Spring Break Perspective

04/09/2007

Paul Munnis


We took a little “Spring Break” for ourselves during the week before the Passover and Easter season. We purposely did not use our computer equipment and we put TRD on autopilot for a week. We did listen to the news. What we saw and heard was a sad performance by the GOP as they usher their Party through the process of a Party crashing and bent on a course of determined self-destruction.

First and foremost was the G.W. Bush and Nancy Pelosi war. When you and I look at Nancy Pelosi, we see the Democratic Speaker of the House. When G.W. Bush sees Nancy Pelosi he is looking at his replacement.

Nancy Pelosi is third in line for the presidency, the GOP needs to dump Bush and Chaney in order to rebuild their Party thus they must demand that Chaney and Bush resign. When they do then Nancy Pelosi becomes the interim President of the U.S. until the 2008 elections and an inauguration are held.

In any case there is still a lot to be investigated concerning the Bush / Chaney war ledger and the House leader will be standing up and clearly articulating the findings. She will lead the impeachment efforts if they are invoked. If not, she will announce the resignation of the Bush / Chaney duo since their letters of resignation will be addressed to her and to Harry Reid. That makes Nancy Pelosi the worst nightmare of the Bush Administration.

The Administration response was to increase the attack on Nancy Pelosi. Like several Republicans, Nancy went to the mid-east on a personal diplomacy visit. She visited with the heads of the Israeli government. She went on to speak to the Palestinians and she let them know that peace in the matter of Palestinian and Israeli co-existence is critical, important, and obtainable. Coming from the head of the U.S. House of Representatives this was a vital and a strong message.

Bush dissed Nancy and the GOP has threatened to have her arrested on felony charges. What a laugh. They don’t have a legal leg to stand on and Pelosi did more for diplomacy in a couple of days than what the Bushies have done in the last six years.

Then there is tainted pet food which has eclipsed the Gonzales hearings coming up on April 17th. Gonzales is in prep right now to try to figure out how to posture his way out of the mess he has made of the Justice Department. Any continuation as head of the Justice Department looks pretty bleak for Mr. Gonzales and so the GOP Administration is seeking a replacement for Gonzales. The pickings are slim.

Bush hit back by making a recess appointment of Sam Fox as the Ambassador to Belgium. The Senate had rejected him because of his Swift Boat funding against John Kerry in the 2004 election. Like the Bolton recess appointment to the UN make by Mr. Bush, that too will soon become unraveled and will be over-ridden by Congress.

The news about global warming and climate change was not good for the western coal interests. When Al Gore testified before Congress that coal is a dirty product no mater how you process it then the coal interests saw billions of dollars go up in smoke. Hello Ethanol, hello wind power, hello solar, hello research on alternative energy. Hello public transportation. Good bye coal. The result -- they are attacking Al Gore. Do you suppose they fear big Al? Oh yeah!

The GOP seems to be a bit short on presidential talent. Bush is a political Lame Duck and McCain has allied himself with Bush thus destroying his own presidential aspirations. McCain made a poor showing of his trip to Iraq. McCain is doing poorly at fund raising. McCain looks like he is rapidly approaching forced retirement. An opportunity for him to become VP is evaporating since Mr. Bush has not retired Mr. Chaney as yet. All this is fine with Democrats.

People are discovering the personal side of Rudy Giuliani and are beginning to cringe at the apparition. It is striking people that Giuliani has no experience in government outside of being a mayor of NY a long time ago -- not good credentials to lead the most powerful nation in the world. Looking at Rudy from a personal life viewpoint is ugly. Looking at Rudy from the sort of talent he could attract to government is even uglier.

The other GOP candidates are second and third tier and they have little to no name recognition. It will cost millions to get name recognition and that must be done before a serious candidacy can be undertaken. So the GOP is trying to draft an actor. The White House is fading away from GOP control very quickly and all of America knows it.

Bush says he will veto the Congressional War Spending Bill and people are yawning at his veto threat. The negativity of a veto will not resolve anything. Jack Murtha is saying that if it’s vetoed, the replacement Bill will contain even less funding for the Iraqi War. Ooops! Mr. Bush needs to negotiate. He is not good at that.

This self-destruction of the GOP is not pretty to watch. They are now shooting themselves in the foot with each passing day and will soon pass the point of no return for the 2008 elections.

Last week the performance of the European economy surpassed that of the U.S. Economy and that is a harbinger of trouble ahead for Mr. Bush over U.S. economic performance. He has sustained his war with a series of currency devaluation and deficit increases. He is out of rom now for any more of that and Congress knows it. They have taken back the purse strings from the White House and the prior GOP controlled Congress.

The military is starting to realize that Mr. Bush must go. He is an impediment to their strength and is negatively impacting their operations. Expect to see more opposition to Mr. Bush from Pentagon leaders even though they are all cast as loyal Bushies. For the military, policitcs is a means to an end and is not an end in itself. The military will pay attention to their needs and sacrifice Bush if needed.

This change-overwill go on until the GOP tells Bush / Chaney to resign and Nancy Pelosi takes over the government. No wonder that Mr. Bush is suddenly paying more attention to Congress. But the GOP arguments for staying the course and surging in Iraq are faulty and bad. We will cover that in another editorial and show the findings of the truth tables concerning the Iraq War.

I’m glad I took a little break from things. If the Bushies are getting to you then give it up for a week or two. Then your stress level will drop as you realize that the GOP is self-destructing. We are witnessing a dying dinosaur. This is unprecedented in the political history of America except perhaps for the Abolitionists back at the time of the Civil War.

In the meantime things are actually improving in Washington as the result of a vigilant oversight by this new Congress. You’d never know from all of the hollering from the GOP though. The White House is being hung in black crepe in anticipation of the political death of the current occupant. Those who corrupted their offices are now in a sweat.

Our foreign policy is getting a redo, the religious right is forced to rethink their association with government and to rethink the need to restore a balance of separation between Church and State, the neo-con ideology of governing has proven a rank failure, and the GOP must rebuild their Party or pass off the American political radar.

Things are on the mend from a Democratic perspective and the future is looking somewhat better for the long pull ahead to recovery.