Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Débâcle (II)

I won't have much to say for today, maybe for a couple of days. . .but a couple of thoughts are in order.

First, and most importantly, the US must carry on with the war. We cannot abandon the Iraqis as we did the South Vietnamese in 1974-1975. Following our withdrawal in 1972, the Democrats in Congress shamefully cut off aid and support for the Republic of Vietnam, and abandoned that country to its Soviet and Chinese backed enemies. We MUST not let that happen again.

The President should try to reach across the aisle. There are people there to talk to, including Connecticut's now-independent, but once and future Senator, Joe Lieberman. If cooperation in Congress, on this issue, cannot be found -- there are still options -- but more on that another time.
Also, President Bush has, probably, had it. He is only President now in a negative sense, and that unless and until he is impeached. There are certainly going to be impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives, and I think it will go beyond hearings. In any case, he will be fully occupied with survival, and what's left of the war effort.
The question now is what will the Democrats do ? The new arrivals seem to be in good part of the "Blue Dog" Reagan Democrat variety, and much more moderate than their leadership, and probably their contributors. Will the Democrats attempt moderation, or will the Left be given its head ?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you really think impeachment is still an active topic with the dems? I think they will set themselves up for failure in two years if they drag that on now instead of focusing on real issues. Oh yeah...they don't really have any answers to the issues, do they?

El Jefe Maximo said...

The Democrats, like the Republicans, are not monolithic. Unlike the Republicans, who in general have a more conservative leadership than caucus, I think the Democrat problem is that they have a more Left leadership than they do a caucus -- particularly in the House of Representatives.

That's one thing. Even so, I don't think they'd try it, except that so many of their contributors and partisans will expect them to (particularly the netroots crowd). Besides, Charles Rangel wants to -- and he's going to be in the position to push it.

Practically, I think they have to. What can the Democrats do ? There is tremendous pent-up demand for social spending; raises for government employees, and boondoggle projects for Democratic districts instead of Republican ones. But at the other end of Penna. Ave., sits the President's veto pen, and no two-thirds to beat that. The Repubs aren't going to cooperate on that issue, b/c one of the things they got in trouble for was spending like drunken sailors. Speaking of drunken sailors, there no money -- what $$ there is is being eaten by the war.

Then there's the war. The contributors and netroots crowd want to stop that too -- just outright -- but the leadership doesn't dare let them, because they want to elect a President, and not risk the Republicans being able to trash them on National Security or say the Demos lost Iraq. The best they're gonna be able to do is a drawdown, slowly.

What does that leave ? They HAVE to give them something. Okay, stem-cell research...see veto pen. Maybe they override, but that's an egghead issue.

They have to TRY to impeach. Come on. Their partisans HATE Bush with white-hot, absolute, all-consuming passion. That's the one thing most Democrats agree on. They wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire. Now it's not going to succeed -- even if they get impeachment out of the House, it'll die in the Senate, just like with Clinton. Clinton's another reason to do it -- payback, and they have to make Bush the equivalent of Clinton.

Now for a lot of reasons, I think this is stupid from their point of view. The Democrats, politically speaking, would have been better to get CLOSE to taking over Congress, but miss by a few seats in each chamber. That way, they could sabotage everything, much as they've been doing, but better, and stick the Republicans with the blame.

I think the Democratic majorities are a disaster for the country, but politically, the outlook is not all bad...for devious, Byzantine reasons -- the Republicans can do well if they let the Democrats ruin themselves, which I have faith in their ability to do.

The Democrats are going to impeach...they won't be able to resist, for good and bad political reasons. Of COURSE it's an active topic with the Dems, as you'll see in January. They've just been shutting up till election season was over.