"The other major reason I am voting in favor of Dr. Rice's nomination is that I am the Ranking Member of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee. In this capacity, I have a responsibility to work with the Secretary of State, on a daily basis .... I hope that Dr. [sic] Rice will meet me half way."
So Patrick Leahy, "liberal" Democrat from Vermont explains why he had to vote in support of Rice's appointment to Secretary of State. Because he's scared of her! Yet he didn't hesitate to outline the long list of reasons to vote against her, as if she's not going to hear about it.
One thing he mentioned is her inability, characteristic of all Bush loyalists, to admit mistakes. Yet he says she is "capable of learning from her mistakes and changing her ways." What mistakes? What would compel her to change, Pat? The only possible lesson, since she won't admit there are any mistakes to learn from, would have been to reject her nomination. She's a liar (not even a good one) and a bully, and Leahy hopes she'll meet him half way with the many issues he hopes to deal with. Has he learned nothing during the last 4 years?!!
What a loser! It won't be long before Leahy and the 31 other Democrats with him will be denying they made a mistake in approving Rice. Remember how Russell Feingold voted to send John Ashcroft's nomination for Attorney General to the full Senate? He said much of what Leahy said about Rice, that Ashcroft would rise to the challenge and they would work together happily and productively. Unfortunately, Ashcroft didn't respond to the magnanimous gesture and -- because of one idiotic Senator's vote (for which he never expressed regret) -- we got a taste again of the days of J. Edgar Hoover. Feingold at least now opposes Ashcroft's replacement with the even more odious Alberto Gonzalez, though now it won't make any difference. Leahy is voting against Gonzalez, too. Yet they'll have to work with him! What guts! Lest we get carried away by this example of integrity (watered down as it is by their mealy words of respect for this monster), take comfort that Feingold joined Leahy in the big bipartisan thumbs up to Rice.
Democrats shouldn't be talking about getting along with the mockery of a government that Bush represents. They should be talking about locking them all up in Guantánamo for the rest of their lives. Their guiding strategy should be obstruction, not collaboration.
But where do I think I am? We don't have a representative parliament. There is only one party, the plutocrats playing good cop bad cop in an expensive entertainment that is all the politics we get. Feh!
