More on “No Confidence”.
If anything, this entire “no confidence” joke has done a bizarro version of what it was supposed to do, except instead of simply embarrassing the Republicans, it’s offended my intelligence in much the same way that the contortions over the Iraq supplemental bill did. As atrios put it, “don’t piss on my hat and tell me it’s raining.”
I do not know what the Democrats are thinking, but whatever it is, they are deluding themselves. The people who voted for the Democrats expected them to keep their promises: it is one thing to throw up your hands and say “What can we do, we are helpless in the face of the majority” when you are leading a superminority. It is quite another when you have a majority, even a slender majority, and especially so when the rules have been written that the Democrats maintain control of the Senate for the duration of the 110 Congress, even in the event of a Senator’s death or a party flip (I need someone to confirm this last bit for me, please do so in comments).
So far the excuses I have seen surrounding the capitulation on funding have been pathetic: boo hoo hoo, the White House might criticize us on Memorial Day Weekend. Instead of doing what they were elected to do, they bent over backwards, far enough to shove their heads up their own backsides, to pass a bill giving the Pweznit a blank check while pretending they weren’t. The shenanigans surrounding today’s “no confidence” vote are exactly the same: a big show to make it look like they were doing something, while allowing Mr. 28% to keep his corrupt attorney general in place, where he can continue to ruin the Department of Justice.
Over at firedoglake, commenter hugh pointed out that “It is still seen as politically more important to appear to address a problem rather than actually solving it.” He’s talking about biofuels, but it applies here as well.
I’m glad the no confidence vote failed, quite frankly: as my senior senator, the idiot Arlen Specter, said, the vote was “outright political chicanery”: what exactly would the Democrats do if they won their vote? It’s nonbinding, toothless, and purely symbolic: Bush would have ignored them, as he was going to do anyway. If the Democrats really meant to do anything about Gonzalez, they would have exercised their Constitutional duty, and impeached the son of a bitch. They probably would have lost, but it would have been an effort to accomplish something REAL, not this meaningless waste of time and money. Heck, if you want to waste my cash, why not hold votes wondering why birds sudenly appear, or declaring that breaking up is hard to do, and money can’t buy me love?
It’ll have the exact same effect, and look just as stupid.
3 Responses to “More on “No Confidence”.”
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June 11th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
You are right about the organziational rules for the 110 Congress keeping the Dems in power.
I do believe the vote has some significance in that it puts 37 Republicans and Lieberman on record for expressing confidence in Gonzales, and it does further isolate Fredo, but in general you are right on.
If you are going to take the time and energy to try and take down Fredo, then do it with something that has teeth.
June 12th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Maybe I’m dense, but I haven’t figured out why the Dems have picked this particular fight (Gonzales) as their centerpiece. There’s all sorts of stuff that plays better- Iraq, civil liberties, the economy…
Either the Dem brain trust has decided to play it inoffensive until the 08 race, or Karl Rove has a lot of interesting pictures.
The only allegory I can think of is about five minutes before the end of a slasher flick. The villain has hacked up all but one or two of the teenagers, and our remaining heroine has knocked out (but not killed) the villain. We all know that he’s going to get up one last time, only to be killed violently at the last second by an ally with effective firepower.
Here, the allies have shown up , with boom-sticks (a majority in both houses) , and they’re wringing their hands like they don’t have the power. Maybe they’re afraid of the message that using firearms would send to the children, or that cordite might smell bad.
I apologize if this doesn’t make sense, but I’m livid.
Instead here,
June 12th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
[...] have grown cynical and frankly hopeless about the future of the country, never mind the world. Yesterday I cited Hugh’s comment at FDL, “It is still seen as politically more important to appear to address a problem rather than [...]