Gut check time

I used to fly jets.....
over Texas

Bob Herbert wrote this in The Times

......The fiasco in Iraq and the president's response to the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe were Mr. Bush's two most spectacular foul-ups. There have been many others. The president's new Medicare prescription drug program has been a monumental embarrassment, leaving some of the most vulnerable members of our society without essential medication. Prominent members of the president's own party are balking at the heavy hand of his No Child Left Behind law, which was supposed to radically upgrade the quality of public education.

The Constitution? Civil liberties? Don't ask.

Just keep in mind, whatever your political beliefs, that incompetence in high places can have devastating consequences.

Can? Motherfucker, where you been living since 2001?

Has. Bush has lived down to character and fucked up every thing he touched, like he has his entire life. George Bush, is the modern day Edward VII without the grace to be foolish in love.

Not even Nixon was so tempermentally unsuited to be President. We can list his faults and have but it comes down to this: he is incompetent.

I know doing the day in and day out of politics can get people down, and today was a tough day. But I think a lot of us glossed over Bruce Bennett's denunciation of Bush. That's the kind of thing which erodes support in the party for Bush. I mean, he's being sued by Grover Norquist and Bob Barr over privacy. And the excuses for spying sound like the lies Otter and the boys told Dean Wormer.

While we argue over the fate of the Dems, we're really arguing over the future of the party. The Republicans are too, but they want to pretend they aren't. Bush barely won twice, the odds of another Republican following, given his management style, is low.

What we all need to remember is that the GOP in Congress is going to be facing utter disaster as Casino Jack spills his guts, and that's the best they can expect. Because the screaming about Medicare D (the program which sends the elderly to do internet research) and internal wiretaps will only grow.

Then we have Iraq and the collapsing Army.

Like a CEO caught in a scandal about to sink his company, Bush lies, and lies badly.

Congress cannot avoid it's responsibilities forever. They cannot continue to defend the president and do their jobs. They will have to choose to keep their jobs. If they don't, they will be replaced wholesale. We keep harping on the Dems refusal to fight, but we need to also scream about the GOP's refusal to do their jobs as a check on the president. They're not just cheerleaders. They have a duty to the consitution and we need to make sure they do it. They cannot get a pass because they are Republicans. Their first duty is to the constitution and if they feel it isn't, they need to say so. But they have to be held to account.

Given the stakes, the GOP's cowardice is a bigger danger to us at the moment.

posted by Steve @ 1:35:00 AM