(Another Lords of Loud Post by Steve Young)
It was a great week for the Democrats!
A grand jury refused to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga). The indictment pass clearly indicates that McKinney did nothing wrong, most likely never hit the police officer, nor outed a covert CIA agent as political and personal retribution.
Ann Coulter continued to open her mouth, all but calling for the killing of John Murtha.
With Tom Delay, Karl Rove, etc, etc, being investigated for months (and years), neither was castigated by the President nor his party yet the Democratic leadership took about two seconds to eject discredited Rep. William Jefferson (D- La) from the House and Ways committee.
More prison abuse reports under an administration that continues to abuse the Geneva Conventions.
Presidential Spokesperson, Tony Snow, called the 2500 American soldiers who have been killed in Iraq, "a number."
Ann Coulter.
But the Democrats' scored their biggest advantage this week when most of them did not get behind a Republican resolution to support the Bush policy that has resulted in the deaths of 2500 American soldiers as well as the over 100,000 Iraqis who never asked for the policy in the first place.
The politically-motivated vote will likely backfire on Republicans as a large majority of Americans believe that the President's decision to invade Iraq was not worth it. Now the Republicans have gone on record saying that the majority of Americans are wrong.
The Republican-controlled congress will be facing a tough uphill battle as the resolution also put Republicans on record saying to U.S. soldiers - and their families - that it's okay that we have no idea when they'll be coming home unless they are dead, horribly injured or gay.
While House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), declared that "Achieving victory is our only option," the Republicans refused to outline what that "victory" would entail. That in itself could seal the majority party's fate as most Americans no longer seem to buy rhetoric over action.
This was also a week where Republicans re-energized the obvious Karl Rove-supplied talking point, "cut and run," to describe John Murtha and John Kerry. It's still hard to gauge how difficult it will be to defend the fact that both men volunteered for war time duty while so many Republicans led by the likes of Rove, Vice President Dick Cheney and just about every radio talk show host, "cut and ran" when they had a chance to serve in the Armed Forces during wartime, yet seem to have no problem sending someone else's children into harm's way. Add to that the fact that neither Murtha or Kerry actually advocates either "cutting" or "running," but rather a careful watch from the borders of someopne else's civil war, should also give Democrats another arrow in the quiver as Republicans will surely be facing tough questioning on the Sunday morning talk shows concerning their continued shams and misleading phraseology.
If the Republicans continue to throw up wedge non-issues like gay marriage, flag-burning and the still pending, swallow prohibition, while ignoring problems that Americans really care about - affordable healthcare, outsourcing and bringing our boys and girls home - issues that the Republicans have indeed "cut and run" from, this November mid-term could truly turn Washington upside down.
It will be difficult for President Bush and his Congress to bounce back from a week that Democrats may ride all the way to the fall election.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Ann Coulter.
Back to you, Brit.
Steve Young is author of Great Failures of the Extremely Successfuland can be read every Sunday on the L.A. Daily News Oped Page right above Bill O'Reilly.