Cuatro Hombres: (Clockwise) Hastert, Gingrich, O'Neil, WrightSorry, but I'm not celebrating. Nosiree.Hastert, the current House majority leader, and three of his predecessors are pictured above. Two are Republicans and two Democrats, and their tenures stretch from 1973 when Tip O'Neil was handed the gavel, through to Haster's present rein of error. (By the way, any Democrat who really wants Hastert to step down before the election needs to join Mark Foley in rehab. Radioactive Denny is manna from heaven.)
It's not that I don't think that the Republicans deserve to be booted. They do -- and some deserve to be booted all the way to federal prison, where they can hang out with Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff and other one-time party bigs.
It's not that I think that the Democrats will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, which they're capable of doing.
It's just that if the Democrats prevail it will be only a matter of time before they're turning tricks for lobbyists, resist efforts at reform, avoid accountability and try to cover their tracks as the Tom DeLays and Dennis Hasterts have done.
Despite partisan differences and when they served, these majority leaders have something in common -- all failed to rise above the temptations of the dark side of power and were willingly corrupted. In fact, a review of the last dozen or so majority leaders shows that at least half were mobbed up to one degree or another.There is another reason why I'm not welcoming the possibility of the Democratic Party regaining power after 12 years of Republican control of the House.
When the Republicans seized power in 1994, they were bursting with big ideas. While I found much of their Contract on America, er . . . the Contract With America to be onerous, there was some good stuff, including shrinking the size of government and welfare reform. At least the Republicans were thinking.
If the Democrats have been thinking, they're doing a pretty good job of hiding it.An ascendant Democratic Party should be a New Morning in America, but I'm more inclined to believe that it will be a New Mourning For America.
Small ideas they've got, like raising the minimum wage and tweaking the Medicare prescription drug program. But if they do take over, they will be a majority bereft of big ideas, including how to get the U.S. the hell out of Iraq. (Forget about impeaching Dubya and Rummy, okay? A great idea in principle, but the last thing the country needs right now.)
While there is something to be said for not rocking the ship of state too much when the seas already are stormy, declaring that you're the party that is not Republican is not a big idea. It's lame, although sitting in the tall grass and taking pot shots at Dennis Hastert and the other GOP elephants as they lumber by may well give the Democrats the edge.
5 comments:
"(Forget about impeaching Dubya and Rummy, okay? A great idea in principle, but the last thing the country needs right now.)"
No, not okay, IMO. Clinton was impeached for perjuring himself over whether or not he got a blowjob. That stays in the history books forever. To let the current administration go down (as it were) in history without impeachment proceedings for its many crimes would be an outrage.
In another time, I would avidly support impeaching those rat bastards, but I believe that the U.S. is in perilously dire straits and a partisan impeachment battle would be enormously divisive.
I'm just not into tit for tat for the sake of it right now.
By the way, what kind of pooch is ScruffyButt?
We're in dire straits, indeed. However, I wouldn't want future generations to assume that we condoned the activities of this administration. We have recourse to articles of impeachment for a reason, which is not JUST to punish, but to serve as an example and a deterrent.
I doubt very much that the Democrats will have the guts to pursue it, though.
Scruffybutt is a terrier mix - probably half Maltese, and the other half from a good neighborhood, I'm sure. She adopted us at gunpoint at the SPCA. There was nothing we could do.
Hey Shaun, Candace -- I agree the faceless voiceless Dems miss opportunities. But it's not just about botching the easy ones or guts.
The problem is that Dem supporters/Bush opposers appeal to reason -- long bulleted lists of lies, dirty dealings, etc . . . All damning. How far can appeals to reason take us? Most Americans don't vote reason.
Take Foley. Reason would create a Nasty scale to objectively measure how bad the nasty is. If Foley-gate registers a 5 on the nasty scale, what does Monica-gate register?
The answer doesn't matter.
Both parties have nasty. But at least he's OUR nasty.
What matters is how many and why -- despite bulleted lists and reasonably losing our shit over Iraqi fathers cradling dead babies -- voters will vote for Foley's party any-damn-way just so it's not the other guys.
They won't vote reason after reading bulleted lists on blogs.
They'll vote belief or brand loyalty.
I bet Foley will galvanize the base -- if it's still in the news -- and turn out the vote to keep their kind of nasty in power at least two more years. Because -- and this is the twisted, unreasonable part -- because Foley-gate looks unbotchable.
"Even the Dems can use this to beat us," value voters will reason, "so we'd better vote in force or we'll lose."
There you go, Anonymous, putting your finger right on what's left of a pulse in this country.
You are correct that appealing to reason doesn't play in Peoria and people will vote for the Party of Pholey precisely because they are more afraid of losing their piece of the phranchise than throwing bums out of office.
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