Repubs Bluster, Fume and End Their Careers

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a $124 billion Iraq war spending bill that requires US troops to start withdrawing from Iraq by October 1. The Senate is expected to approve the same bill today. The Prez has long said he will veto any spending bill that dictates a troop withdrawal timeline. And the GOP lawmakers are predictably ranting and raving about unholy Al-Qaeda terrorists taking over the United States unless the American military stays in Iraq forever. In the midst of all the hot air blowing out of Washington, DC, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) inadvertently touched on a basic though little acknowledged truth. First Boehner wrapped himself in the flag and claimed "Every generation of Americans have had their obligation to stand up and protect their country, not just for today but for tomorrow and the next generation.” Then he added, "We have a solemn obligation to the American people to finish the job we started." Did he say, “Finish the job we started”? Yes, he did. But he should have been a little more precise. He should have said, “The Bush administration has a solemn obligation to the American people to end the illegal and unnecessary war on Iraq which the Bush administration started”. But at least the idiot acknowledged that the Repubs started the catastrophic war in Iraq and the Repubs should end it. While Republican politicians publicly diddle themselves and each other and while the Prez tries to seem manly and determined, do they not realize that the majority of Americans are watching and thinking, “These assholes have to go”? Are the Repubs not aware that orating and pontificating and raving about winning an unwinnable war is tantamount to ending their political careers? Yesterday, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) launched his presidential candidacy by telling a lie. He said on the Larry King show that as president he would welcome compromise with the Democrats. That is totally untrue, unless by compromise McCain meant that he would welcome the total capitulation of the Democrats to the McCain vision of the war in Iraq. In an interview with Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes” on April 8th, McCain said, “I disagree with what the majority of the American people want.” Although McCain now is criticizing the Bush administration’s many failures on many issues, he is firmly committed to the Bush strategy in Iraq. Does McCain not know that his intransigence on the issue of the war in Iraq will doom his political career? Bush’s veto will guarantee more unnecessary deaths in Iraq. But it also will kill off the political careers of hundreds of Republicans. The Bush years are over and any politician who remains committed to prolonging the Iraq war, may as well pack up his duds and head for home. Does the Bush administration realize this? Does McCain realize this? Unimaginable and crazy as it may seem, they don’t care.