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americanpolitics.com and correntewire.com present
Pundit Pap
for November 12, 2006
This Week: 25 Years of Gasbaggery
by Leah
with JJ Balzer
November 13, 2006 (correntewire.com / apj.us) -- Today's edition of This Week took place against the background of it's twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of itself, while in Iraq a pair of suicide bombers managed to kill 35 and wound 58 Iraqis who were waiting outside of a police recruiting center in Baghdad, and in addition, authorities discovered 75 bodies "in the capital and Baqouba, an unusually high number even by Iraq's grim standards."
Prime Minister Maliki's response was to warn of a cabinet reshuffle.
Lil' George mentioned none of this, although his introduction to this anniversary hour did put Iraq at the center of Tuesday's election, as he greeted his first two guests, a tag-team of Democratic Senators, Joe Biden, about-to-be-Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, and Carl Levin, the putative head of the Military Affairs Committee.
Will anything really change, asked George; what, if any, leverage will the newly elected Democratic majority have over President Bush?
I’m pleased to report that Levin and Biden made it clear that there damned well better be some changes ahead, and damn soon, too.
******
Both of these old Democratic Senatorial hands were generally impressive; despite the constant SCLM discussion of Democrats hoping to use the Baker-Hamilton commission as a beard to keep from having to take any responsibility for "losing" Iraq, there was no sign of any such Democratic skittishness this morning, Biden going so far as to say that he hopes Baker et al don't opt for kicking the ball further down the line and instead, come up with some bold answers to what both Biden and Levin weren't shy about portraying as the President's current losing policy - and they didn't just mean in last Tuesday's election.
In all respects Biden and Levin were on the same page; something's got to give 'cause what we've been doing for the last several years ain't working.
Of course Stephanopoulos tried to insert intra-mural Democratic friction into the discussion right from the start, asking if either Senator agrees with Harry Reid's statement, which I'm doubtful Georgie boy accurately portrayed, as suggesting that the first order of Democratic business for the new congress will be to investigate how we got into Iraq. Neither Biden nor Levin allowed themselves to get sidetracked; after all, theirs are not the committee's which would be involved in such investigations.
What they both kept emphasizing was the need to concentrate the mind of the current Iraqi government by embracing a policy of troop deployment to be achieved within the next six months, and to formulate a new policy based on the recognition that the violence and chaos which are undermining hope of any kind of civil governance in Iraq cannot be solved by military means, and, as our own military has been telling the President, what we are facing in Iraq is political in nature, and requires finding a political solution to which Iraqis themselves, including all three of the major ethnic communities, can agree.
As to what leverage could induce the President to accept what he has hitherto refused to even consider, Biden and Levin pointed to public opinion, as registered in the vote last Tuesday.
I have to say, I share some of Stephanopoulos' skepticsm that will be enough. But both Democratic Senators sounded confident and utterly unafraid of the vaunted White House noise machine; both also pointed out that there are all kinds of moving pieces that have been set in motion, that will influence the coming debate, and not only the Baker group.
My impression, the coming Democratic Senate will have no illusions about the difficulty of getting Bush to play ball, but they are aware of the power last Tuesday gave them, including being able to call hearings where military voices can be heard telling the nation what they've clearly told Biden and Levin: There is no military solution to Iraq; you either come up with a political solution or you lose, and the Iraqis lose.
Anyone who listened to Biden and Levin and continues to claim that they were talking about cutting and running is a liar. In fact, what they are talking about doing adds up to doing a lot more than the Bush policy has demanded, but using other levers of governance than the military to do it.
Biden talked about the Dayton Accords as a kind of model, as in calling for an international conference, one that would involve other countries in the region, up to and including having real talks with the Syrians and the Iranians. The subject of Israel and the Palestinians was conspicuous by its absence from the discussion, but that might be just as well at this point.
On Senate approval of Secretary of Defense designate Gates, both Biden and Levin reminded everyone that they had voted against Gates some years ago because of his role in Iran-Contra. Levin was ready to hear Gates be convincing that he'd learned his lesson on the shaping of intelligence to fit a pre-existing policy, but unlike Biden, who said he was leaning toward approval, pending the right answers from Gates, Levin wasn't ready to predict what his vote would be.
On the President’s desire to nominate John Bolton once again for ambassador to the UN, Biden was crystal clear; don't even try that one, Mr. President, because no way is Bolton going to be approved. Nice the way Biden turned back on the President the question of whether or not bipartisanship can exist between Republicans and Democrats by asking that the President play by the rules and send a genuine choice up to be confirmed, instead of playing games.
Representing the administration was Josh Bolton, Bush's chief of staff; what a difference a week makes; whereas last week Cheney was proclaiming full speed ahead to victory in Iraq, this Bolton spent his time treading water. Despite his careful presentation, my clear impression - this administration isn't even going to be able to put up much of a pretense of any kind of genuine cooperation with Democrats, not on foreign policy.
Bolton proclaimed the interest of the White House in hearing the findings of the Baker commission, and especially about what their first meeting with the White House, scheduled for this Monday, may expose about the commission's thinking thus far. As for Democrats, yes, said Bolton, the White House expects to be communicating with them more closely than ever, which struck me as a brilliant hedge; after all, a hundred times zero is still zero.
In spite of Bolton's reassurances that the Bush administration is open to any and all suggestions vis a vis Iraq, whenever he had something with actual content to say, the impression President Bush himself gives off of absolute certainty and total inflexibility was preserved by Mr. Bolton.
How would the White House respond to Democrats passing a resolution embracing redeployment within some kind of foreseeable future? Timetables are bad. Policy has to be responsive to facts on the ground; true enough you might think, but the impression Bolton left was that deciding what those facts are is first and last the responsibility of the administration.
On talking to Syria and Iran, Bolton's response was pure Bush; there's been no lack of communication with either, only a lack of cooperation on the part of both.
What this administration views as talking to another country is calling them names, making public warnings, including them in an axis of evil and expecting that they will do our bidding for nothing, for no gain on their part, because they are fearful. Unfortunately for the administration, and for the rest of us, the quagmire they've run into in Iraq has weakened our bargaining position in the region, and strengthened everyone else's.
Even if you could get this President to agree to some sort of international meeting, like the Dayton Accords, or to engage in bilateral talks with Iran or Syria, can anyone imagine this administration being able to carry it off successfully? The marching orders of any such delegation representing Bush would be take the complete surrender of all in attendance immediately and leave. They don't negotiate because they don't know how to.
Despite Josh Bolton's obvious intelligence, and his distinctly non-rightwing affect, by virtue of representing this White House he is, of necessity, completely cut off from any and all realities. And by virtue of letting Republicans for decades set the parameters of elite political conventional wisdom, a so-called journalist like Lil’ George is similarly cut off. For instance, George wasted lots of time bringing up Republican dissatisfaction with the President waiting until after the election to announce he'd chosen a new Secretary of Defense, hoping in the process, it appeared, to get Bolton to admit some lack of truth on the part of the President, as if the entire subject of how and why we were in Iraq wasn’t replete with Presidential lying.
In a similar vein, when this Bolton was asked about the nomination of John Bolton and the former insisted that confirmation was justified and thus possible, despite Biden’s warnings, because of the latter Bolton’s sterling record at the UN for finding consensus, as per our success vis a vis North Korea and Iran, and Lebanon, it would simply never occur to Stephanopoulos to ask the simple question, "What success? North Korea has become a nuclear power on your watch, Iran is threatening to become one, and Lebanon, a fledging democracy was bombed into rubble by our ally, Israel, strengthening both Iran and Hezbollah, and gaining nothing for either Israel or for this country.
The roundtable was next and for old times sake it was Cokie, Sam, and George Will, with a brief after the fact remembrance of David Brinkley. I’m surprised Democrats have ever been able to win anything
What can I tell you. They were all awful, complacent, dull, boring, and yet full of themselves, despite having almost nothing to say but the hoariest of clichés you’ve already been hearing all week, epitomized by Sam Donaldson’s observation that the Democrats’ congressional wins were more the result of populist candidates than progressive ones, which made me want to snatch that terrible toupee from off of his head and slap him across the his face with it.
Not that Cokie was any better, and Will was at his fatuous best. The whole time they were talking, essentially about themselves, their egos so bloated they can’t see beyond them, I kept thinking that the Democratic Party you and I know doesn’t exist for these people.
If Democrats want to hold on to power, and if the netroots wants to help them do that and become the liberal party the Democratic Party once was, both the professionals and the grassroots have more work to do to figure out how to reform the bloody SCLM.
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