Political Backpedaling (The Weekly Rewind)

As we promised, it’s time once again to look back at the week just ended, run across the political landscape and point out things that should be applauded or heckled.

APPLAUD: to Rosa Parks, Civil Rights pioneer who died this week at the age of 92. A woman whose life should be an inspiration to people of all races.

HECKLE: to President Bush for once again failing to publicly acknowledge the mounting death toll of U.S. Troops in Iraq, or having a clear plan for victory in Iraq. This week the 2,000 American soldier died in Iraq, a sad milestone.

APPLAUD: to Congress, for acting quickly and putting aside partisanship to approve a resolution allowing Rosa Parks to lie in honor for public viewing in the Capitol Rotunda. This honor has only been granted 29 times since 1852, and only seems fitting for Ms. Parks.

HECKLE: to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on his indictment for one count of Obstruction of Justice, two counts of making False Statements and two counts of Perjury. (Also for having the name “Scooter” on the indictment)

HECKLE: to the Department of Defense for holding back 824 new armored Humvees from being sent to Iraq until January when the 4th division is sent to replace 3rd division units currently serving in Iraq. (The Marines only have 6 to 7 percent of the total armormed humvees in Iraq. There is no reason that every available piece of modern and armormed equipment should always be available to every one of our troops.)

APPLAUD: to DNC Chair Howard Dean for a clear and concise statement on the Libby indictment. “This is not only and abuse of power, it is an un-American abuse of the public trust. As Americans, we must hold ourselves and our leaders to a higher standard. We cannot fear dissent. We cannot fear the truth. And we cannot tolerate those who do.”

HECKLE: to the U.S. House Resource Committee for approving a plan to allow oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge in order to raise $2.4 billion in lease revenues.

APPLAUD: to former Senator and Presidential candidate John Edwards. He currently presides over a new Poverty Center at the University of North Carolina and is traveling the country rallying college students to the cause of fighting poverty in the U.S., and possibly laying the groundwork for a renewed bid for the White House in 2008.

HECKLE: to The White House for failing to unwaveringly support its SCOTUS nominee Harriet Miers, who this week ‘voluntarily‘ (yeah like we believe that) withdrew her nomination. No matter the end result of the Senate confirmation hearings the President needs to learn to stand up with his nominees, and if he cannot do it with those he nominates currently, then he needs to find more qualified people to nominate.
(Obviously the conservatives can’t get behind what they can’t control…. Also we can‘t help but wonder how much of the ‘orchestrated‘ withdrawl was damage control for the CIA leak indictments)

HECKLE: to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) for referring to any possible indictments in the ‘Plamegate‘ investigation to be not for any real crimes but for ‘Some perjury technicality“. (Our thought is that if you choose which laws to enforce, you start down the road to enforcing none.)

APPLAUD: to Democrats for their “50 State Strategy” of national/local support and organization for the upcoming elections. It’s great to see the party working together as a team.

HECKLE: to the Bush Administration for first suspending and then reversing the rules requiring that companies receiving federal contracts for hurricane reconstruction and relief efforts pay workers the local prevailing wage. The heckle is for both the suspension and reversal as the reversal would not have been necessary if the suspension had not occurred to begin with.

APPLAUD: to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for his thorough and unbiased investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame’s name as a undercover CIA operative.

HECKLE: to President Bush on general principle alone.

HECKLE: to U.S. House Republicans who voted to cut student loan subsidies, child support enforcement and aid to firms hurt by unfair trade practices as part of a strategy to piece together $50 billion in budget cuts.

HECKLE: to Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX) for acknowledging that he failed to comply with U.S. House requirements that he disclose all contributions to a legal defense fund that pays his legal bills. (I wonder what else he has forgotten that will now be conveniently acknowledged with the increased legal scrutiny?)

APPLAUD: to Democrat Tim Kaine for his strong polling in a tight race for Governor in Virgina, he is in a dead heat with the Republican challenger in an contest to be decided in the November 8th election.

HECKLE: to Karl Rove, who when asked for a comment concerning his thoughts on the indictment of ’Scooter’ Libby, advised reporters that he was not going to think about it, that he was going to have a nice weekend and suggested that the media should do the same. (What a tool..)

HECKLE: to The White House for going after “The Onion“ for displaying the presidential seal on its website next to a weekly parody of the Presidents weekly radio address. (I guess they don‘t have anything more important to worry about…)

HECKLE: to Pat Buchanan (always a candidate, never electable..) for speaking out that the President’s next nominee for the SCOTUS had better be along the lines of what he had promised when running for office (meaning that they should be a bible thumping conservative who will make it a priority to overturn Roe V Wade) or the nominee will be hammered from the right again, as was done with Harriet Miers. What a tool!

Noticing more heckles than applauds again this week – welcome once again to George Bush’s America…

Later.