NOW THAT LIBBY'S CONVICTED, THAT MEANS THE WAR IN IRAQ IS OVER, RIGHT?
As everyone knows by now, a jury convicted Scooter Libby of all sorts of bad things. Word on the street seems to suggest that "Scooter" isn't an ideal nickname when you're incarcerated for 20 years with felons who've been denied their conjugal visits. The conventional wisdom also says George's pen will pardon Scooty of all culpability, probably on January 19, 2008 2009. (Oops. Thanks to Dwilkers for correcting me on that one.)
Me? Don't really care, and here's why: while I'm sure Scooterpie did some terrible things, we know he was acting under directions of men far more powerful, dangerous, and revolting than he. Couple fellas by the names of Dick and Karl. And since, as far as I can see, neither Dick nor Karl are slated to bear any blame for Plame, that's a shame.
Meanwhile, Congress will give Bush billions of additional dollars for his "Surge" plan involving 21,000 troops in Bagdad. Remember that plan? The one the Dems were gonna block, stop, and prevent? They say this additional money will go for health care and such for the troops. Ok, but I don't hear anything designed to prevent the "Surge."
Business as usual continues in DC.
Me? Don't really care, and here's why: while I'm sure Scooterpie did some terrible things, we know he was acting under directions of men far more powerful, dangerous, and revolting than he. Couple fellas by the names of Dick and Karl. And since, as far as I can see, neither Dick nor Karl are slated to bear any blame for Plame, that's a shame.
Meanwhile, Congress will give Bush billions of additional dollars for his "Surge" plan involving 21,000 troops in Bagdad. Remember that plan? The one the Dems were gonna block, stop, and prevent? They say this additional money will go for health care and such for the troops. Ok, but I don't hear anything designed to prevent the "Surge."
Business as usual continues in DC.
Labels: Buck-passing, Cynicism, Urge to Purge
posted by Mike at 8:41 AM
11 Comments:
...George's pen will pardon Scooty of all culpability, probably on January 19, 2008.
I think you mean 2009.
I'm having an internal debate to decide if I think he'll get a pardon. A year ago I didn't think he would, now I'm not so sure.
And sorry Mike, can't help myself:
Remember that plan? The one the Dems were gonna block, stop, and prevent? They say this additional money will go for health care and such for the troops. Ok, but I don't hear anything designed to prevent the "Surge."
There's no "preventing" the surge. Its in progress and has been for what..at least 1 1/2 months right? They could defund the war to try to stop it or repeal the AUMF...but they're not going to do that either.
Everyone in government wants to have it both ways on this - Pubs and Dems. They want to be on the record 'against' the war and simultaneously on the record 'for' the war and national security, supporting the troops, etc.
Must be tough to be a pol in DC these days.
Oh here you go Mike. I bet you'll get a kick out of that one.
When you consider everything, Obama being black, Hillary, the war, no incumbent etcetera, I think this has the potential to be the nastiest campaign of my lifetime.
I think you mean 2009.
Thanks. Already fixed it.
Must be tough to be a pol in DC these days.
I have ZERO sympathy for someone who finds himself torn apart by an internal debate pitting morality against career expediency. There are truly lives at stake. The public voted for a change and the Dems aren't delivering it. And that really sucks.
Mike, totally with you on this one. Why can't it be a politically good thing to do what the majority of people voted you to do in the first place?
Stop the goddam war.
Why can't it be a politically good thing to do what the majority of people voted you to do in the first place?
Because politicians are beholden to those who lobby, not those who vote, I'm guessing.
Grrrr. The re-awakened idealism of last fall is back into dormancy. I'm back to being a cynic, hating the Dems almost as much as the GOPers. Not as much, but not liking em too much at all.
Why can't it be a politically good thing to do what the majority of people voted you to do in the first place?
Because politicians are beholden to those who lobby, not those who vote, I'm guessing.
Nah. Its because the anti-war sentiment isn't as monolithic or uniform as has been reported and the politicians know that. While people are dissatisfied with the way it is going they still want to win. Public opinion on this is more nuanced than some think. People want the war to be over, but they don't want to lose, they want to 'support the troops', they don't want to abandon the Iraqis. People are pissed that the WMD weren't there and don't want to be in a war but at the same time they think our intentions were fundamentally good.
Polling on this is all over the map and voters are fickle. The pols don't want to be on the wrong side of this. Vote to pull out you are voting for the defeat of the US. Vote to stay and you are voting for more kids to die losing a war in some god forsaken desert.
There's no right answer so they're going to slither.
I'm not a pollster, so I can't say in that regard.
But I'm not budging on my opinion that while politicos pander to the voters, they pander more to the institutional money. Like the defense and defense contracting industries.
I just blogged about this myself. Color me bored with Libby's conviction. It hasn't solved, nor will its "shocking implications" solve the bigger problem. That won't be solved until Jan. 20, '08.
That conservative rag, The Washington Post, has a slightly different take on the trial:
“A bipartisan investigation by the Senate intelligence committee subsequently established that all of [Wilson’s] claims were false…. Mr. Wilson’s case has besmirched nearly everyone it touched. The former ambassador will be remembered as a blowhard. Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby were overbearing in their zeal to rebut Mr. Wilson and careless in their handling of classified information. Mr. Libby’s subsequent false statements were reprehensible. And Mr. Fitzgerald has shown again why handing a Washington political case to a federal special prosecutor is a prescription for excess.
Mr. Fitzgerald was, at least, right about one thing: The Wilson-Plame case, and Mr. Libby’s conviction, tell us nothing about the war in Iraq.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030602020.html
Rule #, Republicans can do no wrong.
I'm sorry you're losing your idealism Mike.
I would've preferred getting mine back.
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