I know that politics is Ned's territory but I have some thoughts on the cabinet confirmation sessions in Congress of Rice and Gonzales. I would like to pose a perennial question: why do the democrats keep giving in? I just don't understand. We just had one of the biggest losses in our history and we're faced with mid-term elections coming up soon--now is the time to fight! The confirmations sound like they're going to go fairly smoothly, which should scare people if they are any indication of how Court nominations will go.

First up we have Gonzales being nominated for Attorney General. First there is the issue of the Geneva Convention that is being talked about the most. Gonzales submitted "torture memos" claiming that this was "obsolete." This is an important issue but one that isn't being talked about much is his previous service in Texas when Bush was governor. While serving as counsel to Bush, Gonzales gave him appeals from death row inmates, many of which didn't include all of the evidence. In some cases this evidence was exculpatory. This man helped give Bush his execution -friendly reputation. Both of these are moral issues that should cut through party lines, so why are we talking about him being confirmed already?

Then there is Condi Rice whose service as National Security Advisor has been deplorable. One needs only to look at her 9/11 Commission testimony to see her many faults in service to this country. She failed to listen to Richard Clarke about the threat of Bin Laden when he relayed the info to her and when she received the PDB's including the one entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack in the U.S." She seems to never dissent form Bush on anything. Her Freudian slip where she is quoted as saying "my husb...the president" is quite telling, she worships him. She is like a dog to her master. Some senators (Kennedy, Kerry, and Boxer to name a few) are fighting but they are the vast minority. Six of the eight democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee voted for her! Boxer launched a great attack on Rice but somehow her comeback of "I wish you wouldn't impugn my integrity," made her seem sympathetic - even though Boxer was simply pointing out a contradiction. I'll give Rice credit, she is great at deflecting criticism.

Try flipping the parties: if John Kerry were president and democrats had a slight majority of congress and he tried to push through nominees for attorney general and sec. of state – do you think the republicans would let them go this easily? OF COURSE NOT! Once again we come off looking weak against a seemingly monolithic, omnipotent republican gov't. Even the symbols of our parties are quite telling --who is more intimidating, a donkey or an elephant?

links for 2005-01-28
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Nedward on January 28, 2005 07:18 AM