Thursday, February 22, 2007
Yes, But Why Didn't You Do Something About The Train Wreck?
From the NY Times:
But St. John, if you saw the train wreck coming the whole time while Rummy was running the engine, why didn't you do something about it other than appear on TV news programs and offer sound bites?
As I recall, there hasn't been a bit of administration war policy you haven't been willing to support in the Senate.
As I also recall, Donald Rumsfeld served at the pleasure of George W. Bush for a long, long time and not once did you ever criticize this preznut for his support of Rumsfeld as the SecDef led the nation down the track to disaster.
Frankly, Senator, for all your foresight in seeing the train wreck that this war has become since the beginning, you did nothing but help it along by ALWAYS siding with the administration and its war policy.
This makes you as responsible for the train wreck as Rummy, Cheney, Bushie, Condi, or Hadley are.
It's your war, Senator. Own it, baby.
POSTSCRIPT: A similar case can be made for Hillary Clinton's ownership of this war. While HRC has been a little more critical of the preznut and the administration over the war, she has been about as helpful as McCain in making the architects of the train wreck get back on track. She's so busy triangulating between war critics in her own party and war supporters in the other party that I don't know what she wants to do with the war. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what she wants to do with it either.
Perhaps that's why she won't apologize for her vote on the war resolution that allowed the train wreck to happen in the first place?
Perhaps that's why war opponents and administration critics in the Democratic Party such as myself will have such a difficult time supporting her in the primary?
I voted against her this time around in both the primary and the general election. If she wins the nomination for president (or worse, if she wins the nomination and faces either St. John or St. Rudy - both warm embracers of the Bush war policy), I don't know what I'm going to do on election day.
I'll tell you this: I'll be very tempted to vote a straight Marxist ticket.
You know - Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, Gummo, and of course Groucho...
Only trouble is, Justice John Paul Stevens will be 87 and quite unlikely to make it through another two terms of Grand Old Party rule. For that matter, Scalia and Thomas are starting to get up there in age and either of those fat bastards could keel over from cardiac arrest or a stroke. It would be shame if that happened, of course (unlike Pat Robertson, I'm not going to advocate or pray for the death of political opponents.) But if one or both of those guys did go, it would be a shame if there wasn't a Dem president to replace them with somebody sane (i.e., somebody less willing to give the next president dictator-like power to arrest, imprison, and torture, etc.)
In an interview with ABC News in which Mr. Cheney was asked about Mr. McCain’s criticism of Mr. Rumsfeld, the vice president responded by bringing up other McCain comments critical of Mr. Cheney’s role in managing the war in Iraq, and said Mr. McCain had subsequently said he was sorry.
“John said some nasty things about me the other day,” Mr. Cheney added, “and then the next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized. Maybe he’ll apologize to Rumsfeld.”
In response, Mr. McCain seemed to go out of his way to re-emphasize his assertion that Mr. Rumsfeld would be remembered as one of the worst defense secretaries in history, and to criticize the Bush administration more generally when he appeared at a news conference in Los Angeles to discuss initiatives to deal with global warming.
When asked about the administration’s environmental record, Mr. McCain said, “I would assess this administration’s record on global warming as terrible.”
Asked by a reporter about his comments about Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. McCain said, “The criticism of the conduct of the war I have voiced for more than three years when I saw that this train wreck was taking place.”
Some minutes later, after the news conference had ended, Mr. McCain, unbidden, said to the reporter, “Sir, I stand by my comments about Secretary Rumsfeld, by the way.”
But St. John, if you saw the train wreck coming the whole time while Rummy was running the engine, why didn't you do something about it other than appear on TV news programs and offer sound bites?
As I recall, there hasn't been a bit of administration war policy you haven't been willing to support in the Senate.
As I also recall, Donald Rumsfeld served at the pleasure of George W. Bush for a long, long time and not once did you ever criticize this preznut for his support of Rumsfeld as the SecDef led the nation down the track to disaster.
Frankly, Senator, for all your foresight in seeing the train wreck that this war has become since the beginning, you did nothing but help it along by ALWAYS siding with the administration and its war policy.
This makes you as responsible for the train wreck as Rummy, Cheney, Bushie, Condi, or Hadley are.
It's your war, Senator. Own it, baby.
POSTSCRIPT: A similar case can be made for Hillary Clinton's ownership of this war. While HRC has been a little more critical of the preznut and the administration over the war, she has been about as helpful as McCain in making the architects of the train wreck get back on track. She's so busy triangulating between war critics in her own party and war supporters in the other party that I don't know what she wants to do with the war. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what she wants to do with it either.
Perhaps that's why she won't apologize for her vote on the war resolution that allowed the train wreck to happen in the first place?
Perhaps that's why war opponents and administration critics in the Democratic Party such as myself will have such a difficult time supporting her in the primary?
I voted against her this time around in both the primary and the general election. If she wins the nomination for president (or worse, if she wins the nomination and faces either St. John or St. Rudy - both warm embracers of the Bush war policy), I don't know what I'm going to do on election day.
I'll tell you this: I'll be very tempted to vote a straight Marxist ticket.
You know - Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, Gummo, and of course Groucho...
Only trouble is, Justice John Paul Stevens will be 87 and quite unlikely to make it through another two terms of Grand Old Party rule. For that matter, Scalia and Thomas are starting to get up there in age and either of those fat bastards could keel over from cardiac arrest or a stroke. It would be shame if that happened, of course (unlike Pat Robertson, I'm not going to advocate or pray for the death of political opponents.) But if one or both of those guys did go, it would be a shame if there wasn't a Dem president to replace them with somebody sane (i.e., somebody less willing to give the next president dictator-like power to arrest, imprison, and torture, etc.)
