Salon: Breaking GOP Ranks

[kskiska]

A funny thing happened on Capitol Hill last week. In the days before Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, no longer smirking with the certainty he had the only true answers to every question in the world, was hauled before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify on the appalling revelations of torture and humiliation of prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, the Republican Senate leadership en masse broke ranks with President Bush and said so.

(snip)

But talk to some House staffers who are privy to the thoughts and concerns of their congressmen and sometimes surprising expressions of anger and frustration come forth.

These so far fall into two categories: The first is that the czar, in this case the president, is still wise and good and just, and that it is his pesky advisors who are to blame. A remarkable amount of anger appears to be spreading in GOP House staff circles against Rumsfeld and the supposedly brilliant group of neoconservative intellectuals around him, including Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith -- those who pushed the conquest and occupation of Iraq so remorselessly yet now appear to have not the slightest clue what to do next.

The second reaction is found less commonly among House staffers but is even more remarkable. That is the expressed belief of Republican conservatives that to retain the power that really matters (their majority in the House, with continuing control over its committees and fiscal powers), they may have to sacrifice the power that they regard as more superficial and transient: Bush's holding on to the White House.

According to this line of thought (and I have been unable to ascertain from staffers how many Republican congressmen hold such a view), Bush, Rumsfeld and their hawks have already made such a mess out of Iraq that the next president, be it Bush or John Kerry, is certain to be on a hiding to nothing as he struggles with the war's consequences next year. Indeed, it is inevitable that there will be a massive popular backlash against the sitting president, Republican or Democrat, come the midterm elections of 2006. Far better, therefore, that Kerry win in November and still be hemmed in on the domestic front by a Republican House majority that is then free of the albatross of Iraq. If Bush wins in November, according to this belief, there is a very real danger that after 12 years the GOP will lose the jewel in its crown -- control of the House -- in 2006.

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http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/12/hill/index1.html

[Old and In the Way]

1. That's what I wonder, too.

If Kerry wins, but the Republicans control Congress....does he get to be the fall guy for the Republican mess? If Bush wins...will that seal a complete repudiation of the Republican Party in 2006?

Regardless, we need Kerry in, if for no other reason than the SCOTUS.

[seattlesteph]

2. Say hello to the birdie, GOP.

Fuck that logic.

Kerry's going to get elected and we're going to take back the Congress.

Republicans have had 4 years of the White House and 8 years of Congress, and they've turned America into a fucking wasteland. Bereft of all our ideals and values, propped up by some marketing scheme cooked up by Rove that employs language like "compassion" and "freedom."

We've turned into a profit center for a select group of hypocritical elites who wave flags and wear little pins all the while scheming how to get away with murder and not have to suffer for it. And it all gets passed to us.

This may be the Repub strategy - but we're going to have longer memories than the fucking GOP elephant. We're going to remember what the hell happened and who started it.

And may the GOP rot in hell for cloaking themselves in Christianity while they dance with the Devil.

***end rant***

[Skittles]

3. Amen, seattlesteph

Welcome to the DU. :hi:

[blm]

6. I agree. The public will not just vote Bush out, but the GOP majority

in Congress will be become the minority.

The public KNOWS who rubberstamped BushInc and propped him up throughout the various lootings of the treasury.

[cap]

4. key words on "walking in the footsteps of Churchill"

The neocons do not realize what a mess Churchill made of Iraq. Churchill advocated violently repressive measures against Iraq.

[bemildred]

5. Well, they can smell the coffee anyway.

Shrub and his minions have screwed the pooch badly enough
to threaten the established political order. This may take some
years to evolve, the pain is just beginning. Mr. Kerry has
been designated to manage and repair the damage, but he will
have his work cut out for him. Control of the Congress is, of
course, central. Congress is the 800 pound gorilla in US politics,
the true source of power, and a large changeover in Congress with
lots of new Congressmen not beholden to things as they are is
the true threat. The same is true in a diminished fashion of the
individual statehouses.

[yellowcanine]

7. Heh - I hope the pubs are thinking this way - because what they don't

realize is that Kerry will not lockstep his way into further quagmire in Iraq. He is willing to listen to opposing points of view about the best way out and those opposing points will win out. By 2006 we will be out of Iraq and more importantly, not in Syria and Iran. That is the real danger in sticking with the Shrub - an ever widening quagmire that leads into the abyss of all war all the time.