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 Ten Months Too LongPosted on Jan 31, 2008By Marie Cocco WASHINGTON—I watch the constitutional and media curiosity that is a president’s State of the Union address as a journalistic and civic duty. Every year it is enlivened a bit by some small tingle of anticipation about how the made-for-TV moment of the night will come across on screen. Last year, it was the historic image of Nancy Pelosi, the first woman speaker of the House, standing behind the president at the rostrum. On Monday, it was the political pairing of Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama, mesmerizing both sides of the aisle in the notoriously partisan House chamber—just as George W. Bush was supposed to be taking command of it. Command Bush did not. The feebleness of a lame-duck president with abysmal public approval ratings has pathos to it. It is all the more dreary today because Bush’s decline has been brought on by his own policies. His is a legacy of dulled American dreams at home and debilitated American influence abroad. The country already has turned its attention to the thrust and parry of the presidential primaries. Bush has been tuned out, we are told, and is all but irrelevant. This impulse to turn away is understandable, but dangerous—especially if it allows us to overlook significant and frightening developments. A sampler: Pakistan’s strongman, Pervez Musharraf, has reportedly refused American requests for permission to undertake an intensified U.S. effort—even a joint endeavor with his own security forces—to flush out terrorists from their havens along the border with Afghanistan. Lebanon teeters on the verge of civil war. The bombings in Iraq continue, whether the carnage is shown on American television or not. A crisis erupted in Gaza just after Bush returned from his belated peacemaking sojourn to the Middle East, notable for how lackadaisical it seemed. At home, we face recession after seven years of stagnant incomes for most of us, but with an extraordinary increase in wealth at the top. “We faced hard decisions about peace and war, rising competition in the world economy, and the health and welfare of our citizens,” Bush declared in opening his speech. The verdict of the American people, if not the world, on all of these decisions is that Bush made the wrong choices. The next president will bear the burdens imposed on any American president, and will also be forced to shoulder the oppressive load Bush has forced upon his successor. The most significant folly is Iraq, an endeavor costing more than $9 billion every month, a price we pay for in less U.S. security, not more. We have replaced Saddam Hussein, who was boxed in by international sanctions and U.S. and British-enforced “no-fly zones,” with an Iraqi government that cannot function politically or economically. The Congressional Budget Office, in a recent estimate of future American military costs, assumes that “U.S. forces stationed in Iraq would not be able to rely heavily on Iraq’s civilian economy and infrastructure for support for the foreseeable future.” We wish to tune Bush out, to turn a hopeful page that rests on anticipation of a November election that is supposed to bring relief. But we cannot just turn the switch off on the Bush presidency, for the simple reason that Bush is still the man at the switch. Even as he signed a massive defense authorization bill this week, Bush made more notorious use of “signing statements.” This time, he declared he has the authority to ignore four laws passed as part of the defense measure. The most significant restriction Bush says he can bypass is a prohibition on using federal funds to establish permanent military bases in Iraq. Other provisions the president claims he can ignore are those strengthening protections for whistle-blowers who expose wrongdoing among government contractors, and another requiring intelligence agencies to turn over reports to Congress. The White House also objected to a provision establishing an independent commission to probe wartime contracting abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who can recall a president who has done so much damage in so short a time? Only Richard Nixon and Herbert Hoover come to mind. Avert your eyes, if you must. But there is no telling how much more harm can be done in the next 10 months while we look the other way. Marie Cocco’s e-mail address is mariecocco(at)washpost.com. © 2008, Washington Post Writers Group Previous item: Between a Veteran and a Visionary Next item: The Ups and Downs of Electability Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
By Conservative Yankee, February 3 at 11:32 am # By JoJo, February 1 at 4:19 am “Please leave Nixon out of it---The man was tarred and feather by the Demorats---and puke media” What a riot… a Nixon appoligist… I thought Bucannan was the only one left.. Oh and Demorats like Bill Cohen of Maine Arlen Spectorof Pennsylvania and Wayne Morse of Oregon? Hamilton Fish of New York Tom Railsback of Illinois Harold Froehlich of Wisconsin, Lawrence Hogan of Maryland, Robert McClory of Illinois Funny aside.. by all counts the Conservatives hated Nixon far more than did liberals!
By Conservative Yankee, February 3 at 6:46 am # If a police state is what the majority desires, a police state is what the people will get. last month the same Elliot Spitzer backed off a plan to issue driver’s licenses OUTSIDE guidelines recommended by “homeland security” Lou Dobbs whipped the folks into a frenzy about this (mild and rational plan) until both Spitzer, and Hill the Business-shill (who initially issued support for the Spitzer plan)backed off so fast they both looked like cartoons. (which is my opinion of them anyway) People don’t get heavily armed police in their subways WITHOUT first allowing repeal (without legislative formalities)of the fourth and fifth amendments to the US constitution. These steps usually come AFTER seemingly stupid acts like closing the Canadian border which has remained open for 200 years ....even during the Civil war. We have lost our presumption of innocence, enshrined as a underpinning of our republic. We have allowed legislation from people who have never done an honest day’s work in their lives to export our jobs, negate our responsibility as parents, and interfere with our personal contracts with busines such as banks, communications firms, and necessary utilities, We have supported dictators because they provided us monitary gain, and we supported these folks as they committed genocide. we even had a political class who believed Hitler was ok, and we refused to accept people fleeing from Nazis because of their religious presuasion. We built this nation on theft, slavery, and deciet, and now we are suprised at “what we’ve become” Big News flash… we haven’t BECOME anything we are what we are, and now that the morsals are tastier here at home we choose to eat our own. .. so we are by definition (notice I said “we") sheep… big surprise that those who aspire to be Sheppards noticed and seized the opportunity to pick up the crook. Shame on us....
By Gord Metcalfe, February 1 at 6:57 pm # Wow. Very well stated, sir or madam. my hat is off.
By JoJo, February 1 at 4:19 am # Can't think of a worse President than BushSilly Coco Puff girl!--try reading up on Wilson and Trueman,LBJ.-Mass Killers
By bretzky, January 31 at 11:43 pm # How do we wake up the sheep? We need to take the power back...this is our country, not his..why aren’t we protesting by the millions?? I can’t take anymore of this. We need to take it to the streets!!!!
By GW=MCHammered, January 31 at 12:48 pm # America: Freedom To Fascism“President Bush’s 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs...” Glad he did this before tax time. Adjust accordingly. Then if you haven’t already, go to google video and watch America: Freedom To Fascism. And if Endgame: The Blueprint for Global Enslavement (also at google video) is wrong, why does Bush step in tune?
By bsgroup, January 31 at 10:45 am # PredatorsThe wolf metaphor is spot on. Living in Alaska I have actually seen this happen to my dog. Happily the wolves were not successful and skulked off to the barren landscape, hungry and cold. The next time they appeared we were prepared.
By lawlessone, January 31 at 10:03 am # “WHAT? ME WORRY?”If anyone still needs a reason why we need to commence impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney immediately instead of just waiting for their term to expire, here’s several: 1. Their arrogance, carelessness or simple ignorance could drag us into yet another a wasteful war, one with Iran perhaps or any other country the Neocons happen to be hostile toward at the moment. Even if no new target nation formally takes the bait set out by Bush and Cheney, the juvenile tauntings to “bring it on” actively encourages private retaliation. Unfortunately, those two mischief makers surrounded by Secret Service and hiding in their undisclosed bunkers are the least likely to be harmed from their school yard tactics. It’s the civilians who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time who are condemned to vanish in a cloud of pink mist. 2. Bush and Cheney’s strutting insensitivities, grating indifference and perennial clumsiness could also finish alienating the few allies we have left who might still trust or like us. 3. Their egos, lack of experience and aggressive whims could worsen their already perilous depletion of our military capability and morale. Shouldn’t the phrase “support our troops” to mean something besides an empty slogan? 4. The greed, shortsightedness and foolishness of our corrupters-in-chief could auction off the national forests, parks or other important assets. What they haven’t already stolen could be given away for pennies on the dollar, not that our dollar is worth much any more. 5. Those two could also assist in sending ever more jobs, not to mention our declining dollars, overseas. They and those they direct could mortgage our future and independence even deeper in debt to countries that would be delighted to see us wreathe and stumble. 6. We’ll never root out the incompetents and thieves that our two good ol’ boy in the White House have placed in positions of trust as long they are in charge. Remember, there is still another hurricane season left plus another fire season and earthquakes can happen any time. Besides, as deaths and retirements on the court occur, they might get the opportunity to appoint still more of their ilk to become unremovable, partisan and injudicious judges who would then be able to further their bankrupt ideology for decades to come. 7. In leaving the Oval Office without handcuffs, they could spend some of their last weeks pardoning all the criminals within their current administration as well as among their campaign contributors, letting them keep their ill gotten goods and idiocies. As head of the Executive Branch, they could simultaneously dismiss, with prejudice, all ongoing regulatory efforts and suits attempting to keep our air breathable, our water drinkable, our food edible and our goods safe to use. 8. Their spying on opposition leaders could find enough material to blackmail them into submission, although it appears that may have already happened. 9. Bush or Cheney could even initiate a coup to keep them selves in power by suspending the Constitution to “protect” us from “terrorists.” Granted, that is a lesser likelihood than some of the other scenarios mentioned above. But, what they have done already in emasculating the other branches of government will likely insure that future administrations of both parties will be able or at least attempt to be equally dictatorial as Chief Executive. Remember, if you don’t exercise a right like impeachment, it may be lost. And, if what has happened already at the instigation of Bush and Cheney doesn’t constitute the “high crimes and misdemeanors” test imposed the Constitution for impeachment, what would? 10. Or, they could drive us into a deadly recession or depression. Oops. It might be too late to prevent that one. Most important of all perhaps. If those two escape without punishment of at least some sort, it pretty much invalidates all that this country once stood for.
By Conservative Yankee, January 31 at 5:54 am # The thunderous applause every time he said five words was not politically scripted? Clip that address, and single out the faces of every man and woman clapping for this moron. Then if any of them run for any office above dog-catcher, give the clip to the opposition… The mistake was made long ago, and now we are on the wrong road.... We should have impeached the whole Republican leadership in ‘74....we’re about to make the same mistake again. Add Your Comment |
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UN Envoy Heads to Burma with Urgent Relief Message
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