First, a list of links that form the background to the following rant:
- Digby, here and here.
- Glenn Greenwald here.
- Fire Dog Lake here andhere.
- Pretty much any recent post by Duncan, but pointing to this one in particular, guest-posted by Thers.
I urge you to at least skim these as they provide sufficient background to what follows.
I have to concede that, on the larger point of the irrelevance of the Democratic majority elected last November, fellow-blogger Democracy Lover was much more right than I was. He was skeptical of any serious change in direction. I kept saying, as November and December faded to January, "Wait and see." At first the signs were hopeful, although I must admit my own confusion in re Congressional approval for the President's "surge". I mean, it was my impression, and that of most of those who voted Democratic, that "changing course" in Iraq meant "hightailing it out of there", not "let's send more bodies in to the meat grinder". Even though he had Republican cover with the Baker/Hamilton report, which has faded from our memories as quickly as was launched in to obscurity, Bush pulled a George Costanza and did the opposite of what should have been in his and our own best interest, by making things worse rather than better.
For all my optimism, I kept having this uneasy feeling that the Democrats just weren't going to do what they could to change policy and maybe straighten out the mess we've been in since January, 2001 (actually, January, 1995, when Congress became not so much a serious law-making body, but the pet money-making cash-cow for Republicans). There have been oversight hearings. And more oversight hearings. Scooter Libby was convicted on multiple counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. "You see? You see?" I would point and exclaim with all the enthusiasm of a child on Christmas Eve pointing to a moving point of light in the sky and declaring Santa Claus is comin' to town.
Alas and alack, when Congress pissed itself in public by passing the FISA legislation before heading out of town for the month of August, I realized that I had not so much been fooled as allowed myself to be fooled. Now, as we move towards the magical month of September, it seems the Democrats, like all bad poker players, are going to fold before the game begins. To continue the gambling image, Bush has no money, no cards, no benefactor to give him a loan, yet for some reason Democrats continue to fear his reputation as a great poker player, giving up before the ante is even decided upon. In this case, it seems the Democrats are going to give the Administration more time, more money, and more bodies for Iraq - this even before Gen. Petraeus gives his report to Congress (a report, mind you, not written by him or his staff, but written by the White House), and even as the Unites States seems hell-bent on fostering a military coup against Prime Minister Maliki (hope it goes better than the one against Hugo Chavez, eh?). Even as the United States continues to publicly mess itself, the Democrats just can't find the spine to tell this guy, and the Republicans he rode in on, to shove off. They are wedded to failure, it seems, but not just their own; the failure is the entire country's.
