damn because he signed it anyway, in direct violation of the Constitution. I was recently given a hard time for proposing the “slippery slope theory” with regards to overreaching by this administration. If it looks like a slope, and things are passing by real fast, chances are you’re moving downhill fast. My experience as a parent has taught me that children need firm boundaries so that when they test them, they know exactly what they’re going to get. If they get away with trespassing once without punishment, they’ll do it again and again until there are consequences they don’t like. I’d say our dear leader is a spoiled child out of control and the parents are on a permanent vacation. No one will say no to him, no one will stop him, are we really surprised that he keeps pushing the envelope? The first Constitutional transgression is the hardest, the rest just glide right by.
With Bush’s approval numbers at another all time low of 33% according to the most recent Pew Research Poll, it seems the American people have had enough. The most common word used to describe Bush in this poll was “incompetent” followed closely by “idiot” and “liar”. That’s a far cry from “honest,” “good,” and “integrity” that led the list a year ago. Even Bush voters seem to be wiping the crud from their eyes, taking a second look at this loser and questioning whether they made a mistake. At this point, the only thing propping up this President is Congress. While it’s understandable that Republicans would continue to help him keep a lid on the truth, he is one of them after all, but it makes no sense for the Democrats to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. The American people are done with Bush and we’re clamoring for any opportunity to cut this disaster a little short, but it appears that we’re the only ones and clearly not the voices that matter.
With near complete support from the Democratic base, strong support from moderates and increasing support from Bush voters, there is no excuse for Democrats not to support Senator Feingold’s attempt at censure at the very least. Hell, that’s too much of a compromise already. We’ve reached the point where the only ones responsible for keeping Bush in office and allowing him to run this country into the ground are the Democrats. Unless they want to continue to be saddled with the labels “complicit,” “weak,” and “worthless,” they'd better stop earning them and start doing their job. As far as I’m concerned, there are only three Senators fulfilling their oaths of office, Russ Feingold and now Barbara Boxer and Senator Harkin who have signed on to the resolution to censure Bush. Would anyone else like to earn his or her pay? Anyone? We’re waiting.
(Cross-posted at The (liberal)Girl Next Door.)
How many more examples do we need that George W. Bush doesn’t give a damn about the Constitution or the American people? When he gets caught breaking the law with his domestic surveillance program, what does he do? He hustles up support from his lapdogs on the hill and gets the investigation shut down, then quickly launches efforts to change the law and tosses in a provision to make further reporting on the program a crime punishable by up to a million dollars and 15 years in jail. Isn’t open and accountable government great?
As if that wasn’t enough, it appears that Bush now feels it is within his power to sign a Budget Reconciliation Act into law regardless of whether or not both houses of Congress have passed it. I’m not a Constitutional scholar, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a power the President has. Can’t you just see him in the Oval Office, looking at a budget act that requires Medicare to provide wheelchairs for seniors for up to 36 months and snarling at his aide, “This is way too much, that’ll cost us $2 billion that would be better spent on my tax cuts. Didn’t I see another draft around here that said only 13 months? Get me that one, I’ll sign that, but I ain’t givin’ them deadbeats three years worth of free travel, what am I, a charity?”
According to Rep. Henry Waxman, a call was made to the White House before the bill was signed alerting them to the problem. Bushie boy clearly didn’t give a good god damn because he signed it anyway, in direct violation of the Constitution. I was recently given a hard time for proposing the “slippery slope theory” with regards to overreaching by this administration. If it looks like a slope, and things are passing by real fast, chances are you’re moving downhill fast. My experience as a parent has taught me that children need firm boundaries so that when they test them, they know exactly what they’re going to get. If they get away with trespassing once without punishment, they’ll do it again and again until there are consequences they don’t like. I’d say our dear leader is a spoiled child out of control and the parents are on a permanent vacation. No one will say no to him, no one will stop him, are we really surprised that he keeps pushing the envelope? The first Constitutional transgression is the hardest, the rest just glide right by.
With Bush’s approval numbers at another all time low of 33% according to the most recent Pew Research Poll, it seems the American people have had enough. The most common word used to describe Bush in this poll was “incompetent” followed closely by “idiot” and “liar”. That’s a far cry from “honest,” “good,” and “integrity” that led the list a year ago. Even Bush voters seem to be wiping the crud from their eyes, taking a second look at this loser and questioning whether they made a mistake. At this point, the only thing propping up this President is Congress. While it’s understandable that Republicans would continue to help him keep a lid on the truth, he is one of them after all, but it makes no sense for the Democrats to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. The American people are done with Bush and we’re clamoring for any opportunity to cut this disaster a little short, but it appears that we’re the only ones and clearly not the voices that matter.
With near complete support from the Democratic base, strong support from moderates and increasing support from Bush voters, there is no excuse for Democrats not to support Senator Feingold’s attempt at censure at the very least. Hell, that’s too much of a compromise already. We’ve reached the point where the only ones responsible for keeping Bush in office and allowing him to run this country into the ground are the Democrats. Unless they want to continue to be saddled with the labels “complicit,” “weak,” and “worthless,” they'd better stop earning them and start doing their job. As far as I’m concerned, there are only three Senators fulfilling their oaths of office, Russ Feingold and now Barbara Boxer and Senator Harkin who have signed on to the resolution to censure Bush. Would anyone else like to earn his or her pay? Anyone? We’re waiting.
(Cross-posted at The (liberal)Girl Next Door.)
posted by The (liberal)Girl Next Door at
11:52 AM
3 Comments:
I have to disgaree with this: " there is no excuse for Democrats not to support Senator Feingold’s attempt at censure."
Censure is constitutionally irrelevant. And impeachment is politically impossible (as is censure, for that matter), until (and unless) Democrats win a House majority.
The only questions--and I am not sure about this, and am formulating an F&V post for the coming days on this--is whether it is better for Democratic candidates to call for impeachment in the fall campaign and thus claim a mandate for it if they win, or hold back until they actually have the ability to do it.
I belileve that impeachment is close to inevitable if the Democrats win the House. The only question is whether it is better to talk about it openly before, or not. I don't know.
By
Anonymous, at 6:12 PM
Matthew--I'm not sure which is better either and I've been thinking about it as well. My gut tells me that if they start talking about impeachment non-stop until the election, they will get HUGE voter turnout for the mid-terms and the base will come out in droves.
There is the chance that it could drive some moderates back to Bush's side, but if the Democrats make it clear why Bush must be impeached and then go ahead and talk about all the non-impeachable offenses as well (Katrina, Iraq, incompetence, the deficit, cronyism, just plain bad governing), there's a good chance that they will rake in votes from those who've simply had enough. If they run on impeachment, they get to run against Bush and at 33% approval, they should jump at the chance.
By
The (liberal)Girl Next Door, at 7:27 PM
Matthew, I read F&V regularly (and love it!), but please let me know when you've finished your post. I'd like to link to it and perhaps quote extensively from it, if you approve.
I don't think it makes much sense to talk openly about impeachment right now -- certainly not before the midterms. I doubt that talk of impeachment alone would turn out Democratic voters anymore than it would turnout Republican voters. It may mobilize our base, but it would also allow Republicans to rally against us.
Censure is a different matter. I realize that some Congressional Democrats are angry with Feingold for changing the subject and for giving the Repubicans a new issue to rally around, but, however impractical given the Republican majority in Congress, I don't think Democrats should back away from openly challenging Bush on the NSA scandal and from demanding that he be held accountable. Sure, Republicans will continue to try to paint Democratic opposition to NSA wiretapping as a reflection of our weakness on terrorism, but we need to be the ones to define the narrative here, to tie it in with all those non-impeachable offences that The LGND mentions. We must focus on the overarching narrative of the Bush presidency, which is arrogance, corruption, cronyism, etc.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 12:45 AM
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