In the past the administration has been inclined, not to disregard Congress, but not to take Congress very seriously. I think this time Congress has to be taken seriously, there’s been an election, Republicans lost the election. There’s going to be a change in leadership on my committee, and likewise on the House side. What I would advise, would be maybe a retreat, it could be right here in Washington, but for several hours, in which the Foreign Relations Committee, just to take our group, really studies, what is the President’s plan? Understands, specifically, who is to be trained, how would the politics affect what we’ve just been talking about…the devolution of the country, the oil money, or anything else. In other words that there be at least be at least some study of this by all of us, before suddenly we are all asked to comment: ‘Are you in favor or surge, are you in favor of withdrawal?’ Six months, three months, all the clichs. These are not going to be very relevant.
So it’s about respect for Congress, right? Respect for the rule of law? Now, after six years of the most lawless presidency this country has ever known, now, after the president and his lawyers have essentially said, we’re gonna do what we want and screw you sideways with a copy of Robert’s Rules, now apparently is the time to remind the president that Congress exists, that it has power, and that he should respect its authoriTAH. Now.
You’re kidding me. This is a New Year’s joke, is what this is.
Dick, Dick, Dick, Dick, Richard. You can pull that Great Statesman crap all you want on TV. You said it yourself. Republicans lost the election. That’s all this is about, all it will ever be about. Pretending it’s about the president respecting the will of Congress is pretending to a naivet that makes Melanie Wilkes look like a hardened cynic. You can’t honestly expect us to swallow that shit, can you? That all of a sudden, today, for whatever reason, you woke up and decided it’s time for the president to listen to you.
You know when it might have been a good idea to get the president to respect your authority? When he asked to go to war in the first place and you rolled over and ask him to scratch your fuzzy belly. Or when his attorneys told federal judges that they could pretty much hang their robes up because the president had no intention of being “second guessed” by the judiciary. What did you do back then? You burped and went back to your breakfast. You might have asserted your almighty powers of oversight when the reconstruction of Iraq was handed over to corporate buddies of your party’s VP, while American soldiers’ families went on food stamps. You might have spoken up when your secretary of defense was being praised for fostering a culture of torture and abuse, or when your UN ambassador was being accused of acting, at best, like a two-year-old having a neverending temper tantrum.
Those were some prime opportunities to speak. At any one of them you might have opened your great big statesman’s cakehole and made yourself the most important man in your party. To do it now just looks pathetic. Go on then, hold your hearings. But don’t be coming to me on television expecting a cookie for six years of slacking and ten minutes of doing your job.
Schmuck.
A.
Wow, four years into this illegal war and NOW they need to look at Bush’s war “plan”?!?!??!? Here’s a hint for Lugie: There is no plan! DUH!
another Dick republikkkan. keep treading water, but georgie is taking the party with him.
Yeah, but with zero hours served the democrats effort to date has yielded the same results as 18 months of republican leadership.
let’s see how your comment sounds next week.
I would like to think that the Dem win will lead to changes. But so far, I’ve heard Shrub talk about bipartisanship but haven’t seen any actions in that direction yet.
In fact, I’ve seen him pull 2 more recess appointments of folks that were so “out there” that he couldn’t get them approved with the “old” repub majority.
In fact, despite the fact that the people made it clear that they didn’t agree with his handling of Iraq; despite the bipartisan Iraq study group; despite the generals on the ground saying a troop increase is a bad idea; preliminary word seems to be that we’re going to go deeper into the tar pits.
My bet is that Infallible Flatulence the Decider is going to attempt to use the fortress that he’s already built to stonewall the dems. By saying nice words and doing his bidding in the background, he’ll attempt to make more headway. (as people would prefer to think that there is a morsel of goodness somewhere in there, they will continue to be fooled).
A Retreat???
Good Lord
They’ll prollie all go golfing
I expect we’ll be hearing a number of Lugerisms from Repubs in the near future. They’re all — or at least the ones up for reelection in ’08 — gonna want to get on the oversight bandwagon and prove how hard they’re working to protect the ‘Merkin people from the overreach of the Bush admin.
You might want to think about keeping the rant handy for future use…
Don’t worry, Dick Lugar will call his committee together, study the issue, figure out how it affects just about everything, then he and his aide (his committee) will retire to the bar. For the next two years, God willing, it will be a Democrat who runs the Senate committee that Lugar used to run.
Now, before the cheering drowns me out…we have no evidence yet that the Democrat who runs that Senate committee that Lugar used to run will be any more interested in doing some work than Lugar was.
no better late than never, even the great Lugar cannot un-ring a bell.