Thanks to the folks at Think Progress, I’m watching video right now of Harry Reid shutting down the Senate and demanding a closed-door session to discuss why a Senate inquiry into the manipulation of intelligence leading us to war still hasn’t happened… Here’s a clip from the New York Times:
Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue.
“They have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican administration rather than get to the bottom of what happened and why,” Democratic leader Harry Reid said.
Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.
“The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership,” said Majority Leader Bill Frist. “They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas,” the Republican leader said….
As Reid spoke, Frist met in the back of the chamber with a half-dozen senior GOP senators, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas, who bore the brunt of Reid’s criticism. Reid said Roberts reneged on a promise to fully investigate whether the administration exaggerated and manipulated intelligence leading up to the war.
All I can say is it’s about fucking time the Senate Dems started showing some spine. They should have done this months ago, in the wake of the Downing Street Memo, when Conyers held his unofficial hearings in the House. And they should have made it a more prominant part of the ’04 presidential election. I’m just glad it’s finally happening now though. And it was particularly satisfying in that it was so well played. This subject needs to stay on the front page. We can’t afford to let it just fade away into the shadows with Libby.
I know it’s too much to ask, but what we really need is a Democratic leader who says, “I don’t care if it’s unpopular, and I don’t care if it means that I might not get re-elected, I’m going to tour the country and tell people what’s going on in Washington, how we were misled into war, and how the people of the United States are being manipulated by this administration and their extremist base.”
11 Comments
It’s about damn time…
The thing is, I don’t see how any politician at this point could see such a position as unpopular or likely to result in an election loss. On the other hand, maybe they are thinking the big special-interest dough wouldn’t be there if they were to criticize the war. (I assume Dems also get money from Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root, and the like. Maybe I’m wrong.)
My own personal best-case-scenario daydream involves millions of people with pitchforks and torches surrounding the White House.
I’ve always wanted to chase Rove through a misty marsh by torchlight?
Bush would more then likely survive and we would be introduced to his bride in the sequel.
-or-
Bush would survive to scare the pants off of Abbott & Costello.
If anyone saw Jon Stuart last night, it was absolutely breathtaking. I was especially mindboggled by the suggestion the Meirs was a deflection from what Fitzegerald nudged ever so gently down the pike.
In addition, he made me wonder if Meiers/Scalito was a debris sandwich for the scanty wad of meat that is pornmaster Libby’s indictment.
I also find the Senate shut down a beautiful sight not to be seen. Given the Republicans’ reaching hyperbolic responses to this whole mess, I wish to avoid seeing them essentially resort to lumbering about like apes grunting like simians who never made up the ladder of evolution (no wonder they are trying to deny its validity). The Dem shut down was so subtly finessed, its resultant invisible spectacle is awesome.
I was speaking with a mommy friend who some time ago was w/ Macneil/Lehrer report for almost a decade. Not that it was related but she was wondering how far away we are from actual civil unrest and if Americans can feel its potential imminence.
During a discussion of the state of American secondary education she stated that the slow erosion of trade schools in the country was a genius means of choking off trade unions. I was blown away by the obviousness of it. She would make a good communist leader if it wasn’t for her law degree and her position at HBO before she took leave to mommy.
Anyway…how bout we start burning crosses in right wing lawns and start w/ the one rightoutside of the oval house. WTF is a burning cross s’posed to symbolize anyway?
Divine retribution, I think.
(….I’m searching for video of last night’s Daily Show on-line.)
I actually think Bush would be really good in an Abbott and Costello movie. The thought of it puts a smile on my face.
(… still looking for that video)
IT is incredible. Reid deserves mad props for this move. I am impressed. What a whiny prig that Frist is! Hah!
I would love to see the pitchfork protest at the whitehouse, but they would probably arrest you for domestic terra-ism.
(If someone has some time and some photoshop skills, I’d like to commission an image of angry peasants surrounding the White House.)
Reid’s move was brilliant because it derailed their attempt to shift the national conversation toward Alito and away from the war, and the doctored intelligence that got us there. The big question, however, is, will the press stay on it tomorrow, and the next day. And, if not, does Reid have something else left in his bag of tricks?
And here’s the link to last night’s Daily Show segment with Senator Barbara Boxer. It’s all I’ve been able to find so far.
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/002546.html#002546