I'm With Turd-Blossom

I have heard of whistling past the graveyard and spitting to avoid bad luck, but the anti-hex antics of the Senate GOP leadership has me perplexed. They got nothing left but pop guns and they are still shooting their mouths off, while shooting themselves in the foot and several other more vulnerable appendages at the same time. As usual Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee saw the situation clearly and STILL missed the point. It’s as if he suffers from the curse of the man driving the runaway stagecoach while facing his own butt. He knows he can’t steer and that he’s going too fast but he thinks he’s getting away with it. Alexander blustered, “If the American people suspect for one minute that any of us in the Senate are using those tactics as political issues…I think there will be a heavy price to pay.” Ah, LaMarr, you are such a putz.
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He meant of course to imply that the Democrats were playing politics with the war, as did Arlen Specter, from Pennsylvania, when he sniffed that the all night session was an “indignity”. But I don’t think the public is going to buy that line, not with two more U.S. combat deaths in the last 24 hours, (dieing to save George Bush from self inflicted political embarrassment, now that is an indignity!), and not with all but four Repubs in the Senate voting, once again, to “Stay the Course.” It’s like watching the slaves on an ancient war galley, rowing like hell, exhausting themselves to reach a far superior enemy who is going to slaughter them. I keep expecting one of them of look around and ask, “Hey, guys? Why are we in such a hurry?”
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The proof of perception was in the headlines. The New York Times said “Stymied by G.O.P., Democrats stop debate on Iraq”. And the Washington Post headline read; “Democrats Won’t Force War Vote, Effort Halted After GOP Blocks Proposal”. The first paragraph in the Post story was, “Senate Republicans torpedoed a Democratic bid yesterday to force the withdrawal of U.S. Combat troops from Iraq, as even Republican Senators who have questioned the war sided with President Bush’s adamant refusal to consider any change in war strategy before September.” And even the Detroit Free Press, taking their news from the Conservative USA Today, led with, “Troop Surge Gets More Time, Senate Republicans block pullout measure”.
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So Republicans “stymie”, “block”ed, “torpedo” and “block”ed yet again. Gosh, it sounds like a young George Bush’s review of his date with a debutant. And like the girl, the only thing the Repubs are likely to get out of their continued relationship with Georgie is fustrated, fucked and feeling used.
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Given that most people only scan the headlines, and that most who read on further still don’t go much beyond the first paragraph, it seems to me that the Republican attempts to portray the vote as a Democratic political ‘game’ have failed completely. When John McCain observed, “Nothing we have done for the last 24 hours will…change any fact on the ground in Iraq or (make) the outcome of the war any more or less important for the security of this country,” he was not only correct but he may have been sounding taps for dreams of any Republican, including himself, of living in The White House come February 2008. Asked who they blamed the most for the mess in Iraq 40% told the Times/CBS poll that they blamed the White House, 33% blamed Iraqi leaders and only 13% blamed the Democratic controlled congress. And nothing that the Repub managers said or did Wednesday into Thursday changed the facts on the ground in the Senate. And in the same poll, 63% of the public said we should decrease or totally withdraw our troops in Iraq. I guess we are just a nation of “Cut and Runners.”
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And the Times/CBS poll was released before the Senate vote, which confirms, I think, that the Repubs have decided the world looks better through obtuse glasses. It seems as if the Repubs are determined to run for re-election while wearing tee shirts with George Bush’s face on them, over the words in big read letters, “I’m With Stupid.”
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Yea, we're with you all the way, turd blossom. .