No Organized Political Party
May 24th, 2007Thanks to the readers who emailed me to point out that I haven’t posted about this yet.
Flinching in the face of a veto threat, Democratic congressional leaders neared agreement with Bush administration Tuesday on legislation to pay for the Iraq war without a troop withdrawal timeline. Several officials said the emerging $120 billion compromise would include as much as $8 billion for Democratic domestic priorities—originally resisted by the White House—such as disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina victims and farmers hurt by drought. After a bruising veto struggle in which Bush vetoed one Democratic-drafted measure and threatened to reject another, congressional leaders in both political parties said they hoped the compromise would be cleared for President Bush’s signature by Friday.
This means, of course, that the Democrats in Congress are going to fund the war with no additional requirements, benchmarks or questions asked all the way through the end of 2008, which is contrary to everything they’ve talked about on the campaign trail and representative of Why People Don’t Trust the Democratic Party and They Lose Elections. Now I don’t know what the political ramnifications would be of a pullout. Perhaps the Republicans might be able to say, in a year five or ten, “The Democrats quit the War right as we were pulling it around!” but I don’t think so, and I’m disappointed in my party for its cowardice on the issue.
You want to give him authorization and funds for the War? Fine, I say, but don’t give him a blank check until his Presidency is over. This, coupled with the Democratic Party’s recent flip-flopping on issues of corruption and lobbying reform show why I said all through the winter that I would have to wait-and-see what the Democrats do before I praise them because politics, and the system, will make a fool of every man, which is why we have elections that reaffirm: it’s hardly ever the man, it’s the system. And then you’ve to understand: this is the best we’ve got!