Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Poor Prospect

I was all set to post my take on the domestic intelligence hearings last night when blogger went down. I read Glenn Greenwald, Firedoglake, Digby, Dkos, FirstDraft, Talkleft and all the rest.

In a nutshell, I think this is a setup to get the Democratic Senators to follow Specter's lead just far enough down the road to be totally committed before he reveals his GOP toadiness and leaves them hanging out to dry. They will be painted as Osama supporters and unwilling to make the hard choices necessary to defend America from the terrible threat of terrorism.

The Dems lost the initiative when they didn't walk out of the hearings in protest over not having Gonzales sworn in. That was a pivotal moment and perfect for the political theatre needed in this situation. On the whole the Democratic team did all right but not great and even some of the GOP Senators were effective (Sessions et al notwithstanding).

A special point should have been made by all the Dems and continually reinforced that this was not about the war on terror but about the rule of law.

Finally, Darksyde at Kos takes the time to remind us that the constant flaunting of 9/11 by the GOP stooges is stupid when put into its proper perspective. It's a point that we all need to reinforce at every opportunity.

And don't miss Digby's post which says in effect and in a much more polite way that basically the GOP will once again castrate themselves for Bush.

Needless to say I don't hold out much hope for the outcome of these hearings. The American people will not be served and Bush and company will have moved their fascist state forward once again.

No comments: