Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
June 28, 2007
Dems Must Fight or Will Lose

With regard to Congress subpoenas and today’s White House claims of Executive Privilege (pdf) MoA commentator Uncle $cam predicts:

The Senate will now rise for the daily invocation, pledge of allegiance and buggering.

If it does go to the SCOTUS I’m curious if a Roberts court would consent to hear the case on an expedited basis or if it would drag out till at least the end of next year.

My guess: right now the entire Bush system is trying to hold it’s breath until the end of his term on everything. Don’t pull the troops out, let the next president do it and take the blame for losing the war, –that is if they don’t decide to stay by bombing Iran–, fight all subpoenas to their buddies on the Supreme Court, with as many delaying tactics as possible in between. It’s all a delaying tactic.

And the dems will let them, because they do not want to diminish their chances for that executive power, even though they might and probably will lose.

I agree with that and want to emphasize the possibility of the dems losing the next elections. Maybe not in terms of Congress seats, but the Presidency is certainly not secured for them.

The 2008 election season will be about Iraq, Iraq and Iraq. The Democrats will have to argue for leaving Iraq asap or they will lose their base. But that leaves their flank open for "soft on …" attacks.

To preempt such Democrats must show agressiveness towards their enemies and to do so now. The obvious enemy, despised by a huge majority of the people, is the Bush/Cheney regime. The Dems have to attack that enemy fast and furious.

That and only that can invalidate the otherwise guaranteed and justified election slogans of "Dems soft on …" kind. Don’t disregard such slogans. Security, even undefined, is a very basic concern for most people. Mixed with a few terror alerts, "soft on…" claims are very, very effective.

Comments

the SCOTUS is not the place to resolve this (robert’s court??) – instead the house if starts impeachment process, executive priviledge is off the table.

Posted by: selise | Jun 28 2007 19:25 utc | 1

from talkingpointsmemo,
———
Rockin’ it in the Granite state!
Bush’s approval rating in New Hampshire at healthy 14%.
———
The only way the Repubs can take the POTUS in 08 is to steal it. Iraq is Bush’s War and will always be seen as Bush’s war no matter whose in OO in 09. House and Senate Dems can lose their support if they don’t/can’t do something to stand against the adminstration now!

Posted by: Iron butterfly | Jun 28 2007 20:06 utc | 2

Ib,
no not underestimate the Democrats’ ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It is one of their trademarks.
Republicans have the uncanny ability to stay afloat no matter how many scandals they have boring holes in their hull. Democrats panic at the sight of a few leaks and start jettinsoning personnel.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Jun 28 2007 20:21 utc | 3

The Dems are like a sports team that plays not to lose, instead of playing to win. Their offence is sad. We’ll know more in September, but my guess is they’ll lose in ’08. If they could only learn not to apologize for saying what they believe. God, they’re gutless!

Posted by: Ben | Jun 28 2007 22:06 utc | 4

I remember going out to the local race track for their Election Day Extravaganza last November.
It’s an annual PR thing they put on. To bring out the families, they provide free carnival rides and games for the kids, and lots of cheap bets and prizes to encourage people to taste the gambling habit.
Instead of running individual horses, the jockeys race in Teams — one Blue Team and one Red Team.
When you buy your ticket, you have to choose a favorite Team, and then a favorite Horse within that Team. Every ticket is a bet, so everyone’s got something riding on the race.
With everybody having skin in the game, the crowd was really riled up. Anyone could win, and they’d know it the moment one Team crossed the finish line first. The race s crowd was a sea of family faces, waving race pennants, wearing T-shirts and hats with colorful Team slogans, and screaming support either for Red or Blue.
Late in the day, they finally let the Blue and Red Teams loose, and in a mad minute it was over.
One Team won. One Team lost. The dust settled. The horses went back to their stables. Winners cheered, losers shook their heads, and everyone moved along to the exits.
What a show!
As I was leaving, I saw an armored car pulling out of the back gate, surrounded by armed guards, with a police cruiser for escort.
It dawned on me that the winner is never the people, the horses, or the Teams.
It’s whoever owns the whole damn track.

Posted by: Antifa | Jun 29 2007 1:17 utc | 5

Report: Shadow Government of Private Contractors Explodes Under Bush
From Think Progress:

A new report by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform concludes that, under the Bush administration, the “shadow government of private companies working under federal contract has exploded in size. Between 2000 and 2005, procurement spending increased by over $175 billion dollars, making federal contracts the fastest growing component of federal discretionary spending.”

Posted by: Bea | Jun 29 2007 1:29 utc | 6

Sorry, meant to post the above in OT thread. Time to get offline!

Posted by: Bea | Jun 29 2007 1:58 utc | 7

Don’t think the Dems can win. 1) They don’t really want to? 2) Votes no longer reflect majority opinion (voter registration, abstention, vote fraud. 3) It’s personal. Bush is unpopular or despised for many different reasons, not only for ‘mismanagement’ or ‘discontent with’ the Iraq war: a new Republican figure, a ‘strong leader’ would be presented as ushering in a new era, etc. etc.

Posted by: Noirette | Jun 29 2007 9:17 utc | 8

Clinton is pre-ordained so that the hate machine can ramp into overdrive. Then it’ll be close enough to steal. She’ll concede. We’ll probably end up with another actor.
Same old.

Posted by: beq | Jun 29 2007 11:54 utc | 9

beq –
exquisitely pithy! : )

Posted by: Hamburger | Jun 29 2007 12:08 utc | 10

More Thoughts On The Supreme Roberts Court

[T]his term we saw the Court announce the first amendment applies to corporations, in the Wisconsin Right to Life case, but not to students, in the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case. We saw the court announce that we should be deferential to state trial judges in criminal cases but not to democratically-elected local school boards in the schools cases. So if this is the birth of a new constitutional era, all I say is what an ugly baby.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 29 2007 13:27 utc | 11

Speaking of hate.
-new from Bageant.

Posted by: beq | Jun 29 2007 13:51 utc | 12

The ‘soft on terror’ meme and ‘temporary surge (putsch)’ meme
are unassailable. The majority of Americans believe Saddam,
and therefore Iraqis, were to blame for 9/11 (and higher gas
prices). As pointed out above, aerospace-arms-war-contracting
is the fastest growing segment of the 58% of Americans who
already work for or are contracted to government.
Iraq ergo Pentagon ergo Homeland Defense is unassailable,
and the Dems have fallen perfectly into that pitch pocket.
But let’s step back a minute. Six months ago Newt Gingrich
gave a TV news presentation where, with trembling lips and
Bre’r Rabbit grin, predicted that Clinton and Obama would
be an “unbeatable combination”.
The Dems fell perfectly into that tar pit too.
Whatever crossover dream Dems might have hoped for in 2008,
stealing away votes from Republicans, they will lose it on
the triparte horns of “Iraq” (soft on terror, ergo soft on
government jobs), “Clinton” (I did not have sex with that
Whitewater) and “Obama” (as much chance as a snowflake in
Berchesgarden), and inevitable spin on higher taxes issues.
These Neo-Zi’s are not playing patty cake.
These Neo-Zi’s are not playing at democracy.
They are scrumming, Full Spectrum Dominance.
All kneel, and all lick the Neo-Zi bootheel.
If you want to Circe 2008, study Tiananmen.

Posted by: Joe Jitsu | Jun 29 2007 14:28 utc | 13

As antifa pointed out, the struggle between team blue and team red is a distraction designed to keep ppl quiet.
They can cheer, express opinions, feel good, etc. etc.
Political parties in ‘democracies’ have become like companies, selling a product with promises of coupons, discounts, badges, some support on minor emotional issues made up out of whole cloth (eg. stem cell research – who knows anything about that anyway? – but it *must* be morally RIGHT or WRONG). Corporate take over.
The Dems just accept that they are in little lower on the pol. food chain; still the cash coming in is plenty to be going on with and not to be sneered at. And without the Dems, the whole system would fall down, so they can gather comfort from their ‘necessary role,’ and on an individual level, can play the pious PC pundit, so concerned, moral, genuine…

Posted by: Noirette | Jun 30 2007 18:38 utc | 14

my first visit here, but I will return. nice place, it does remind me of Billmon…
The horse race analogy is good on many levels … I’ve tried floating a WWF comparison over at Firedoglake, where it goes down like a lead balloon.
The Repubs are the heels in the fake sport of two party politics!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel_(professional_wrestling)
their apalling arrogance and blatant rulebreaking get get the audience all riled up so they keep coming back and rooting for the face wrestler to deliver their come-uppance!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(professional_wrestling)
however, maybe, just maybe, the whole sport is fake, and is designed to keep the voters coming back for more of the same from the (D) Team and the (R) Team, and preventing anyone thinking that the two wrasslers have more in common with each other, and all the commotion is just a lot of kabuki. just sayin…
http://www.salon.com/comics/to…..index.html”

Posted by: sporkovat | Jul 3 2007 4:54 utc | 15