Today’s WTF Wednesday is more of “Are you paying attention” ilk (and thanks Crse for doing just that!)
In a editorial by Markos Moulitsas (he of “DailyKos” fame) that appeared Tuesday in TheHill.com, we see it laid out for us in pretty straightforward terms what’s been going on in our country. And he ponders what we Democrats see as the reality before us. What is going on that we keep giving in to a pResident with a 24% approval rating? Who has pictures of Chuck Schumer sleeping with a goat? Come on – ‘fess up, yo. There’s SOMETHING going on. You can’t tell me there isn’t.
Seven years ago, President-elect Bush promised after the Supreme Court handed him the presidency that he would work to heal a bitterly divided country: “I am optimistic that we can change the tone of Washington. I believe things happen for a reason, and I hope the long wait of the last five weeks will heighten a desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past.â€
(snip)
For seven years, Americans outside Washington observed Bush and his Republican allies break every single promise they ever made to the American people.
They haven’t captured Osama bin Laden, dead or alive. They haven’t accomplished our mission in Iraq. They haven’t guaranteed insurance for millions of poor children. They haven’t “defend[ed] the Constitution of the United States†from attacks on our civil liberties.
Meanwhile, Bush and his svengali Karl Rove consistently achieved new heights of hyperpartisanship — always quicker to demonize the opposition than to compromise. So in 2006, the nation struck back with a resounding message — unitary Republican control was no longer acceptable. A wave of new Democrats was elected to oppose the Bush Republican agenda. House Democrats won the national vote by a solid 54-46, while Senate Dems crushed their Republican rivals, 54-42.
But D.C. is a funny place. No one seems to have gotten that resounding message, certainly not Bush and the new Republican minority. More surprisingly, Democrats also failed to get the message. On issue after issue, the Democratic norm has been to capitulate to the slightest pressure from the GOP. And while the public has meted record-low approval ratings for this Congress in response, the lesson apparently remains unlearned.
Whether it’s Iraq funding or the Michael Mukasey confirmation, Democrats continue to give away the store without receiving any concessions in return. It’s a one-way street in a town that has ceded Article I of the Constitution for a unitary, non-compromising executive. The public is sick of this administration’s betrayals. Why aren’t Democrats?
What’s it gonna take? I fear the answer.
Yeah, I don’t get it either. Most days, the news seems so surreal. Like.. none of this could possibly be happening. Not in the USA.
Then I remember Nader harping about how Gore and Bush were the same. How Bush and Kerry were the same. And it makes me want to kick him in the crotch.. then spit on him. And when I’m done with him, I’d line up Nancy Pelosi, Reid, and a few more complacent “off the table” dems, and do the same. They make me ashamed to be a democrat.
:) WTF Wednesday!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!
Aww thanks for the shout out baby! On a positive note I woke up this morning to Arlen Spector going off on William Casey, the waterboard thing and well the bush guy. I thought I was dreaming (sleeping to CSPAN does make me dream). My favorite line was, the Constitution is not a suicide pact! Arlen freaking Spector!!!! It cheers me up baby…