Washington will be a very grumpy place this month. The day after Labor Day is usually a day of new beginnings in Washington. Springs gaffes are long forgotten and campaign season is underway. September hails the fresh and happy return for a humming Congress moving in sync with a full bore Presidential campaign season.
But this week will be different from any September I can ever recall.
There are several reasons why:
1) Scandals still stink: The most recent scandal involving Senator Craig's bathroom escapades and Senator Vitter's calling call girls from the cloakroom are still too fresh to be forgotten in either the voter's mind or Capitol Hill's water cooler talk. Craig resigned but Vitter hasn't and we haven't seen the end of that discussion yet.
2) Congress must be the "Decider" on the War: An unpopular war will be under the most intense scrutiny it has received since it started from both Democrats and Republicans when General Petraeus comes to Capitol Hill with his recommendations for its future. Despite the interest in the country for the war to end, Most members of Congress are really not comfortable making such important decisions about the war.
3) The Republicans have lost their Leader: An unpopular president has lost the leadership, not just of the American people but also of his own party. Therefore the Republicans running for president are desperately searching for their own messaging while the Republicans in Congress are left to battle the Democratic majority on their own.
4) The Democratic base threatens revolt: House Democrats are facing serious dissatisfaction among the rank and file over a perceived slowness to stop the war by withdrawing funding as well as the summer gift given by the Dem leadership to the White House (over the liberals' objections) that expanded wiretapping authority for the administration.
Nonetheless, I'd much rather be Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi (or Barack Obama and Harry Reid for that matter) than Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney or Mitch McConnell. In the presidential race, the Democrats have a base that is happily choosing among primary candidates they like. And the Democrats in Congress know that they are going to kick the president around all fall. Enough legislation has been moved into position in the Democratic Congress that they can legitimately claim progress even if the Republicans become obstructionists this next session. An we will continue to see successful coordination of the Democratic message.
The Republic picture is not nearly so rosy. And not just because of Senators Larry Craig and David Vitter. The Republicans in Congress are now splitting on Iraq. The venerated John Warner is calling the president on the carpet and will bring several of his more independent colleagues with him. The House Republicans may stick on Iraq but they are still mad about the Immigration debacle and are likely to create an agenda separate from the White House to prove they are powerful to their base. And the Republicans running for president would like to take the next month of Iraq reports and the Bush tour of America and hide. They want none of it. Yet they also know that Republican Party loyalists are still grousing about their primary options so doing nothing isn't really an option.
So, welcome to Washington in September. By October, it may all be different. But it is going to be a grumpy month.
Originally posted on SuperTuesday.MSNBC.com
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It is about re-election. It is about filling their pockets. It is about lies.
America is in big trouble.
Petraeus will lie to Congress. Bush will get all the money he wants to continue the bloodbath - no strings.
US Troops, and innocent Iraqi civilians will die to fill the bank accounts of Bush/Cheney and the criminals in the arms and oil industires.
The disgusting trash that "represents the people" will accept bribes and sell out the people.
Nothing will change in D.C. The United states will be flushed deeper into the toilot.
Has it ever occurred to you that your enemy is not your enemy? That you've allowed yourself to be diluted by the peace racketeers? Or maybe you are one.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-bawer2sep02,0,2697346.story?coll=la-tot-opinion&track=ntothtml
If we (The Democratic Base) don't get our way, this country is ruined and America, as a Democracy is done.
Bush could widen his war to include Iran, initiate false-flag attacks against the US and Europe, incite more real attacks against the US and Europe, and kill tens if not hundreds of millions of people with a prophecy-fulfilling nuclear rapture.
Life will become like a bad Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner movie.
Those of us who survive may be cursing the names of Pelosi, Reid, Conyers and Leahey under our breath as we hunt rats with home-made atlatls.
Yikes!! No wonder the other team thinks we're crazy and dangerous! We're trying to DEFEAT the evil and corrupt GOP. Doesn't seem like we should imitate them......tm
These doomsday pseudo-Christians cultists have infiltrated the military-industrial complex and they're itching for an apocalyptic nuclear war with Islamic fundamentalists. They want war with Iran, and they'll have it if they are not stopped.
If you don't understand this, you are not part of any "we" which I'm a part of.
They don't read all these blogs, but if thousands of letters, emails and calls come in asking, demanding, or begging Congress to head off war with Iran, they might pay attention. Time is short.
Please do it now! After the bombs drop, it will be too late.
Europeans enjoy universal health care, free college education, a 35-hour workweek, paid family leave and several weeks of paid vacation per year. Their planes run on time; their trains are among the fastest in the world. The Japanese enjoy Internet service up to 30 times faster than ours, and it's cheaper. Their trains are even faster than the Europeans'.
We Americans are going bankrupt, having waged two large unnecessary wars and several smaller ones in the past half century. Our government is staggeringly corrupt and inefficient. Our military industrial complex is robbing the taxpayers with both hands, and other major industries are close behind.
Yes, we're grumpy. And we're getting grumpier.
what stands out to me, that wasn't mentioned, is what was on television. There was almost no advertising - no commercials. Maybe five minutes out of an hour. There was almost no violence. Sure you you saw nudity, but I'm not puritanical in that respect and don't think viewing the human body without clothing is something that will effect a society on the level that watching people commit grizzly murders and providing how-to guides on hiding bodies will. They ran some American movies from time to time, and had most of our major sitcoms, but for the most part, it consisted of national programming.
At the end of the day, I guess we are just being conditioned for perpetual violence at home and abroad and being taught to deal with what's ahead.