Posted 1 year, 11 months ago around lunchtime by abogado
My view is that we had so many inspectors in there and enough forces in the region to back up the inspectors that we sort of had Saddam pinned down, in terms of his ability to do something fairly far-reaching with weapons of mass destruction.
How many times have we heard that before? Democrats justifying Saddam Hussein staying in power; making excuses for why we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq. Not understanding the seriousness of the threat that was posed to our country and the rest of our allies in the region. But this isn’t a quote from Nancy Pelosi, it is actually from an interview from August, 2004 with our new Secretary of Defense, Mr. Robert M. Gates. I don’t know exactly what Bush is saying with this nomination, but its not “stay the course.” Interesting.
I woke up Wednesday morning and looked out my fourth story window to discover that the torrential rains of the night before had washed away most of the red and yellow leaves that had accumulated in the streets over the past month. Despite being early November, my google weather report said that it was to be 65 degrees with only the highest of high wisps of clouds overhead. But much more had been washed away from the streets of DC the night before. I had stayed up until 4 in the morning watching the unofficial results come in from Montana and Virginia, so I wasn’t shocked to see that both Tester and Webb were holding on to slim leads, and along with them the Democrats hanging on to control of the Senate; I just didn’t really believe it.
It’s been a long time for Democrats. I should rephrase that: it’s been a long time for those of us who couldn’t understand what was wrong with our country that they would blindly follow cocksure leaders down an obviously wrong path. Over the last 6 years, my faith has admittedly been shaken. I had begun to believe that our politicians could flaunt rules and procedures, push the boundaries of corruption, make countless errors of judgment and ignore Constitutional mandates, all with few repercussions. I thought perhaps that there truly was an unbridgeable divide between parts of the country that would never be able to communicate without partisan rhetoric, let alone actually agree. There may still be, and indeed, the country is as divided as ever. But I have regained some, a sliver, of faith in the notion of politicians actually being held accountable for countless breaches of the nation’s trust.
The short-lived neo-conservative run has come to an end. The pendulum has swung back to Democrats and it will undoubtedly swing back again. The lessons of the past are rarely taken to heart, and it won’t be long before Democrats are committing the sins of old. But for now, and in this one moment of change, we may actually be able to uncover some of the falsities and lies that have brought us to this point in history. The Congress that enabled our leaders to write, sign and cash their own political check has been held accountable at the polls and now it is time for those leaders to answer the questions that we all need to know. If the Democrats don’t do one damn other thing for the next two years, it would still be a monumental victory for the country.
Well said man. I think that a lot of us have been feeling alienated and defeated by politics in America over the past few years. As they were announcing the results on Tuesday night while I worked on the GV digest and Mari was finishing up a report, a glimmer of hope and excitement could be heard in both our voices. Even Jon Stewart seemed to have the tone of “wait a minute, something is going right here.” And by right, I mean left. Look, even HP is happy.
i wouldve loved to have seen how drunk you got tuesday nite, abogado, all drunk and optimistic. sounds like a fun night in DC. did you guys party with the underage pages or what?
I wanted the GOP to lose power so I have no real qualms with what you say here, though I do want to point out one striking difference from previous elections where power was transferred: the GOP candidates conceded elections (even when the margins were razor thin), they did not ask for recounts, and most importantly they did not start conspiracy theories of ’stolen elections’ and so forth.
In other words, unlike Democrats of the past, the GOP handed over power with class.
er…robocalls? false endorsements?
Yep, a real class act.
Ay, HP ~ you say: “In other words, unlike Democrats of the past, the GOP handed over power with class.”
How about having HANDLED power with class?
Yo HP,
Good call. Allen and the rest did concede humbly.
But I think it’s because the electoral system has and is in favor of the republicans. So if they lose, they really can’t complain. Well, they are upset that Bush didn’t fire Rumsfeld before the election.
More about the electoral system from lefty investigative journalist Greg Palast:
“The nasty little secret of US elections is that three million ballots are cast in national elections but not counted — 3,600,380 not counted in 2004 according to US Election Commission stats. These are votes lost because a punch card didn’t punch (its chad got “hung”), a stray mark voided a paper ballot and other machinery glitches.
Officials call it “spoilage.” I call it, “inaugurating Republicans.” Why? According to statisticians working with the US Civil Rights Commission, the chance your vote will “spoil” this way is 900% higher for Black folk and 500% higher for Hispanics than for white voters. When we do the arithmetic, we find that well over half of all votes spoiled or “blank” are cast by voters of color. On balance, this spoilage game produces a million-vote edge for the GOP.”
Moreno - It’s hard not to be drunk when you are playing the macaca drinking game. You definitely would have enjoyed seeing DCites dance in the streets burning effigies of GWB and celebrating the terrorist victory. We tried to find some pages but they are under pretty tight security until the Republicans clear out of town.
HP - congratulations on finding some silver lining (even though you are happy with the result). I’m just going to say that there is a big difference between what went down in Florida and Allen in Virginia. Nonetheless, I congratulate Allen for realizing the deal was done and not embarrassing himself or his party any further.
As for actual change happening in Washington any time in the near future, this does not make me very optimistic.
Ah, of course, the conspiracy to suppress the black and hispanic vote, how could I forgot, that is one of my favorite ones…those poor helpless minorities, where would they be without the generosity of democrats?
On a somewhat related note, you might want to read this exchange on Salon.com between Salon’s Farhad Manjoo and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who wrote in Rolling Stone Magazine that the 2004 election was stolen. Farhad Manjoo responds point by point to Kennedy’s article here here, Kennedy responds here, and Manjoo responds again here.
Manjoo also responds to general points here, and to Mark Crispin Miller new book Fooled Again here.
Regardless of what did or did not happen in 2004, as Joel pointed out Republican fraud this election is inexcusable.
Not to beat a dead horse but I came across this blog post that explains in the best possible way, why democrats take the “We wuz robbed!” line when losing an election and republicans don’t.
Geez guys. Just leave me alone ok?
“The Republican’s lose with class”? What do they put in the water down there HP? I haven’t seen much of anything done with class by the Republicans recently. Did you pay attention to the many dirty tricks suggested by Republican wags and actually paid for by the RNC?
Our water has more iron.