Quarkhenge

In my previous post, I said that Robert Gates could be Bush's last chance to push a major appointment through a Republican Senate. That may not be true.

First of all, he's re-appointed John Bolton as the US Ambassador to the UN. (That's likely to fail.)

But something else occurs to me. When Bush lyingly declared that Rumsfeld would stay through the end of his administration, he said the same thing about Cheney. Is Cheney next to go?

There are a number of considerations here. First, Bush has no authority to fire Cheney. But the VP has no Constitutional powers other than presiding over the Senate (and voting only to break a tie), and succeeding the President, and Bush could theoretically revoke all of Cheney's delegated authority. (That's relevant only if Bush wants Cheney out and Cheney wants to stay.) But it could be advantageous to the Republicans to have a sitting Vice President as Bush's heir apparent for 2008.

Cheney apparently didn't want Rumsfeld to leave; Bush overruled him. (Source: Keith Olbermann.)

If Cheney is going to leave, it would make sense for him to do so soon, so Bush still has a Republican Congress to approve his replacement. It would be seen as the blatantly political maneuver, but that rarely stops this President.

Or Cheney might just hold on to the bitter end, either with or without Bush's consent.

I have no predictions here, just some ramblings.

Robert Gates, Bush's choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, is probably Bush's last opportunity to push a major appointment through a Republican Senate.

But there are enough Democrats in the Senate to bring up Gates's interesting history, which apparently includes manipulation of intelligence information and probable involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal. (Thanks to one of my Loyal Readers for bringing this to my attention; hi, Sis!)

Bye-bye.

Incidentally, President Bush recently stated in no uncertain terms that Rumsfeld would be staying on. Here's what he says now:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Last week you told us that Secretary Rumsfeld will be staying on. Why is the timing right now for this, and how much does it have to do with the election results?

THE PRESIDENT: Right. No, you and Hunt and Keil came in the Oval Office, and Hunt asked me the question one week before the campaign, and basically it was, are you going to do something about Rumsfeld and the Vice President? And my answer was, they're going to stay on. And the reason why is I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign. And so the only way to answer that question and to get you on to another question was to give you that answer.

So the President has admitted that he lied to the American people for political purposes. This is nothing really new, but we don't often see such an explicit admission.

Incidentally, the above photo of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein was taken in December, 1983. Saddam has been sentenced to death for a massacre in Dujail in July, 1982.

This is election day. Vote. This one is important. One-party rule has been hurting this country. Today is our chance to start fixing it.

UPDATE: Jim Macdonald has good advice at Making Light.

UPDATE 2: Ok, we voted. Let's hope our votes are actually counted. (I wish we had some purple ink.)

UPDATE 3: Democrats have taken back the House and probably the Senate. Whoo hoo!

Here's a thought. After you vote next Tuesday, dye your middle finger purple.

But seriously, John Kerry's botched joke, the wingnuts' reaction to it, and his reaction to their reaction shouldn't be the point.

Here's the point. The Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress. The President has gotten thousands of Americans killed in Iraq, in an unjustifiable war that has not achieved its goals (and will not, as long as this band of incompetents is in charge of it). Bush has repeatedly violated the law, the Constitution, and his oath of office, and the Republican Congress has let him get away with it, even to the point of changing the law to make his illegal actions legal.

Here's the point.

Vote next Tuesday. The Democratic party may not be perfect, but at the moment it's the only tool we have to take back this country.

UPDATE: Who Should Apologize? (a political ad by Jamie Holly at Crooks and Liars)

The recent John Kerry brouhaha is symptomatic of several major problems in American politics.

Here's what Kerry said:

If you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.

Here's what he meant to say:

I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just Ask President Bush.

Problem one: Republicans lie, and the media let them get away with it. It was fairly obvious from the context, and far more obvious from Kerry's history, that he did not intend to insult the troops. But George W. Bush, and Tony Snow, and John McCain, and even (groan) a few Democrats are insisting that Kerry should apologize for insulting the troops.

They know better. They are deliberately quoting Kerry out of context. They are lying. They're lying because they think (perhaps correctly, alas) that it will energize the Republican base, and make next week's election just a little less disastrous for them. They're lying because they care more about staying in power than about honor.

Problem two: Democrats don't deal well with this. Kerry has responded with entirely appropriate outrage to this whole thing (which is an improvement over his relative lack of response to the swift boat liars) -- but the original sound bite is still out there, and that's still what people will remember about this. What he should be doing, in my humble opinion, is telling the joke correctly at every possible opportunity. It's a pretty good joke; it's not sidesplittingly funny, but it makes a very good point about George W. Bush's incompetence and the tragic consequences of it. But nobody is hearing it. I only know what he meant to say because a couple of bloggers happened to mention it.

Here it is again:

I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just Ask President Bush.

That should be the sound bite we're hearing, and we're not hearing it because John Kerry isn't out there saying it.

The same thing happened during the 2004 campaign, with his infamous “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” He later acknowledged that it was "one of those inarticulate moments", but he completely blew the opportunity to explain what he actually meant. He favored the $87 billion in funding; he voted for a bill that would provide it by cutting back some of Bush's tax cuts, and against another bill that would provide it by increasing the deficit. It's a simple story, but Kerry never actually told it.

(Or maybe he did, but it wasn't a good enough sound bite.)

And, of course, the so-called "liberal" media are part of the problem. The root of this whole thing was that John Kerry (who isn't even running for office) botched a line in a live speech. How often has George W. Bush done the same thing? When Bush flubs a line, we laugh at him; in some cases, the media even correct his errors for him when they quote him. When a Democrat flubs a line, the wingnuts pretend to believe he meant exactly what he said, and to be shocked, shocked, that someone would say such a thing.

So let's apply the same standard to the President. Take a look at this:

In this clip, the President argues that OBGYN's are being denied the opportunity to practice their "love with women all over this country". I can only conclude that the President is in favor of OBGYN's sexually assaulting women and therefore committing malpractice. I am outraged and disgusted and the President owes the women of America an apology and I am calling for an immediate investigation.

Let's be fair. Let's be "balanced".

Or, better yet, let's be honest.

UPDATE: And now the top headline on cnn.com is "Kerry: I personally apologize".

Sigh.

UPDATE 2: Above, I wrote that "Republicans lie". Obviously, not all Republicans lie. It just seems that most of the ones currently in power do so.