Now what!

Posted on by lolits

We have the House. We have the Senate, although by a very narrow margin. Where do we go from here? Listening to progressive radio this week, I heard many callers who assumed that the first order of business would be impeachment, although Speaker-to-be Pelosi has said it’s off the table. The assumption is that she lied just as the administration has lied about so many things. Yech! If we don’t take the high ground now we’re as bad as the neocons. Pelosi has enumerated priorities. These are issues that should have been addressed in the last six years. We have two years to make some progress. If we waste this time on revenge we will be behaving like bratty kids. We have the upper hand, but we can count on it for a very limited time,? a circumstance? the Republicans? ignored to their peril. Plus, and this is very important, Bush is impeached; we get Cheney. We try to impeach both; we pretty much waste the whole of the two years we have. Do they deserve impeachment? I think so! Do we deserve the results of an impeachment attempt? No way! Maybe we could try it if we could count on having the six years they had, but we can’t count on more than two. We had better make the most of them.

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Dobson Sounding Haggard

Posted on by TL

Dr. James DobsonMega-Christian James Dobson, one of the saved, said this week that he ‘doesn’t have time’ to be on the panel of Christian experts involved in working to restore disgraced preacher Ted Haggard. Dobson is the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. Dobson said in a prepared statement:

“It is with great regret – and after much prayer and discussion with friends and family – that I have had to reconsider my involvement in the panel overseeing Ted’s restoration. Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help, but the reality is I don’t have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility. Ted and his family will be better served by someone whose energies and attention are not tugged on in quite so many directions.”All of us at Focus on the Family will continue to pray for Ted and Gayle and their children. I certainly hope to speak with him – friend to friend – as he moves forward. And I believe if he and his loved ones follow the counsel of Godly mentors and cooperate with the therapeutic process, their best days are ahead.”

The team plans to get Haggard into a program with psychologists and church experts on sexual issues.

Well, that should be fun.

Dobson’s too busy fuming about the elections this week. Quoth he:

“Laura Ingraham said it best. When Congressional Republicans wait until the First of October to begin reaching out to their base, they are destined to lose. That was the GOP’s downfall. They consistently ignored the constituency that put them in power until it was late in the game, and then frantically tried to catch up at the last minute. In 2004, conservative voters handed them a 10-seat majority in the Senate and a 29-seat edge in the House. And what did they do with their power? Very little that Values Voters care about.

“Many of my colleagues saw this coming. I said in an interview with U.S. News and World Report shortly after the 2004 elections, “If Republicans in the White House and in Congress squander this opportunity, I believe they will pay a price for it in four years—or maybe in two.” Sadly for conservatives, that in large measure explains what happened on Tuesday night. Many of the Values Voters of ’04 simply stayed at home this year.

Must be tough to be so right all the time.

Hastert Set to Resign from Congress?

Posted on by TL
House Speaker Dennis Hastert

Rumor has it from some very well-placed sources in the 14th district in Illinois that House Speaker Dennis Hastert plans to resign from the United States Congress soon. If he does so within the next 9 months, a special primary will be held, and the Democrats will have another chance to take the district.

John Laesch has already been told that he will not be the man.

And the Associated Press reports that Democrats now have complete control of the United States Congress. Webb has won in Virginia.

The sun also rises.

Donkey in the sun

Rumsfeld resigns – Getting out of Dodge?

Posted on by TL
Donald Rumsfeld

CNN reports that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said Wednesday. President Bush is expected to make an announcement later on today.

Would the Republicans have lost Congress if Rummy had resigned last week?? Or last month?? Or last year?? Was it really worth it for the president and Dick Cheney and Karl Rove to keep him around so long?

Is Rumsfeld “getting out of Dodge” because of all of the investigations to come in a Democratic-controlled House, and possibly Senate? Does the president have plans for a presidential pardon for Rummy in two years or sooner?

There are three things that happened yesterday:

1. The nation spoke. Well, the nation actually roared its disapproval of the president’s policies.
2. The Democrats won, fair and square.
3. And the Republicans lost miserably, all by themselves, on every front. The Republicans lost on the foreign affiars front. The Republicans lost on the moral front. The Republicans lost on the domestic front.

And the sun rises.

Cheney Defiant

Posted on by TL

Dick CheneyIn an appearance this morning on ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Vice-President Dick Cheney was quick to mention 9/11, the War on Terror, and gave strong indication of how he would relate to a Democratic-controlled Congress. If served a subpoena, he would refuse to comply.

Cheney said the administration is moving “full speed ahead” with its policy on the war in Iraq.

“We’ve got the basic strategy right,” Cheney told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that was broadcast Sunday on “This Week.”

ABC News reports on the most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll which shows 57 percent of Americans said that the war was not worth fighting. The poll also showed President Bush’s job approval rating dropped to 37 percent, the second-lowest mark of his presidency.

Cheney said that even with most pollsters predicting that Democrats would gain seats in both houses of Congress, voter sentiment would not influence Bush’s Iraq policy.

“It may not be popular with the public — it doesn’t matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think is right. And that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Cheney said. “We’re not running for office. We’re doing what we think is right.”

Dick Cheney: staying the course.

Hypocrisy

Posted on by lolits

The Haggard mess is just another example of right wing hypocrisy. The religious wrong preaches drivel that would be laughable if people didn’t take them so seriously. The saddest part of all this is that the more liberal main stream churches are so timid about refuting the evangelicals misinterpretations of the Bible. It is so the right time to give up on guns and gays and begin to preach that peace and social justice are what Jesus taught. Old Testament – “Thou shat not”. New Testament – “Blessed are they…”

Looking Haggard and Drawn

Posted on by TL

Ted HaggardThis story adds a new category to Turning Left: Evangelicals. And this story fits nicely into three categories: Evangelicals, Republicans, and GLBT.

By now Ted’s story is well known. George W. confidant, president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, the largest evangelical group in America, a man who wielded influence on Capitol Hill and condemned both gay marriage and homosexuality, resigned on Thursday after a male prostitute reported that he had drug-fueled trysts with Haggard.

Haggard, who is also founder and senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a man of truth to the last, admits to receiving a massage from Jones after being referred to him by a Denver hotel, and that he bought meth for himself from the man. However, he says he never had sex with Jones, and never used the drugs. “I was tempted, but I never used it,” the 50-year-old Haggard told reporters from his vehicle while leaving his home with his wife and three of his five children.

Jones, who advertises himself as an escort only in gay publications or on gay web sites, scoffed at the idea that Haggard learned of him through an employee at a hotel. “No concierge in Denver would have referred me,” he said.

Haggards web site boasts of his popularity with the media, securing his place as a true leader in the Evangelical community:

Pastor Ted has been interviewed by Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Bill O’Reilly, Chris Matthews, and more. Time included Pastor Ted in their list of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. Harper’s says, “No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted.”

Any day, perhaps, but today. AP reports, “Jones did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press on Friday.”

Kerry Apologizes. Boehner pulls, well…, a Boehner

Posted on by TL

John Kerry apologized today for his “botched joke” today. All that fuss because he left out the word “us” from his planned speech:

“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.”

That was the planned statement, and he’s said it many times in previous speeches. This time, however, he botched it.

U.S. Newswire reports that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid released the following statement on House Majority Leader John Boehner’s decision to blame the troops for Republican failures in Iraq.

“John Boehner ought to be ashamed. He’s blaming our troops for failures in Iraq. If he wants to cast blame, he can start by looking in the mirror because he and his Congressional Republican colleagues have rubberstamped the Bush Administration’s failed policy for nearly four years. Our troops in Iraq have performed bravely. It’s political leaders like Congressman Boehner and Donald Rumsfeld, who have failed. I expect President Bush and Congressional Republicans, who demanded John Kerry apologize, hold their own party’s majority leader to a much higher standard. There’s no spinning his disparaging comments. He made them. He needs to apologize.”

The remarks?

House Majority Leader John Boehner: Wolf, I understand that, but let’s not blame what’s happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld.

Wolf Blitzer: But he’s in charge of the military.

House Majority Leader John Boehner: But the fact is the generals on the ground are in charge and he works closely with them and the president.

Boehner should be House Majority Leader for a few more days. After that, well, let’s see what happens Tuesday.

In the meantime, since Republicans are always poised to “Swift boat” Democrats for every grammatical error, let’s not forget the education president, father of No Child Left Behind, and enjoy these priceless gems from U.S. Commander in Chief, the POTUS himself, George W. Bush:

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George Bush at signing of defense appropriations bill, August 5, 2004

“I mean, if you’ve ever been a governor of a state, you understand the vast potential of broadband technology, you understand how hard it is to make sure that physics, for example, is taught in every classroom in the state. It’s difficult to do. It’s, like, cost-prohibitive.”

Washington, D.C., June 24, 2004

“I’m honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein.”

Washington, D.C., May 25, 2004

“The illiteracy level of our children are appalling.”

Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

And, perhaps the greatest testimony to his presidency:

“I’m the master of low expectations.”

Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003

What a country.