December 28, 2006 at 12:52:00

"Shallow Throat": Don't Let Dems Drink Bush's Iraq Kool-Aid

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By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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"Bingo! You got it on the first try. So here the Republicans are being destroyed by the war they started, and if they don't want to lose the White House and Congress again in 2008 they've got to find a way to get that albatross from around their necks and, at least partially, also around the necks of the Democrats, thus wiping out the war as an issue.

"Bush and Cheney will not, repeat NOT, have the official defeat in Iraq happen on their watch. Bush's shaky ego cannot handle yet another 'loser' label. They've got to postpone the inevitable until after the 2008 election, so that a new President will have the defeat happen on his watch. So they come up with the cockamamie idea of 'surging' more troops into Baghdad as a so-called 'temporary' measure -- as if more troops will wipe away all their misdeeds and will calm the anti-U.S. waters in Iraq. Plus --"

"Uh, you were going to explain the 'trap' you say the Democrats are walking into," I interjected.

"Right. The point is that the only way the Administration's escalation of the war can possibly work for them is if the Democrats can be lured into signing onto the plan. Harry Reid at first said he could accept the 'surge' if it really was temporary, just lasting a few months. And Sylvestre Reyes, Pelosi's pick to head the House Intelligence Committee, bought into the idea as well. Rove's plan was working."

"But Reid backed away quickly from his initial comments once he heard the uproar from his base," I countered. "And Reyes, not the brightest light bulb, will do whatever Pelosi tells him to do."

"The point is that your Democrat friends are behaving as if they can't believe the electorate put them in charge of Congress. The Democrats still seem to be afraid of doing anything major on Iraq, lest they be termed 'unpatriotic' if they don't 'support the troops.' They seem to be ignoring the fact that the voters swept away the Republicans precisely to get our young soldiers the hell out of that civil-war rathole as quickly as is practicable. Every time one of Bush's 'emergency' funding bills for the war comes up -- for another hundred billion dollars -- your liberals fall all over themselves to jump on the war bandwagon. Money is their lever -- use it!"

STEPPING OUT FOR REAL CHANGE

"So what would you have the Democrats do?" I asked.

"The first thing your liberal friends are going to have to realize," said ST, "is that these Bush guys are not going to leave the premises voluntarily. They are correctly frightened of future jail terms, for one thing, and they'll fight to the death to stay in power. You're either going to have to impeach them or cause them such problems governing that the powers-that-be in the Republican party demand they resign. I think Pelosi and Reid, despite their public expressions, understand that.

"Impeachment won't fly immediately, but if the investigations into Administration policies in Iraq and elsewhere are handled correctly and fairly, the tumblers will click into place, perhaps as early as the Spring, and the American people will come to understand the enormity of Bush&Co.'s policy crimes -- in Iraq, on torture, on domestic spying, on energy and so on -- and realize that impeachment is the necessary and proper Constitutional remedy for removing them.

"In the meantime, the Democrats can, through the power of the pursestrings, demand that monies for the Iraq War be used for bringing the troops home, not escalating the conflict. And certainly not for starting a new war by bombing Iran, or encouraging the Israelis to do it for them, both of which scenarios are being planned as we speak."

"What you're asking the Democrats to do is to step way out there, way beyond the normal parameters of political behavior, and the American people in general may not accept that."

DRIVING A STAKE THROUGH THE HEART

"Damn it, this is not politics as usual; these guys have been taking America down an imperialist, near-fascist road. You know it, I know it, and the American people suspect that this crew is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. The way Bush&Co. have been behaving is endangering us all, our economy, our Constitutional protections, our nation's standing and ability to move successfully in the world, killing and maiming tens of thousands of our own troops, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, and in so doing helping attract a new generation of suicide jihadists eager to attack America.

"If you want to get the U.S. back on a reasonable course, we all are going to have to 'step way out there,' to use your phrase -- the Democrats, we traditional conservatives, the media. We simply have to pry their fingers off the levers of power, and the only way to do that is to force them out of their bunker, shine the light of truth on them, and then evict them. A political stake-through-the-heart approach. Do you think your Democrat friends are up to the task? I seriously wonder."

"Yes," I said, "I do believe they can do it, if our activist base remains strong, and if the Democrats in Congress stay sharply focused in their investigations; if that happens, we can bring the Republicans and Independents along who voted for Bush in '04 but abandoned the Republicans as too extremist in '06.

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Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (more...)

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