Spot the Difference

Democratic idea of bipartisan cooperation:

House Democrats will postpone votes on criminal contempt citations against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, while congressional leaders work with President Bush on a bipartisan stimulus package to fend off an economic downturn, according to party leaders and leadership aides.

“Senior Democrats have decided that holding a controversial vote on the contempt citations, which have already been approved by the House Judiciary Committee as part of its investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, would 'step on their message' of bipartisan unity in the midst of the stimulus package talks.

One day later — Bush idea of bipartisanship:

Justice Nomination Seen as Snub to Democrats

The Justice Department lawyer who wrote a series of classified legal opinions in 2005 authorizing harsh C.I.A. interrogation techniques was renominated by the White House on Wednesday to a senior department post, a move that was seen as a snub to Senate Democrats who have long opposed his appointment.

Judging by the results, one has to admit that the White House plays this game much better than the hapless Democrats, who cave time and time again. How did they become such sniveling cowards, and on what possible theory of politics do they think this serves their — much less the nation's — interests?

It seems all too likely that we're going to see a worse example of cowardice today, as leading democrats have been signaling that they'd love to cave in on FISA. Senator Dodd will filibuster, but the question is who if anyone will join him.

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2 Responses to Spot the Difference

  1. All of this is just a short term fix. And truth be told, it has been happening over past 3 decades. Reagan and Clinton have just as much blame as the current administration – but the al rich so who care. This is an interesting perspective on this(the midas touch)

  2. LACJ says:

    Raw Dawg is right. This is the result of rot that has set in over a couple-few decades. I suppose one cannot say that it *started* with Reagan per se, but the support of the police state and the insane human and financial cost of punishment due to pandering, illogical drug laws during that time certainly would seem to be a precursor to the situation we have now.

    We know that the rules of evidence and criminal procedure have been altered to accommodate our social interest in preventing people from doing harm to their own bodies, or something like that, over the last 20 years. And this ‘holding people indefinitely simply because we can’ is precisely where we have been headed the whole time.

    On the legal front regarding our dearest leaders, in fact it seems there is no clear legal limitation, if the Congress refuses to do its job. Tell me again why the poor and middle class need to be regulated so tightly while the wealthy and powerful are not? Because I forgot what the party line is.

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