In a sweeping rebuke of the Bush administration and his disastrous policies, America finally woke up, flushing out incumbent Republicans like a clogged toilet.
Yes, it took six years longer than necessary. Since Bush was appointed in 2000, it was easier to blame global perception of America on Florida and the Supreme Court, but after he was elected in 2004 (voting machine shenanigans notwithstanding) there was no excuse anymore. For better or worse, and it was quite obviously the latter, Bush represented America and he still does, despite this latest “political tsunami” as the midterm election has been characterized.
No one can deny the deliciousness of watching the smarmiest of repugnant hypocrites dropping like flies, over-fed on their own shit. The deserved demise of soon-to-be-former senators Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Conrad Burns of Montana, George Allen of Virginia, for instance, is priceless. Their self-righteous, Bush rubber-stamping, gay-bashing, mustang-murdering, race-baiting, religion-hijacking, troop-killing, privacy-interfering, self-centered days are numbered.
But, as with the pro-life Bob Casey who unseated Rick Santorum, and North Carolina’s Heath Shuler, a lot of these Democrats aren’t that fantastic. We don’t worship O.J. Simpson just because he isn’t Jeffrey Dahmer. And if the truth be told, the one thing President Bush did get right post-election, was that despite the sweeping change, the individual races were pretty damn close.
I voted this election, delighting in looking at senator Dianne Feinstein’s name of the ballot, considering her role in passing the ridiculously-termed Patriot Act, and despite her having never served in the military, co-sponsoring a flag-burning amendment antithetical to the free speech promised by the Constitution, and a kick in the face to the many who have died in pursuit of that freedom, and simply skipping over to the next race. No Dianne. Your liberal façade stinks a little too much. You haven’t earned my vote, and you don’t have it.
So let the Democrats – and those who aren’t, but are sickened enough by the Bush administration – enjoy a week or so of gloating. Relish the misfortune of the unseated and the displaced that can take their war-mongering corruption and shove it where it fits best, but don’t be lulled into a false sense of security that all is well.
Already, Karl Rove, the fat, unfaithful, divorced and remarried architect of the Bush presidency is blaming the gays – never mind that they’re their own, former congressman Mark Foley and former Pastor, Ted Haggard – for the election sweep losses, rather than Iraq and the administration’s prosecution of the war. Brace yourself for a lot more of that hate and invective. And despite everything, he’s still in a position to leak the names of covert CIA agents for political gain, especially given the absence of consequences.
And despite the fact that Donald Rumsfeld was sent packing along with his Abu Ghraib legacy to where old men die plagued by the ghosts of the evil they wrought, and Dick Cheney is forced to sit hunched like a beached whale whilst Nancy Pelosi sits perked up in her chair in the Oval Office, the damage done by this administration is so profound it will take decades to remedy.
The newly controlled House of Representatives and Senate has two years to do some major work for the Americans who elected them (and those stupid enough to have almost prevented it.) Here’s the list:
1. Take whatever measures that were implemented when Republicans were in the majority, that stripped the minority of any power or oversight function and that all but eliminated the system of checks and balances, and reinstate them, constitutionally if necessary, such that any attempt to override such provisions again would be tantamount to treason.
2. Hold hearings and prosecute the “rebuilding” of Iraq, with a strong focus on war profiteering, and if necessary, hold a referendum allowing the people to determine a punishment, even if the stink emanates strongest from the Vice President’s office.
3. Prevent maneuvers, as evidenced by former senator Conrad Burns’ ability to override the wishes of the people by sneaking language into legislation, and when remedied by congress itself, again overridden by Burns in his soon to be former position as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on the Interior.
4. Reinstate habeus corpus. We don’t lock up people without recourse on the whim of one man.
If the newly elected Congress does not implement all of these, they deserve to be thrown out in when the time comes as well. Dianne, Nancy, Jon, Claire, Joe, Sherrod, Sheldon, Jim, Bob, Hilary…the world is watching.
