Rove just told Bush that the Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives. All their denials of the obvious fact in recent weeks turn out to verify Weathervane Woodward’s latest title.
The real question has been how the administration would react to a situation that requires coöperation. Even the normally supine media has recently put that question to administration spokesmodels, who simply denied the possibility. I was reminded of other, earlier, denials.
Some neocons began agitating inside the Bush administration to support some kind of insurrection, led by Chalabi, that would overthrow Saddam. In the summer of 2001, the neocons circulated a plan to support an INC-backed invasion. A senior Pentagon analyst questioned whether Iraqis would rise up to back it. “You’re thinking like the Clinton people,” a Feith aide shot back. “They planned for failure. We plan for success.”
Well, here we are, and the plans for success, in Iraq as well as the election, have failed. Irrefutably. Facts, it turns out, do matter. How will the administration react?
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the outcome of the elections, in which Democrats were projected to win control of the House and pick up several Senate seats, was “not what we would’ve hoped.”“But it also gets us to a point: Democrats have spent a lot of time complaining about what the president has done. This is an opportunity for them to kind of stand up,” Snow said.
Yes, an opportunity to stand up and admit that they’ve been wrong all along, and the President’s lies, failed wars, and disdain for the Constitution have been right. I expect the Democrats have been itching for a chance to stand up and show their support for the President.
“Now, one of the things is both parties have got a lot work to do,” Snow said. “The president has got a very active agenda for the next two years and you’re going to need both parties. There has to be a calculated decision by the Democrats.”
Indeed: do the Democrats, and the people who voted them into control of the House despite the best gerrymandering efforts of the DeLay Republic, stand with the President or against him?
The numbers are clear.
It boggles my mind that the Administration is trying so hard to push responsibility back onto the Democrats. This is the "responsibility Administration?" This is the bunch that did their very best to *permanently marginalize* the Democratic party, and has all but ignored them for the last six years. But now, oh no, now that they've had their rears handed to them, now that Chuck Schumer whipped Karl Rove in a fight (and not even a *fair* fight; it wasn't Schumer's folks who were doing the last minute robo-calling, or who had Saddam's verdict witheld for a few weeks until just before election day, etc. etc.), now that America has gone to the polls and given them their "accountability moment," they don't want it. They want to give it back. They want to turn it over to someone else.
How just like this Administration to not want to take responsibility for anything. But while I don't have a lot of faith in the Democrats' ability to be canny politicians collectively, I *do* have a lot of faith in a grumpy New York senator like Schumer shoving this one right back in Tony Snow's heavy made-up and perfectly-coiffed face.
Nice try, guys. But you got us into this damn mess, so you're going to have to take some responsibility for it. Welcome back to the "reality-based" world. Best of luck with it.
Posted by: Doug Moran on November 8, 2006 9:35 AMWell said, Chuck, and congratulations on getting this post up at the top of today's Daou Report!
Oh, it's just a celebratory day all around, isn't it? Weeeee!!!
Posted by: Generik on November 8, 2006 11:11 AM