The issue of our times, indeed the issue for the modern Democratic Party is whether or not this group of Democratic leaders has the stomach to wage that fight even if they lose.
Steve Soto nails it.
The central failure of the recent and current Democratic Party "leadership" is that it responds to each issue as if it were only about this election cycle or this week's polling. They do not understand that constitutional government is at stake and that they are the ones who must defend it.
Right on, Steve! Bush wants a Constitutional Crisis where he gets a free hand to arrogate all power to himself. Patriotic Americans demand that this stop now. It's time to bring it on.
Posted by Mary at March 20, 2007 11:59 PMNo reason for the Dems not to fight, because 70% of the country would be on their side.
Clearly the Administration is starting become unhinged even at the mention of subpoenas so Congress has to keep turning up the heat.
Imagine if Bush tried pulling this when Tip O'Neill or Sam Rayburn was Speaker.
Posted by Jason at March 21, 2007 03:33 AMLittle Boots threw down the gauntlet yesterday and issued a challenge to the Democrats. Now, we will see how much or how little courage our party has to go toe-to-toe with this pint-sized, dimestore cowboy.
Posted by Christopher at March 21, 2007 04:24 AMJosh Marshall says one of his readers found an 18 day gap in the email trail as well citing "shades of Rosemary Woods".
Posted by gtash at March 21, 2007 04:52 AMBring it on Moron.
Posted by JohnT at March 21, 2007 05:27 AMSen. Patrick Leahy has said on the record that the Senate Judiciary Committee WILL issue subpoenas so, Bushco can either deal with it or, move to Paraguay.
Posted by Christopher at March 21, 2007 05:28 AMWhat James said.
Good post Steve. Translation of Bush's speech: "F*ck you Congress. I am going to do what I want and you, nor anyone else is going to stop me." This may well be the definitive moment for many Democrats on whether they continue to support the Party with their time and money.
Posted by Judith at March 21, 2007 06:22 AMBush continues to act as if he believes his Approval Rating is 70% instead of his DisApproval Rating being 70%. Watching him ranting and puffing on TV last night as if all America was on his side was funny/sad. Most people don't like him and a good many hate him - yet there he goes again, threatening not AlQaeda, not Iran, not Korea, but the actual people he governs by threatening their elected representatives. On the other hand, having 12 months of uproar and Constitutional Crisis over playing politics with his own political appointees may just be the thing he, and the GOP, needs to take everyone's eyes off of Iraq and Iran. In that way, Bush well may have been inviting all of us to jump into the Briar Patch. Don't jump.
Posted by T2 at March 21, 2007 06:31 AMCongressional committees need to ask three questions of each and every assistant AG who appears before them: Why did you not convene a grand jury on the clear felony violations of FISA, the FBI false oaths on "exigent circumstances" illegally to get private documents from financial institutions, and conspiracy to torture reflected in the Yoo memos? Didn't you take an oath to enforce the law? How come you did not follow the prosecutorial responsibilities resulting from your oath by bringing criminal charges against persons within the DOJ who were clearly committing felony crimes?
DOJ is corrupt to the core when it allows those within the department flagrantly to violate the criminal stautes.
I think Nero and Deadeye have no option but to continue to stonewall to the death on this because having a corrupt, in-your-back-pocket DOJ is essential to Cheney's whole vision of executive "government"--the law has to be "flexible" (i.e. ignored).
It's also essential given Bushco's manifest, serial lawbreaking everywhere one turns.
So will the Dems be able to get their subpeonas into the courts, and does that take the scandal off the boil? And of course, it's a crap shoot given the Right Wing extremists Bush has placed on the UC Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and the Supreme Court.
I think Dems must nevertheless embrace this fight, and the country must see just how much the "conservative" Repubs have deformed and destroyed our constitutional system of checks and balances, and how irreversibly decayed and degenerated our "government" has become.
But every terminal cancer patient apparently wants to know the truth of their situation. The truth of our appalling (self-inflicted) situation is all we have left to cling to in BushAmerica.
Posted by euzoius at March 21, 2007 07:01 AMWhat James E. Powell quoted and said at the top of this thread. Steve Soto's words leap off the page. Every Democrat, especially within the Beltway, should take it to heart and live by it.
In another time and another place, Col. Harry Summers crowed, "We won every battle." To which an anonymous North Vietnamese Colonel replied, "That may be true, but it's irrelevant."
If Pelosi, Hoyer, Reid, Durbin & Co. don't get that, it goes a long way toward explaining how we got into this mess and why they're not the ones to get us out.
Posted by Pvt. Keepout at March 21, 2007 07:07 AMit was interesting, and normal, to see the Media trot out their talking points after Bush's rant: "the Dems better watch out or the country will turn on them for this witch hunt", and "the President was back to his old self tonite, what a fighter", and "he served notice that he's still the president and the Dems do everything for politics". Yeah, the same old b.s. by the same old talking heads-it's amazing how quickly the fall back to the party line. They problem they seem to have conveniently forgotten is that a vast majority, 60%-70%, of the public has already declared Bush an incompetent and failed loser.
Posted by T2 at March 21, 2007 07:11 AMLibby shot sand into the umpire's eyes.
Cheney shot buckshot into an old man's face.
Bush just shot Congress with defiant balls of shit.
Posted by Sharon at March 21, 2007 07:14 AMWht ls cn fld cngrss d bt dcy nt mnfctrd scndlmngrs nd mddlsm sclds?
[Editor: ignore=off]Peeeeyoooo...someone just cut the cheese....
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[Editor: ignore=off]Right on, baby, right on!
Posted by whenwego at March 21, 2007 08:38 AM"President George W Bush has categorically stated that he will not allow his advisers to take part in what he terms are Senate "show trials." Bush said his advisers will testify, but only in private and not under oath.
"We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants"
Were I Bush ,I would offer the Dems a deal. Gonzales will resign if they will stop asking for testimony from Rove and Miers.
His position that the Dems are sponsoring a "show trial" and a "fishing expedition" aimed at "honorable public servants" will not hold for long.
The Dems can say that without cameras ,there is no "show trial" But a transcript just gives the public what they have the right to have.
Since it's specifically about the U.S Attorney firings ,it is not a "fishing expedition".
And Rove and Miers are not "honorable public servants" in the eyes of the average American.
Posted by Kevin at March 21, 2007 09:03 AMWhat else can a failed congress do but decay into manufactured scandalmongers and meddlesome scolds?
As bendejo reaches for his blackberry to communicate his latest tirade to Marc Foley.
Posted by Seven of Six at March 21, 2007 09:30 AM