The New Spirit of Bipartisanship

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The New Spirit of Bipartisanship:

KISS MY DONKEY!



I got your buttons, I got your cards, I got your snappy dark shirts, I have an absolute KILLER bumper-sticker - and they all are to make the same point, and that is this. Whether or NOT Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid wish to continue with "business as usual," business will NOT be as usual until certain messes are cleaned up.

A Constitutional Crisis trumps any amount of ambition for the first hundred hours. We want investigations, and we want those investigations to go where they go. Pelosi has to understand that if the evidence points to impeachable offenses, it's not the duty of the house to decide yae or nay to that. That is the duty of the Senate. First, they are first and foremost responsible to their constitutional oaths and offices. And second, this issue must be resolved, and resolved quickly.

I should add that until these issues are resolved, the Presidency itself is damaged.

There are a great many things George Bush has done that must be investigated, repudiated and repaired within the next two years, before inertia becomes tradition.

No future president should be permitted the latitude this president has been, we clearly need to solidly re-establish constitutional checks and balances. We also clearly need a constitutional amendment that puts individual privacy beyond dispute.

Congress must take back the powers stolen from it, and that means reviewing much of the legislation passed by the previous, rubber-stamp congress. It should be made clear that the president must respect and honor the will of Congress, or if he cannot, he must use his veto. His usage of signing statements can be, if need be, addressed by legislation and litigation.

But right now, we have a sitting president that has defied the constitution and international law in order to defend and indeed expand the use of torture. The only "bipartisanship" I'm able to stomach on this matter is a loud, bipartisan repudiation of the use of torture and a very serious investigation of the practices undertaken by this president.

Otherwise, one might reasonably think that the Democrats are as interested in seizing that power as the Republicans are, concentrating it in the Executive and using it to rule a new American Empire. I doubt very much that's a vision many of my right-wing colleagues would welcome and I'm certain that my fellow libertarians are solidly oppose d to that, whatever else we may disagree on. If it appears that Congress is unwilling to face the matter with courage and integrity, we in the net-roots will; by all means available to us.

Our reach becomes greater every day, our coalitions and alliances become more sophisticated, and for the most part they usually bypass the traditional fonts of power completely. You see, we don't need "access" to make our points. Nor do we need any great political machine, or boiler rooms filled with indoctrinated drones. We have RSS feeds and blogroll alliances for that, just to name a few little issues.

The growth of the netroots, of blogging and of the pervasive power of the Internet has been very unwelcome in the halls of power and certainly viewed with distrust and disdain by the Mainstream Media. We are not "managable." There are too many of us, with far too little individual power, wealth or access to be easily coerced.

Understand that my discomfort with the power wielded by Tom Delay against the interest of the American people is not allayed by that same power being in the hands of Nancy Pelosi. Congress needs to understand that in very large part, this result was due to an aroused, aware and extremely angry American people. We are by now pretty much immunised to political posturings, positionings, re-triangulations and symbolic gestures.

I want my representatives representing MY interests. They are not a wing of White House operations, and should not aspire to taking that power by taking the White House.

Right now, Democrats had better be concentrating on cutting Bush's balls off, to be blunt. He may be a lame duck, but he's not nearly lame enough for my taste. Well, actually, I'm all for a bipartisan effort in pruning back executive power. But I surely do not insist on it. I just think that it should be less difficult than Pelosi imagines to achieve that sort of bipartisanship, given the number of Republicans up for re-election in 2008.

As for the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, the senior senator from this great state of Nevada: A lot of us are not at ALL pleased with your efforts during this election. We are not pleased that Ensign is still the Junior Senator. We think you put politics above good policy, at the very least.

I'm thinking maybe you are too fond of the good old boy sort of politics, a little too comfortable inside the beltway, maybe a little bit out of touch with the fact that you are, in fact, our delegate and employee. I think those of us outside the realm of power politics have a better idea of the essentials than those tripping on the heady fumes of influence.

You have two years to either clean up this mess, or become inextricably identified with it. That is not a great deal of time, so you had best get busy. You have all the influence and power you need to do it, and a republican minority that would like very much to remain part OF a large and influential minority.

Having you as Majority Leader is only a source of prestige to our state if you are actually leading the Majority toward a re-establishment of proper, ethical, honorable and constitutional governance. If you are not - well, you may as well be Tom Delay.

This is a moment in political history as pivotal as was 9/11. Do not follow the example of George Bush and squander it to gain political objectives at the expence of this Constitutional Republic. The citizenry is beind you totally - but sir, we are behind you with fixed bayonets. Do not think that there is nearly the latitude for you that George Bush had. We are weary, impatient and cranky.

tag: Bipartisanship, Liberal, Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Democratic Majority, Impeachment, Impeach George Bush, Torture, Guantanamo, Illegal Wiretapping, Iraq.