Adventures in My Mind

Nov 22, 2006

Happy Turkey Day!

0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 9:26 AM

Nov 15, 2006

Elections: One Week On

So what have we learned from and since:

Racism is alive and well in Tennessee ...
If we were only as smart as Don Rumsfeld, we would all understand how complex the situation in Iraq is and Congress probably wouldn't have swung blue...
The electorate is clearly tired of the Republican majority. This is a very blue map, especially when you look at gubernatorial results.

The post-election purges have begun:
Rumsfeld ... gone and being charged with war crimes

Hastert ... not seeking a post-election leadership role

Mehlman ... gone and outed
But, hey ... it's not all bad news. Trent Lott, the man who never met a black person he couldn't force to the back of the bus is back as Senate Minority Whip.

So despite what is being said by the newly downtrodden republicans about coming to the middle and working across party lines to do what is right for the American people ... yadda, yadda, yadda ... they are clearly planning a serious turn to the right in their fight to gain the majority and keep the Whitehouse in two years.

Lott is a hardnosed conservative who, in his job as minority whip, will ecstatically cajole, coerce, browbeat, threaten, or blackmail as necessary any republican senators who might have the audacity to work with their democratic counterparts. In his previous incarnation as senate majority leader, he was regressive, reactionary, and uncomprimising. Obviously, there is no reason to think that he will be any different now. In fact, he may be even more so as the democrats hold the slimmest of margins (51-49) in the Senate.

And as for the aforementioned Mel Martinez, the new head of the RNC, it was he who played a key role (along with the soon-to-be-departed Rick Santorum (R-PA)) in the Senate's ill-thought fight to intervene on behalf of Terry Schiavo. His top aid penned the talking points memo on how the Schiavo case could sure up the republican base.

Make no mistake, the next two years will be ugly. The republicans will do everything in their power to make us believe that it was a mistake to vote them out of the majority. We will see presidential vetos (only 1 in the last 6 years, btw), legislavtive stall tactics, and the famous fillibuster that republicans were happily considering banning just a couple of years ago.

The only hope is that W, who is desperately seeking a positive legacy, will rise above this inevitable trickery to attempt some of his so-called compassionate conservatism so as to reposition the Bush brand as one of success and honor instead of failure and ignominy. Yeah, I wouldn't bet on it either.

0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:19 PM