PBS will focus on Darth Vader in a new Frontline documentary, “Cheney’s Law,” beginning tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9 PM ET.
For three decades, Vice President Dick Cheney has waged a secretive and often bitter battle to expand the power of the presidency. Now in a direct confrontation with Congress, as the administration asserts executive privilege to head off investigations into domestic wiretapping and the firing of U.S. attorneys, FRONTLINE meticulously traces the behind-closed-doors battle within the administration over presidential power and the rule of law.
The program will also be available for online viewing.
Lindsey Graham and John McCain attacked Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez for comments he made regarding the Bush administration’s incompetence at the Military Reporters and Editors meeting last week.
Time for another Congress to pass another “Shame On You For Attacking The Troops And Military Leaders” resolution.
House and Senate Republicans are preparing for a fight this week over what rules should apply to the government’s wiretapping and surveillance programs, happily accepting the decision by House Democrats to shift some public attention, at least temporarily, away from the children’s health insurance debate.
With the short-term extension of FISA, which was passed in August, set to expire in February, Democrats are moving forward with a legislative package that includes constraints on surveillance, which certainly will prompt a veto from President Bush.
But unlike Bush’s veto of the SCHIP bill — which was supported by a number of Republicans in the House and Senate and subsequently has caused significant heartburn for in-cycle GOP incumbents — Republicans are much more comfortable backing Bush on national security
“On this kind of veto we have a chance to win because it’s national security,” a Senate GOP leadership aide said, adding that Senate Republican Conference Chairman Jon Kyl (Ariz.) is taking the lead on the issue in that chamber.
A House GOP leadership aide agreed, arguing that Republicans have much better “branding” on national security issues.
Specifically, Republicans are planning to use the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three U.S. soldiers in Iraq earlier this year to put a “human face” on the issue, the House staffer explained. According to this aide, while Democrats’ arguments about privacy may resonate with some voters, Republicans believe using real-world examples of how a weak FISA has put U.S. troops in danger will help galvanize public support for their position.
“We’re content to have the Democrats make these abstract and obtuse privacy arguments,” the aide said. “As long as we make this debate … about real world, human examples,” Republicans believe they can maintain party discipline on Bush’s veto and effectively fight Democrats in the public arena.
How dare the Democrats be concerned with such pedestrian matters as the Constitution, and more specifically the Fourth Amendment? Better still, why doesn’t Congress just move promptly ahead with what Dick Cheney wants most — abolish Article I of the Constitution. It’s been nothing but a thorn in his side ever since the Democrats took control of Congress in January.
A recent meeting between the White House Propaganda Dispensers and their GOP congressional counterparts provides ample evidence of what is most important to Republicans — Party Over Country and getting reelected. In fact, one could easily posit that Republicans could care less about actually resolving the issues. Instead, the critical issues we face today — Iraq, providing health care to children, and putting White House felons in jail — are simply pieces in a chess game.
This is what the NYT reported about their recent meeting.
Under fierce attack on children’s health insurance, beset by politically inconvenient retirements and uncertain if another scandal lurks around the corner, Congressional Republicans are feeling a bit under siege as even one of their former leaders predicts 2008 could be a Democratic year.
The twist is that the issue Republicans had feared most in the fall, the war in Iraq, has played out legislatively in their favor for the moment. In concert with the White House, Congressional Republicans say they were able to execute a strategy built around the testimony of General David H. Petraeus that allowed them to forestall Democratic calls for troop withdrawals and hold the party together on the war at a crucial turn.
But Republicans say they have lacked a similar cohesive plan to counter the Democratic assault over the children’s health insurance program that will be the subject of a veto override vote in the House on Thursday. President Bush’s veto of an expansion of that program and the strategic failure have exposed vulnerable Republicans to a backlash and allowed the party to be painted as uncaring.
As a result, Republicans have been scrambling for a health care response at a time when they had hoped to be pounding Democrats over excessive spending and re-establishing their image as the party of fiscal restraint.
How obvious is that? Top priority - use Gen. Petraeus as a political pawn to thwart Democratic efforts to end the war.
Moreover, when Bush’s veto portrayed them as uncaring, did they immediately begin developing a productive counter-proposal that would accommodate the health care needs of children and possibly ameliorate their tarnished image? Absolutely not. Instead, Mitch McConnell’s office resorted to the Rove Doctrine and began a smear campaign against a twelve-year-old boy.
There has been a glaring, unfortunate, display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders. As a Japanese proverb says, “action without vision is a nightmare.” There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight.
Since 2003, the politics of war have been characterized by partisanship as the Republican and Democratic parties struggled for power in Washington. National efforts to date have been corrupted by partisan politics that have prevented us from devising effective, executable, supportable solutions. At times, these partisan struggles have led to political decisions that endangered the lives of our sons and daughters on the battlefield. The unmistakable message was that political power had greater priority than our national security objectives….There is nothing going on today in Washington that would give us hope.
While no one could rightfully argue that Democrats are above reproach, there is overwhelming evidence that proves the Republican priorities are Party Over Country, Protect the President, and thwart any Democratic efforts to end the war in Iraq.
In every opening session, Members of Congress pledge allegiance to the Flag, but do they honor that pledge in word and deed?
I pledge allegiance to the Flag, of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Barack Obama nailed it when he said pinning a flag on the lapel of one’s jacket does not make that person a patriot.
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