Fire in the Hole

Fire in the Hole (2001)

Dems with spines? An evolutionary shift? Or did the Congressional foxhole finally get so hot that something just had to blow...or grow.

Standing on the sidelines and warming your hands while the other side explodes is not leadership. Worse, hoping the public will return to the Democratic fold as everything goes gaga dysfunctional under BushCo misrule is insipid. What's your concrete plan? Let the country go to shit under Wingnut Marshall Law because the Repugs control all aspects of government? Or, worse, stand quietly and sigh and hope all gets mucked up to the max? Roe overturned. War forever. Deficits galore. Boots on the necks of the working poor. Hell, throw in the hot button kitchen sinks, too. Axe social security. Fill the Supreme Court with snake handlers. Blow it out.

Because then, once the Bushies have finished returning the nation to medievalism redux, the Dems can boldly step forward and begin loudly tsk-tsking. And the skies will be cloudy all day.

What rot. Digby explains why:

If we let the Republicans completely bankrupt the country so that we have a catastrophic economic meltdown, destroy social security and medicare, all those old, poor and unemployed people on the streets will surely wake people up. It will probably make them puke.

I'm not sure why that would lead to anyone voting for the Democrats, though. After all, we'll have sat idly by and let these things happen without fighting because we thought it would be politically helpful to our cause to force women to have back alley abortions, enable torture, destroy our judicial system, let common citizens be conned out of their hard earned money, and their lives destroyed in economic calamity -- in order to make a political point. But hey, it's a good plan anyway. We'll run on the "we told you so" platform and everyone will love us.

He's right. Everyone will loathe the Dems as cynical opportunistic grandstanders. You're the opposition party -- start opposing. How low does the limbo bar of Bush's poll numbers have to go before you'll start dancing on his self-dug grave? I mean, Bush's support among African-Americans has sunk to 2%. Given a margin of error of 3-4%, that means there are now legions of unborn black children already unfavorable to Bush. Now's the equinox apex. The moment of uber moments. The mother of all pants around the knees. So, are your sleeves rolled up like Bush and Brownie? Are you pumped?

Democratic Fight Club
[Cartoon by Mike Keefe]

But the bell hasn't rung quite yet. Harry Reid took off the gloves this week, shut down the Senate to keep the overhead lights on the nuances of Traitor-gate, and Frist, after being thrown for a loop over the top rope, had a hissy-fit. Here's a bit of what Reid said:

There are numerous examples of how the Administration misstated and manipulated the facts as it made the case for war. Administration statements on Saddam's alleged nuclear weapons capabilities and ties with Al Qaeda represent the best examples of how it consistently and repeatedly manipulated the facts.

The American people were warned time and again by the President, the Vice President, and the current Secretary of State about Saddam's nuclear weapons capabilities. The Vice President said Iraq "has reconstituted its nuclear weapons." Playing upon the fears of Americans after September 11, these officials and others raised the specter that, left unchecked, Saddam could soon attack America with nuclear weapons.

Obviously we know now their nuclear claims were wholly inaccurate. But more troubling is the fact that a lot of intelligence experts were telling the Administration then that its claims about Saddam's nuclear capabilities were false.

The situation was very similar with respect to Saddam's links to Al Qaeda. The Vice President told the American people, "We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons and we know he has a longstanding relationship with various terrorist groups including the Al Qaeda organization."

The Administration's assertions on this score have been totally discredited. But again, the Administration went ahead with these assertions in spite of the fact that the government's top experts did not agree with these claims.

What has been the response of this Republican-controlled Congress to the Administration's manipulation of intelligence that led to this protracted war in Iraq? Basically nothing. Did the Republican-controlled Congress carry out its constitutional obligations to conduct oversight?No. Did it support our troops and their families by providing them the answers to many important questions? No. Did it even attempt to force this Administration to answer the most basic questions about its behavior? No.

And this goes wonderfully on and on. BushCo helped sell the war with fire-in-the-hole scare fantasies of WMDs and smoking mushroom clouds. It's so nice to finally see the flamethrower turned back on their bunker.

Give 'em hell, Harry. And thanks.

Now how about the rest of you Rip Dem Winkles rubbing the sleep out of your eyes? Ready to fling a few matches?