As political stunts go, the Senate Democrats’ invocation of Rule 21 that placed the Senate in closed session ostensibly to talk about “pre war intelligence leading up to the Iraq war” was pretty lame. Consider some of the truly imaginative political shows put on by the Democrats recently:
- Max Cleland going out to President Bush’s ranch to beg the President to denounce the Swiftvets for smearing John Kerry. A couple of weeks later, Cleland fields a call from Bill Burkett who has some memos that show Bush is a lying shirker and directs him to the appropriate people at the DNC. Cleland is a great actor.
- The reverence and near canonization of Cindy Sheehan as an anti-war icon. The Sheehan Show was going great until the Rosa Parks of the anti war movement turned out to be the Eva Braun of the loony left. The scramble to disassociate themselves from Moonbat Mama was so side splittingly funny that the vignettes should be up for an Academy Award for “Best Comedy Shorts.”
- The “Pat Fizgerald Show” which was unceremoniously canceled after only one episode due to its failure to meet expectations. Here they were, all dressed up in costume and ready to declare the Bush Presidency over, their nemesis Rove in handcuffs, perhaps even the Vice President resigning in disgrace, and all they got was a guy named Scooter who made false statements to the grand jury.
That last bit of theater led directly to today’s production. It appears the Democrats had planned to put on this show for weeks. They must have felt – for the umpteenth time – that they finally had Bush dead to rights and could bring him down by putting on a righteous morality play about “twisting” pre-war intelligence on the Iraq War. The fact that Fitzgerald said this at his press conference must have gone in one ear and out the other:
This indictment is not about the war. This indictment’s not about the propriety of the war. And people who believe fervently in the war effort, people who oppose it, people who have mixed feelings about it should not look to this indictment for any resolution of how they feel or any vindication of how they feel….The indictment will not seek to prove that the war was justified or unjustified. This is stripped of that debate, and this is focused on a narrow transaction. And I think anyone who’s concerned about the war and has feelings for or against shouldn’t look to this criminal process for any answers or resolution of that.
When a political party loses its way like the Democrats have, they tend to rely on stunts like this for the same reason that two year olds throw tantrums; they are starved for attention. With a united Republican party ready to nuke any filibuster attempt against Judge Alito as well as an ethnic smear campaign being unmasked as a truly amateur attempt by the DNC to play hardball, this Theater of the Absurd was all the Democrats had left to dominate the news day.
What I wouldn’t have given to be a fly on the wall during that closed session…
UPDATE
As usual, Giacomo hits the nail on the head:
As I’ve noted previously, Senator Reid, one of only 100 such men and women in the country, has access to all the pre-war intelligence he wants. He doesn’t want to “investigate.” He wants a show trial with the Bush administration playing the role of defendant. He and his fellow Democrats couldn’t get that with the Plame investigation, so he’s stomping his feet and holding his breath in a political temper tantrum hoping he gets what he wants. He thinks the Libby indictment entitles the left to extrapolate and argue that every utterance of the Bush administration is suspect.
Read the whole thing…
8:09 pm
A lame stunt, to be sure. I had similar thoughts this afternoon.
But wait, the media will be stirring furiously tomorrow to see if they can force this pot to boil.
8:26 pm
The problem is the President and the Republican party
can’t articulate a coherenet position. They continue to allow the Dems and their willing accomplises in the MSM to frame the debate. This nonsense about cooked intelligence should have been put to bed two years ago, but once again the fact that the President and the Repubs can’t or won’t defend themselves is the reason you get crap like what happened today!
9:46 pm
LOL as I read this Rick I thought of that song by Pink Floyd…”The Show Must Go On” from the album THE WALL.
It is nothing but a show…Harry Ried being the lead actor, if he even rates that title.
9:49 pm
Maybe now, sense Senator Frisk got his faced slapped, he will start acting like the leader of the Majority Party and start running the senate with authority. I am so tire of his, “I’m such a gentleman” behavior and thinking that if he’s nice to them the’ll be nice to him. I don’t know what world he thinks he is living in. Frist really needs to learn that politics is a blood sport.
11:17 pm
Democrats Force Senate Into Iraq Meeting
Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questionin
1:57 am
It wasn’t just lame, it was nonsensical. I mean, I am still trying to figure out if it was some bit of genius I just didn’t see at first. NO! It was just absolutely stupid.
11:39 am
Rick Moran is a very thoughtful and articulate conservative with a blog; a rare bird, indeed. Just out of curiosity, sir, what do you see as the role (if any)of an opposition party in our republic? Is protection of minority (in this context, number of voters, not ethnicity) interests of any value? If it still has value, how should it be expressed politically by members of the minority party?
Perhaps I am wrong, but the general impression left by Republican politicians is that since they are in majority control of the administrative and legislative branches of the federal government, Democrats should sit down, shut up and stay the hell out of the way. Are their any legitimate tools for a minority party to use? If so, what are they? (Apparently using the actual rules of the Senate is not legitimate.) If there are no legitimate roles or tools for a minority party to influence political decisions, the logical conclusion is that a two party system of government is no longer viable. Your response, please.
1:05 pm
ed: Let me see if I may inform you of the fact that this week the Republicans informed the Democraps that Phase Two should be completed sometime next week. The bi-partisan committee has been working on this subject, possibly Harry Reid chose not to believe the information they were given as to the completion of the phase. D’ya think? Probably not. But if you chose to believe that the Phase Two committee was ready to release report why would Reid do what he did yesterday. Oh, and FYI the 6 people group that was agreed to, in the shut down meeting, do you know what they were assigned to do? Just in case you don’t know that either, I’ll tell you. They are assigned to go look and see how the Phase Two committee is doing their work and can they expect a final report soon! A FINAL REPORT SOON! Now before you say I’m full of it, go and check this out for yourself. Other wise, type on more misinformation and prove that you Democraps are still STUCK ON STUPID.
Now before I forget your question, the manority is expected, among other things, to act with proper decorm instead of deceitful efforts to confuse the easily confused.
3:38 pm
Diamond:
I am an independent and am not looking for a pissing contest. I asked Mr. Moran to define the role of the minority party in the United States at this time, whether minority rights are of any significance, if a two party system is still relevant, and exactly how the minority party in a two party system is supposed to legitimately impact the political process. Nothing in your response answers these questions. A thoughtful response is still welcome.
4:16 pm
The minority party should not be degraded into a ankle-biting french poodle bunch of wimps. Instead of attacking only their political enemies, how about getting on board with the US war on terrorism and offering their own positive input. Then maybe thy could win an election every once in a while.
4:20 pm
kyle:
Nice snarky comment, but nothing resembling a thoughtful answer to my questions.
4:43 pm
Having been in the minority for most of my professional life, I can tell you a few things about what the role of the Democrats should be:
1. Politics stops at the water’s edge. The stunt pulled by the Dems yesterday had absolutely nothing to do with “getting to the truth.” The truth has been out there dissected to death by the 9/11 Commission, the Senate Intelligence Committee, The Butler Commission in Great Britain, and the Dulfer Report. How much more “truth” do you want. Isn’t it just a little bit strange that all of those bodies found exactly the same thing; that pre war intel was not “twisted” in any way shape or form. That the majority of the world’s intel services believed that Saddam had huge stockpiles of WMD? That Clinton and the Democrats believed the same thing?
You live in a world where the truth doesn’t matter -at least objective truth. When Democrats can say with a straight face that voting machines in Ohio were hacked from a remote location and vote totals changed, why can’t you see that the overwhelming majority of thinking people are laughing out loud at you?
The same goes for the “twisting” of intel before the Iraq war. The spate of leaks by the CIA after the war ended and no stockpiles of WMD found were a blatant attempt to shift blame from their own sorry asses to the Administration. As usual, they missed the big one.
The problem is that the Dems have no idea how to act as a minority party. Viscous personal attacks instead of policy alternatives. I can tell you that both Ronald Reagan and George Bush #41 worked with Democrats for the good of the country when you were in the majority. But the dems refusal to offer any alternatives whatsoever except naysaying the Republicans has gotten tiresome and worn. It is why even with all of Bush’s troubles you don’t have a ghost of a chance to take back the Congress.
The American people simply don’t trust you.
6:52 pm
Rick, somehow I don’t believe that ed will be able to digest your info and use it. Snarky might not be used, since he has admired your ability to use the English language. Even went so far as to admit that he didn’t expect your talent as a blogger.
You have broken his heart and maybe, just maybe he watched Brit Hume Fox News tonight and heard Mort explain why the Dems are such a sorry lot and why they are reduced to the behavior they displayed yesterday. Surely ed can then figure out all his questions for himself. D’ya think? Yeal, me neither.
8:52 pm
Thank you for the response. My concern in responding in the first place is that a two party system has been useful in shaping American life for centuries and we seem to be rapidly moving away from this premise. My concerns are with the underlying structure of our political system, not with promoting Democrats. When liberal thinkers once again are in power, and they certainly will be at some point, an effective opposition party will be needed at that time as well. Those promoting the minority interest help keep those in power from abusing power (and those in the minority) and from the mistakes of hubris that come from exercising unchecked power. The post-WWII history of the Democratic party easily confirms the danger of hubris and overreaching into abusive, unproductive use of power – fill in your own examples.
I still feel that the majority party of the moment, the Republicans, try to delegitimize all efforts of Democrats, even the very pale efforts at policy, by personal attack and mudslinging. Open policy debates are out of the question, it seems, by the efforts of both Democrats and Republicans.
By example, I came here with a straightfoward concern and questions and your commenters assail my intelligence and motives with insults and sarcasm. My first impulse is to respond in kind, but dialogue and learning is more important to me than being right or toeing any company line. You recited a litany of Democratic misdeeds. Fair enough. Any Democrat could cite a similar list of Republican misdeeds. This doesn’t solve anything. We used to have dialogue and compromise between the majority and minority parties. Do we still want that, and if so, the minority party, whoever it is, must have a way to dissent and oppose that is respected and heard by the majority, or we have moved away from a two party system.
1:04 pm
replica watches