Democrats heading towards defeat

In today’s Washington Post, Jonathan Weisman reports that Democrats just don’t see why their anti-Bush, anti-US, anti-National Security policies can’t get through the legislative process;

A growing clamor among rank-and-file Democrats to halt President Bush’s most controversial tactics in the fight against terrorism has exposed deep divisions within the party, with many Democrats angry that they cannot defeat even a weakened president on issues that they believe should be front and center.

The Democrats’ failure to rein in wiretapping without warrants, close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay or restore basic legal rights such as habeas corpus for terrorism suspects has opened the party’s leaders to fierce criticism from some of their staunchest allies — on Capitol Hill, among liberal bloggers and at interest groups.

Liberal bloggers and interest groups who are single-minded cattle and don’t have to get re-elected (the same goes for bloggers and interest groups on the Right, by the way) don’t understand why politicians, who do have to get reelected, don’t do their bidding?

Why would a Congressman in, say, Dakota, listen to what a blogger with a $12/month blog in, say, Washington State? Because the blogger calls him names? Threatens to use the two readers the blogger has in the congessman’s Dakota district withold their vote? Well, it’s the same with even big blogs like Kos or Huffington – yeah, they have a huge readership, but ultimately, whom do they truly influence? There’s a large number of people/voters who don’t even know what a blog is, for pete’s sake.

But the Democrat Party wants to formulate national security policy around the fickle desires of a few thousand nitwits who happen to have an extra $12 every month?

The American Civil Liberties Union is running Internet advertisements depicting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) as sheep.

“Bush wanted more power to eavesdrop on ordinary Americans, and we just followed along. I guess that’s why they call us the Democratic leadersheep,” say the two farm animals in the ad, referring to Congress’s passage of legislation granting Bush a six-month extension and expansion of his warrantless wiretapping program.

Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), who leads a newly created House select intelligence oversight panel, lamented, “Democrats have been slow to recognize they are in the majority now and can go back to really examine the fundamentals of what we should be doing to protect democracy.”

Protect Democracy? We have a responsibility to protect democracy from the actual enemies of Democracy who happen to be those 6th Century clowns who are hanging their men and stoning their women in public. Doesn’t that seem more important than worrying about if some NSA operator is listening to your kissy-face talk with your wife? Besides, no one is listening to your stupid phonesex calls – unless you’re having phone sex with Osama’s bodyguard. 

Said Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (Va.): “I would’ve thought the administration would have been bereft of credibility by now, but they seem to be able to get what they want from this Congress.”

So Moran woke up from his drunken stupor long enough to miscalculate the political climate, huh? Maybe, Moran, because you live in the echo chamber of Northern Virginia – inside the Beltway – you missed the fact that most Americans are still concerned about our security. Maybe the President isn’t “bereft of credibility by now” like you think. Maybe inside your echo chamber, but the rest of America knows that the attacks on us aren’t over and we don’t want to have to suffer through the weak-kneed responses to which we’ve grown accustomed with Democrats. The kind of responses which encourage more attacks.

Despite all of President Bush’s shortcomings, one thing is for sure; there haven’t been any attacks on American soil in nearly six years. Not that there won’t be one, but there haven’t been any recently – and a big reason there hasn’t is because the bad guys know the response won’t be a cruise missile fired at an empty tent.

Hmm, Bloodthirsty Liberal sees it my way, too in “Wiretapping or Toetapping“.

Category: Antiwar crowd, Foreign Policy, Politics, Terror War