Dems In Disarray

John Hawkins has a Q and A version of a recent conference call which included bloggers and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McQ of the Q and O blog was on the call as were others. Senator McConnell gave the impression of being a very candid and approachable Senate Leader and I found that refreshing. The following report involves issues in which I was most interested, I'd encourage you to see Right Wing News for the rest.

One house keeping item, Senator McConnell stated that recent reports of the Senate not shifting were a Democrat to switch parties are basically wrong. Were a Dem Senator to switch, he believed the Senate would re-organize. Appropriately, he said he could not speak for Senator Joseph Lieberman, but I don't believe anyone on the call came away with the impression that a party switch was in the offing in that regard.

The Dems are caught between their Far Left base and serious political concerns over any movement to actually de-fund the war. You could almost sense McConnell's frustration with resolution after resolution being brought forward and then dropped by the Dems, as they simply don't have a consensus on much of anything within their ranks when it comes to Iraq.

Senator McConnell seemed to perceive it as almost incomprehensible that the Senate, or the Congress as a whole, should do anything like try to micro-manage an ongoing war. It's most likely unconstituional and clearly impractical. And other than Senator Feingold and some few others, the Dems do not appear to have anything close to the number of votes required to actually de-fund the war.

McConnell specifically mentioned this article by Charles Krauthammer and went on to make the point that, were the Congress to try and micro-manage the war, General Petraeus would need to consult a team of lawyers every time he wanted to plan a new mission - all to ensure he was complying with a plan cobbled together by 500 plus individuals not in Iraq, with many not even committed to winning.

My own sense is we are going to continue to see a lot of fluff and nothing from the Democrats as they posture for average voters while preening for their far Left base without accomplishing anything substantive until the next appropriations bill comes due next month. That could end up being put up or shut up time for the Democrats in Congress and their anti-war base.

Immigration reform and Health care also came up briefly, you can read those bits at RWN's.

Comments

[Jeff]

As long as BS (Barbara Streisand) is happy, the DNC thinks they are doing everything right... As long as the Goerge Soros checks keep pooring in... it's all good.

[scarshapedstar]

"As long as BS (Barbara Streisand) is happy, the DNC thinks they are doing everything right... As long as the Goerge Soros checks keep pooring in... it's all good."

It really is like the 2006 elections simply didn't happen for you 28 percenters, isn't it?

[seekeronos]

"It really is like the 2006 elections simply didn't happen for you 28 percenters, isn't it?"

Bite thy tongue, heathen! We are the 55%ers now.

[Rob Kaufman]

Sure you are seek, keep telling yourself that and at least one idiot will believe it.

[scarshapedstar]

34%ers, maybe. At least that's Bush's current approval. It's dropping again, though.

[Mike S]

John Cole was right about you.

[Jeff]

Look at who has had a grip on US politics since LBJ was disgraced - I mean decided not to run.

1968-1976: GOP
1980-1992: GOP
2000-2008: GOP

1976-1980: Anti-zionist coalition.. I mean DNC
1992-2000: Whitewater murder corps... again, I mean DNC

So 12 years for the DNC, and 18 for the GOP...

Since 1980 the GOP has had Senate Control for 14 and the DNC for 10 years

And then from 1980 to 2006 the dems have had control of the House 16 out of 24 years

Oh how I yearn to remember what being in control is!

[Dan Riehl]

"John Cole was right about you"

That would depend on what the CS'er had to say. I thought he had gotten help for his obsession.

[Purple Avenger]

Yea, but he's off his meds again ;->

[Phoenix]

"But instead of making a contribution to thinking through how the war should be either prosecuted or liquidated, they negotiate language that provides precisely the amount of distancing a senator might need as political insulation should the surge either succeed or fail." (Krauthammer)

Does this make you sick or what?

[scarshapedstar]

Wow, that's really something, Jeff. So what did you guys accomplish? Looking over the Texas GOP state platform (a laundry list of conservative goals, if there ever was one) it looks like you guys sat on your thumbs.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_06/004089.php

Things the GOP hasn't done, which it quite explicitly states as its goals:

- Abolish the Federal Reserve
- Ban abortion / repeal the Bill of Rights
- Do away with separation of church and state
- Criminalize gay sex
- Treat all gays like sex offenders
- Replace evolution with creation in all science classes
- Abolish social security
- Abolish the federal income tax
- Abolish the federal minimum wage
- Eliminate the EPA, HUD, HHS, ATF, Surgeon General, and Departments of Energy, Education, Commerce, and Labor
- Leave the UN
- Invada Panama (again)

These aren't new ideas, either. So far you guys have made a whole new bureaucracy (!) and that's about it.

Bragging about controlling a do-nothing Congress is like bragging about sitting on the bench your whole career. Congratulations, schlubs.

Oh, and by the way, since we will still be in Iraq come November 2008, any Republican campaign is going to be an absolute train wreck. Even one ran by a drag queen.

[templar knight]

Baloney, I'm a Texas Republican, and no one I know would go along with most of this. I will say that, just like with the Left, the goofs tend to be the most activist. But we could take the looney left and come up with all sorts of stupidity. I think we see that here every day.

And scar is hardly a seer, and there is no telling what might happen in Iraq, Iran or elsewhere that could determine any election that far off. And you would know about drag queens, I'm sure, scar.