The fact that he is still caucusing with the Democrats, and is necessary to ensure that the Senate remains Democratic until next January, just makes this all the more painful to watch.

Holding onto the Senate is the more important thing, I guess, but... it would be just lovely to see Joe get kicked out of the party. Publicly. On live TV. With the use of a carnival dunk tank.

Posted at April 8, 2008 1:12 PM in response to Lieberman: Hooray!

"...there is no longer a ruthless dictator in Iraq who threatened and invaded his neighbors and who terrorized his own people...."

You know, why don't we have President Bush go to Congress and testify? Would save a lot of time, wouldn't it?

(Actually, that's kind of a delicious thought. Would never happen, but still.)

Posted at April 8, 2008 12:11 PM in response to The Political Education of David Petraeus

And please, no snide and snarky replies on how it won't happen. I'm as sick of that shit as I am of Bush.

Well, not to add to your nausea or nothing, but pining for Bush administration types in the old Graybar Hotel is just that. It just isn't going to happen, no matter how much they deserve it.

No prosecutor is going to take on that case. Laws passed by the Congress in the Republican years give too much cover. And if there were a prosecution of some sort, there would be, literally, an army of lawyers attacking every aspect of the case. (This would, incidentally, give Bush supporters even greater opportunities to perpetuate their cause, through legal papers and press releases and everything else.) In effect, if he were prosecuted, he would become a martyr in the eyes of many Americans, and several key media outlets. This is more than he deserves after the stuff he's put us through.

And the Democrats in Congress -- demonstrably -- have no stomach for pushing the issue. Even if there were a voter revolt against the Democratic Party due to their inaction, it would only serve to allow (in shades of the feared Clinton / Obama rift) a united Republican Party back into power at the Congress. That is more than the Republican Party deserves.

(If the Dems in Congress got us out of Iraq, got universal health care passed, and stopped pussyfooting around companies that are cheating taxpayers / consumers / workers and took some honest-to-God action, then I would not care what happened to Bush and Friends. But, of course, Congress wouldn't do that much. Fixing the problems caused by Bush would be much better than simply punishing the man -- no matter how satisfying that would be.)

We have to come to grips with the fact that Bush is going to retire without being punished. Not only that, but there will be Bush accolytes over the next couple of decades who will continue to insist that he was right, that Democrats want America to fail, and so on. And they will be well-funded and have the same points-of-entry into the political realm. Rush, Hannity and Fox and Friends are not going anywhere -- there's too much money in it. They'll set up shop at the new library at SMU, ritually bowing to the icon before taking the air.

Wish it weren't so, but it's so. Instead, let's get a Democratic president, and a nice big lead in both Houses, and get on with fixing the errors of this decade, rather than vainly screaming "IMPEACH!" at every damned opportunity. The time for all that is gone (if it ever existed in the first place).

Posted at April 2, 2008 12:24 PM in response to Today's Must Read