April 5, 2007, Majoring in Recess
Recess appointments continue to be the President's favored way of "getting his team" on board (when other shady evasions of Senate confirmation aren't made available by sneaking them into the USA PATRIOT Act, such as with the recent U.S. Attorney scandal); in this case, the President makes three more recess appointments, led by Swiftboat Veterans for Truth contributor Sam Fox being appointed envoy to Belgium.
We shouldn't be all that appalled: sometimes, the Senate may miss out on the opportunity for great public servants, such as our recently "recess appointed" United Nations Ambassador John Bolton. Snarkiness aside, it reflects a fair degree of immaturity to get all that upset about these things: the issue isn't really which particular presidential cronies get to carry out the short-sighted, irresponsible and mean-spirited policies of the President, the issue really is those policies, and the short-sighted, irresponsible and mean-spirited President himself, rather than his supporting cast.
Honestly, getting upset about this nonsense is exactly El Presidente's game: that's how schoolyard bullies play. Sure, somewhere in or near the Oval Office Karl and Dubya are snickering over one-upping John Kerry by putting a Swift Boat funder into an Ambassador's position... but so what? What real difference does it make who the Ambassador to Belgium is? Rewarding big donors like Sam Fox is, and has always been, a Presidential perogative. So what of it?
Frankly, IMHO this is a pretty good move by the Bush team: this is the sort of nonsense that Democrats in "the base" get outraged about, and even left blogtopia (yiksctt) mistakenly jumps on (I realize that's what I'm doing... albeit for a different reason)... I'm saying: stop it. Let Bush have "his team"... God knows, the creeps and bastards like Monica Goodling and the rest of the Hitler/Robertson Youth who don't even need Senate confirmation are far more troubling, when you think about it. Honestly, regardless of their ideology, kids out of the Ivy League (or the Big Ten, or the A.C.C., etc.) at least have to show basic competence in something to get their degrees; kids out of Regent and Liberty and Messiah and Bob Jones and Patrick Henry and whatever other feeder schools feed Karl's "pander to the base" fast-track program... need only show loyalty to the Bush family, Macchiavellianism, and outward piety/inward corruption... a fairly lethal combination for "public servants".
So... ignore the recess appointments. We have no choice, anyway. What matters is blocking the more outrageous policies-- such as failing to take strong, positive action on global warming now that the Supreme Court has ordered the EPA in effect to take, to continue our outrageous detention policies, to start wars against new countries that pose no threat to us other than threats we manufacture, such as Iran or Syria, or further fiscal irresponsibility, or countless other bad policies.
Your parents' advice is still good: ignore the schoolyard bully, and pay attention to what's important.
Comments
TD You sound like you need to be chariman of the DNC.
I had the same ideas about this appointment myself, I really hope the democrats do not get caught up into this SWIFT BOAT AD.
It will show them as partisan bickers, not as problem solvers.
Posted by Dale J. Thomas at April 5, 2007 5:57 PM
TD:
I see you've posted the Bush Administration Countdown Clock. Oh, how I love sequels. That was brought to us by the same company that produced Anybody But Bush I. That's been wowing crowds since it hit theatres on January 20, 2005, starring John "I Have a Plan" Kerry. How's that administration been working out for you kids?
The funny thing is, but for a constitutional amendment, we would be having Anybody But Bush III going into production four years from now. The DNC still does not get it, and by the looks of things, we'll have more sequels than Rocky by the time they do. We have Dame Hillary running in a dead heat in her own blue state, which state normally goes at least 65% Democrat in national elections, against a Republican most Republicans don't like. She has Bill's money raising machine, but, as everyone is realizing, none of his leadership qualities (such as they were). You have the mysterious, until recently State Senator Obama, with no experience whatsoever, and the rest of the pack generally fumbling into some racist statement while dutifully praising him. And what else? Nothing and Nobody. No real position on any issue, foreign or domestic, except that "my driver's license does not say Bush." At least ABB-I had some surprising plot twists, and punchy dialogue. ABB-II looks like a tired rehash, unless maybe they can get Harrison Ford to shave the beard and drop a few pounds. But even old Harrison puts out some clunkers, like that straight to Blockbuster dud, "We Wuz Robbed" he starred in back in 2000.
Posted by Hep Cat at April 7, 2007 4:09 PM
Hep Cat:
WTF? Bush the Younger is constitutionally gone in, oh, 653, 654 days or so. Someone will replace him; right now, on the right, the Republicans have mau-maued the only candidate on their side with a snowball's chance in hell of winning, and St. John is busy bayonetting what's left of his own body! Mitt "Hitler's birthplace was taken so I did the next best thing and announced at Henry Ford's" Romney, polling at 3% while raising all the GOP money... isn't going to win any general elections. And as you said-- St. Rudy is more of a clown act. And don't either of us started on the Thompson twins (Fred and Tommy).
Meaning... whoever is left standing on the Democratic side-- (1) the fat, bearded guy with the Oscar who's still on the sidelines, (2) the affectless and unlikeable woman who still refuses to apologize for her complicity in that war that my state calls its junior senator, or (3) my extremely bright and articulate but thinly experienced college classmate whom Illinois calls its junior senator... will very likely get to replace Bush in 2009.
Positions, issues, etc., don't matter anymore: we now have a race to the bottom-- and the Republicans are running a much cleaner, smoother, faster race to it-- and will get to it much faster than the Democrats, even if Mrs. Clinton is at the head of the Democratic list.
Sorry-- but its the Republicans who are out of juice, and showed it in the 2006 midterms, which may well look like a high water mark for them compared with what's coming. Poppy and Jim Baker TRIED to throw them a life-line by letting them get out of Iraq with some honor and aplomb... but Dick Cheney wasn't done making money for Halliburton, so... well, you know the rest.
In short, things is so bad that even Hillary is downright electable.
Posted by the talking dog at April 7, 2007 9:13 PM
Hello TD, or is that PC?
My extremely bright and articulate but thinly experienced college classmate whom Illinois calls its junior senator...? Is Hilly not articulate? Or well mannered? Or clean, Mr. Biden?
And, as you and Obama used to say when you were romping around campus in your salad days: Midterms, Schmidterms.
A second term President always suffers these losses in the midterm elections. The Final Exam is the Presidential elections, and over the past 40 years, the Dems have not even earned a Gentleman's C.
They have one chance: The Fat Hirsute Man. But the Clinton money machine is working overtime to assure he won't step in, so we have only the Straw Man Obama against the Hillster, who is determined to become the first female candidate from a prominent party to lose a Presidential election.
Posted by Hep Cat at April 9, 2007 12:59 PM
Well, proof is in the electoral pudding. "Survivor: GOP" is looking like everybody from the Republican Tribe is going to be voted off the island long before the end of the season.
Posted by the talking dog at April 9, 2007 5:12 PM