Game Over!Yesterday, Senator Joe Biden got out in front of the political consciousness in this country when excerpts of an interview he gave hit the Washington Post. Biden said,
I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost. They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up. I am not being facetious now. Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy -- literally, not figuratively.Biden went on to say that Vice President Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
There is nothing a United States Senate can do to stop a president from conducting his war. The only thing that is going to change the president's mind, if he continues on a course that is counterproductive, is having his party walk away from his position.
. . . . are really smart guys who made a very, very, very, very bad bet, and it blew up in their faces. Now, what do they do with it? I think they have concluded they can't fix it, so how do you keep it stitched together without it completely unraveling?Senator Biden has seen through the fog in our
The Situation In Iraq Is Grave And Deteriorating...I'll try to explain this in terms all Americans can understand, especially in this season.
The president is still playing political football with this war. He's now in the final quarter and cares nothing about the score. (Many would contend he has never known the score.) Bush wants only to end the game with the ball in his possession.
The game is lost. Bush is fighting off those who could 'call the game' before our team gets further behind. He wants to call the plays and be The Decider all the way to the end. 'Stay the course' is a devious strategy, not a game plan; Bush's quarter-backing is all about him and his legacy; it is a urge to run out the clock with the ball in his possession.
It's literally the 4th quarter in this game. He's still on his own 20th yard line in the Iraq bowl. He's planning on being granted (even more) first downs by the media and congress until the end of his term. Just grant him one more 4-month benchmark here and another 6-month benchmark there. This 'surge' play is just another incomplete 'hail mary' pass designed to win another time-out.
How much longer are we American spectators expected to stay in our seats, watching more of our brave players be carried off this unlevel field and
writing new checks (our children are expected to pay) to cover the rising price of our continued attendance at this charade? This incompetent quarterback and his discredited coaches, having no more plays in their playbook, are not going to make anymore progress on the field. His only 'plan' has to be blaming the outcome of this game on the next quarterback in the next game.He wants Hillary, Obama, or Wesley to get the blame for 'losing Iraq'. That's what the next 1,500 American KIA's in the next two years will be all about.
The question is how many of us are going to stand around and serve as 'enablers' to this criminal misuse of office?
Biden's comment about Cheney's awareness intrigues me. Is this a hyperbolic guess on the Senator's part (typical of Biden)? Or does he really know something from the back channels?
ReplyDeleteClever! Very clever.
ReplyDeleteI really hate Biden.
ReplyDeleteYes the same guy that was calling for more troops and equipment a bit ago, and we would win the 'war'. He is indeed the essence of a Politician , with his totally situational cares. He is an absolute phony and always has been from the start of the war period and now.
And here he is saying that the Congress can do absolutely nothing.
Bush`s party walk away from him.?
Bush like Biden and Nancy , and the others have been bought and paid for by special interest groups long ago.
Clever very Clever , just the amount of stupidity that a comment by a underhanded , manipulative , self serving , bought up , political operative can generate in a non issue kind of way.
Emily, I think Biden will appear on Meet the Press tomorrow. If so, he definitely will be asked that question. Stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteFor years Bush and Cheney have been writing checks they can't cash to cover the war. Now, along come McCain and Lieberman calling for more troops we don't have. These guys are gamers - gaming in blood - gambling that they can make credible claims on 'defeatocrats' in 2012.
ReplyDeleteMaureen Dowd (Today):
ReplyDeleteArthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher who said a man can do what he wants but cannot will what he wants, would have understood W.’s nonsensical urge to Surge.
I wouldn't say I "hate" Biden, I've always seen him as kind of a non-entity...he simply is not that bright.
ReplyDeleteThat in itself wouldn't make him a non-player (didn't stop Bush,eh?)but he doesn't have any support.
Nice of him to speak out on this epiphany he's had, he's a little slow on the uptake as usual, but still nice.
Now everyone cross your fingers and hope something happens to stop this airhead from running in '08 and screwing with the primary vote.
The game has turned from the nail biter to the hair puller a long, long time ago.
ReplyDeleteHome crowd is ever increasingly booing the non performance by the quarter back with the offensive linemen feeling that they can't keep the opposing team sacking this lead footed play maker too much longer. Poor receivers haven't touched the ball in ages and the coaches are hiding in the locker room. Somebody, anybody, please, find the utility room and pull the power switch and turn the lights off!
I am puzzled by some of these comments, e.g. "hyperbolic" "airhead" "underhanded" "manipulative" and etc.
ReplyDeleteJoe Biden excoriates the Bushmaster et al for his [tentative] plans, i.e. Iraq. Instead of applauding Biden's courage the left of the rest choose instead to criticize his comments. I don't get that! Why don't we applaud him?
I read something once about a "house divided against itself cannot stand..."
It would be nice to see all of the faithful on the same page, at least once. Way to go Joe. All Democrats are not quite as confused as some on this board.
This comment is addressed to NY Mama and M Mike:
ReplyDeleteIMO Joe Biden, like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, make excellent senators. They probably would make passable presidents, compared to what we've had for the last half decade, any way. But they would make bad presidential candidates. Attacking the Wehrmacht in the next two years is a responsibility that falls on Congress. These Senators, especially, should not have that role compromised by rumors of presidential aspirations. In a ideal world, congressional Democrats should play as a team and sacrifice their individual ambitions for the good of the country.
P.S.: I left Barak Obama off that list deliberately.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats are as big a group of price system flunk`s and losers as Repubs any day of the week.
ReplyDeleteI don`t think you players really understand what is going on , do you.?
You are brainwashed.
We do not live in a Free country.
Haven`t for a long time.
the Media is controlled , 1984 style, and the so called alternative media is just as controlled and brainwashed in their own fashion , as the mainstream media that you listen to.
Most of the Banter here is very anti-intellectual in the sense that brainwashed automaton talk is not that interesting.
Kudos though to Pekka , and Not Your Ma Ma. You two are bright.~!~
Most of the rest of you are political hacks that could not think your way creatively out of a paper bag.
The United States of Amnesia.
Snore.
Many moons ago I actually thought highly of Biden. My impression of him has been slipping for quite a while.
ReplyDeleteLet me try to correct the second paragraph of his statement:
"There is nothing a United States Senator, by him/herself, can do to stop a president from conducting his war. The only thing that is going to change the president's mind, if he continues on a course that is counterproductive, is having his party walk away from his position. That said, the most efficient way to get the President's party to walk away and disavow his position is for an informed populous to stand up and speak out. Without such leadership from the governed, new decisions from the decider will not be decided.
Or something like that. His statement sounds rather defeatist to me -- as if we have no choice but to stay on the ride until 1-20-09. I don't think the time is to sit back and despise the ride while watching the NFL Playoffs. The political season 2007 is just getting started, and its a new playing field.
The rest of you all know more than I do of who said what when. I'm in my short-memory stage of life. But the people who really got me riled today were war-hero presidential-hopeful gung-ho-for-more-war Sen. John McCain and his faithful stooge Sen. Joe Lieberman.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree that Biden's simple statement of the obvious, "We've lost," is actually a quite remarkable, even brave thing to say. He could have added a lot of hadging and nuance, but he didn't, at least in the excerpts. But the comment at the end - that the Senate can do nothing to end the war - shows such a constitutional ignorance that it shocks the imagination that he is a U.S. Senator. The Senate, of course, could vote tomorrow to stop funding the war effort.
ReplyDeleteIn truth, I've thought for years that it would be more accurate and honest not to use the vocabulary of winning/losing. It seems we "won" against the nation of Iraq in a few mere months. Since then, the question is not winning and losing but doing harm and doing good. But since it seems that ship has sailed, I'll gladly take Biden's level of honesty and not quibble about vocabulary.
MadMike: I'm not unhappy about what Biden said, simply not overwhelmed. One more voice certainly doesn't hurt anything though.
ReplyDeleteMessenger: ditto on that. My left butt cheek would be a better president than what we've had though. We may have to settle.
LittleBill: John McCain would make me angry if I didn't believe he was further into his short-memory stage of life than you could possibly be.
Pekka, thanks for responding to my football allegory. I was expecting you to shitcan it. You never fail to surprise me, man. If I come to visit you in Finland, I know you won't let me get into any fights you can't finfish.
ReplyDeleteMama (I still don't know how to address you), that was a cool thing to say in behalf of my pal Lil'Bill.
And, Newt, I agree that your re-write of Biden's remarks is an improvement. Let's see what he does to fill in the gaps tomorrow on Face-the-Nation.
Michael E, thanks for your contribution. You seem to agree with my long term statement about Iraq: Wars are won or lost (mostly lost); we already won the war in Iraq; occupations are neither won nor lost but eventually ended with varying degrees of pain; and it's time we ended our current occupation.
I'm sure I will be corrected on the above summations!
The game is lost and the American people are booing loudly in the stands but the coaches on the sidelines refuse to remove the q.b. and his star running back from the game. Incredible!
ReplyDeleteListening to Joe Biden talk is about as interesting as watching paint dry on a cold damp day.
ReplyDeleteFrom Frank Rich this morning:
ReplyDeleteContemplate as well Gerald Ford's most famous words, spoken as he assumed the presidency after the Nixon resignation:
"Our Constitution works; our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule."
This time the people do not rule. Two months after Americans spoke decisively on Election Day, the president is determined to overrule them.
Our long national nightmare in Iraq, far from being over, is about to get a second wind.
Maybe some other Generals could Play their parts in this coming drama.?
ReplyDeleteBesides General Betray-us & General Fall-on , or Fall-out.?
Could it be , that Food-Blogger makes a point here , and events may unfold that will make this stark reality more a possibility.?
The Dethroning of a certain Bush, and the attempt to wrest the government away from Special Interests that have captured it some time ago.?
And what about General Fall-outs Naval experience that would imply a certain something may happen in the Persian Gulf , that involves Iran in the short term. ?
Events are piling up.
I agree completely Little Bill and I am also in that short memory period of my life:-)
ReplyDeleteDo we have control of the oil, can we maintain control of the oil, will oil profits continue to flow into our pockets and make us obscenely rich?
ReplyDeleteWhat's a few lives to people who think that way?
This week, President Bush will announce that he is going to escalate the war in Iraq. He will call it a "surge," but those of us who remember the Vietnam War know an escalation when we see one. He will call for an extra 15,000 to 30,000 troops for a short period of time, but will not be specific.
ReplyDeleteThese extra troops must come from Europe, Asia (especially South Korea, and there is no danger there, is there?), troops already in Iraq who would be held there months longer than expected or troops sent back to Iraq much sooner than expected. I hope the new Democratic congressional majority will remember Vietnam better that the current administration does and see that escalation for what it is: the signature of failure.
Where is Dick Cheney? He's invisible. Has anyone seen or heard from him?
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard or seen bull-poop from him. Maybe Biden knows something, after all.
ReplyDeleteConcerning Biden's playing the absent Dick Cheney card, it is intriguing that only a "key official with close ties to the Senate and White House" has responded.
ReplyDeleteUS News & World Report