Watching tonight's evening news was very depressing. The stories consisted of the 9/11 Commission Report Reforms failing in congress...so that means our nation's safety will continue to decrease. Then there was the ever present story of the Iraq mess with more bodies piling up, followed by the segment of the basketball game fight, and then to put the cherry on top, they ended the evening news with a report about how fat we are all getting.
Now when I see what is happening to us, and what we are doing to the rest of the world, I think about what could have been. While John Kerry would not have stemmed the causes of our increasing waistlines, I do believe he wouldn't have been anything like the failure of a president we have now. To begin with, he would have made sure that everything recommended in the commission report get done. And in Iraq, while he couldn't undo the damage that has been done, he would have at least had a sense of what to do now. Instead, we get a president that surrounds himself with incompetent "yes-men/women" and then wonders why things are going so wrong. Actually, I take that back, he probably doesn't even know. All the Presidents Men keep him so sheltered that he probably thinks he's doing a good job!
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The following is an excerpt from an article from MSNBC News Services at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6539263/
"Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the primary negotiator on the measure for Senate Republicans, said, “I am very disappointed that these objections have been raised at the 11th hour and temporarily derailed this bill.”
Collins said it was surprising, given Bush’s recent re-election triumph, that Republicans were not willing to approve legislation that he favored and his aides lobbied for throughout the day.
Democrats expressed outrage.
“The commander in chief in the middle of a war says he needs this bill to protect the American people,” said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who led Democratic negotiators.
“Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House, and the blame for this failure is theirs alone,” said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California."
The article mentioned "rebellious Republicans". Heh... I usually don't like to say "I told you so", especially in a case like this one where the legislation was necessary for the protection of our country... but in this case I will: Bush DOESN'T have a mandate. He DOESN'T! If he does, it is only on paper. The current infighting in his own party is nearly enough to nullify that pesky fact that Republicans control the House, Senate and White House.
However in this particular case, I'm willing to admit that the last-minute objections might have been valid. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Jim Sensenbrenner are the chairmen of the Armed Services and Judiciary committees, and it was their thinking that provisions of the bill could interfere with the military chain of command and endanger troops in the field, according to the article.
Given thate, there are still a number of Republicans who have voiced anger or disappointment over the handling of the Iraq war, and now this issue with the 9/11 Commission Report Reforms... What issue will it be next? Things just won't be as cut-and-dried for Bush as some of his most avid supporters hope.
The Bush administration itself is the cause for the infighting within the GOP. The administration appears to be too far to the right for its own party. The more goof-ups the Bushies make, the worse it will get for them as they will come under attack from more and more pols in the GOP.
How soon is too soon for the words "lame duck president" to come into play?
Lame Duck is right,(no pun intended or implied)
A group of us had been trying to look for possible factional splits in the GOP (yes we are actually that boring). We did not pick this. We thought the divides would fall between military lovers (who hate the Iraqi policy) and financial conservatives (see the deficit) and of course the Social conservatives.
I'll hold to ABCs statements and suggest that these are the tip of the 'emboldened republican' iceberg. Those GOP members riding a high of electoral success. Obviously 'toying' with national security is a tad dangerous. I would suggest both the Senate and House GOP numbers are only solid on paper. I could be wrong...
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