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Tag: politics
Commutation shows how culture of corruption continues
While people are right to howl about the arrogance, corruption and unfairness that George W. Bush’s commutation of Lewis Libby’s sentence entailed, from a strategic standpoint this is another political embarrassment for Republicans, who have another terrible decision done by their leader that they will have to try to (pretend to) run away from in the next elections. (Well maybe not if the nominee is Fred Thompson, who after all lobbied for a pardon.)
There’s no real limit to the brazen disdain for laws applying to them–so why not a pardon too?
Liberal blogs are voicing outrage and disdain. MSNBC anchor Keith Olberman made his contempt for the president clear in his special comment, which concluded thusly:
‘Pressure, negotiate, impeach — get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.
And for you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task.
You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed.
Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.
Resign.’
While Bush may not resign or be impeached, and Scooter Libby may not do thirty months in federal prison as sentenced, the Republican party might see many more months than that out of power as the political fallout unfolds in favor of Democrats, even as remaining power increasingly slides away from the isolated, lame duck president. Better to show that the Republican corruption that voters tried to punish in 2006 continues on than send one man to prison for his lies, which were probably told in service of the president and vice president. It’s not personal, really, (unless you’re, say, Joe Wilson), mainly it’s political.
Glenn Greenwald puts it this way:
‘That Lewis Libby has been protected by George Bush from the consequences of his crimes only highlights how corrupt and broken our political system is. It reveals nothing new. This is the natural, inevitable outgrowth of our rancid political culture, shaped and slavishly defended by our Beltway ruling class and our serious, sober opinion-making elite.’
So more votes against the Republican culture of corruption and the “Beltway ruling class” in 2008, right? That’s one way to think about it.
Speaking of 2008, it looks like Barack Obama is leading in fundraising for either party, and with an enormous base of donors. Might they not get the anti-Hillary election that they want over at the RNC after all?
And if you’re wondering why the debates are starting so early this time, why are you wondering that? Bush is finished politically, his followers are in shock and denial, and Obama looks ready to take advantage of the disillusionment.
Good riddance to Tony Blair
Gordon Brown took over the role of prime minister from Tony Blair today.
Meanwhile, Blair received a major diplomatic post:
‘The international diplomatic Quartet of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia announced Mr Blair’s appointment as its representative in the search for peace in the region.’
Another typical Bush administration appointment–putting a loyalist in charge of something he doesn’t know how to do. With Hamas violently in charge of the Gaza Strip and a war-monger in charge of the “search for peace” process, this is going to be one long search.
Seeing power pried from the hands of a mad zealot like Blair makes for quite a moment. But John Howson (pictured below via Getty images) probably summed it up best: “Good riddance.”
Or maybe Jonathan Freedland says it best:
‘I have written before that it is an indictment of our system of government that Tony Blair was able to remain in office despite Iraq.’
Ann Coulter misses terrorism
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/26/ann-coulter-attacks-john-edwards-on-good-morning-america/
“if I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot”
Is Bob Kerrey as fake a Democrat as Joe Lieberman?
Think Progress sends a well-deserved rebuke to Bob Kerrey (while not even mentioning the shameful spectacle Kerrey made of himself during 9/11 Commission hearings by justifying and affirming the Iraq invasion to Condi Rice):
‘In calling for regime change, Kerrey displayed an inability to comprehend the predictable chaos that would ensue. The intelligence community warned the Bush administration in January 2003 that regime change “would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict.”
In December 2003, an undeterred Kerrey claimed that he had been vindicated and Iraq war critics would ultimately be proven wrong. “Twenty years from now, we’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who says it wasn’t worth the effort,” he wrote.
Today, Bob Kerrey (D-NE), unrepentant over his failed Iraq war predictions, returns to the Wall Street Journal op-ed page to blast “American liberals.” In making his argument that democracy can indeed be imposed by military force (apparently by overlooking the Iraq war), Kerrey writes:
American liberals need to face these truths … [A] unilateral withdrawal from Iraq would hand Osama bin Laden a substantial psychological victory.
Perhaps he should have thought about that before advocating regime change as “the only way” to “safely reduce our military commitment to the region.” By staying in Iraq as an occupying force, the U.S. is helping inflame the terrorist movement. But Bob Kerrey has never understood that from the beginning, so why would he understand that now?’