And Hello Again

I beg all of your pardons, as I have been more dedicated to finishing up the semester and relaunching www.tressiemc.com than spewing forth my political diatribe. In the words of Rakim: I shouldn’t have left you without an opinion to cling to. Well, it could have been Rakim. Shut up, you know I suck at pop culture references.

But I cannot suck at them anymore than this administration seems to suck at comprehending the inherent “politicking” that must be done when your party loses control of Congress. They can say what they want about Bill but at least he knew how to pander to the camera while throwing punches behind the scenes.

This president, however, is living up to his self-professed title of Decider while simultaneously channeling every old Western “shoot off at high noon” posture every struck.

Since my last post we have witnessed his staunch defense of the indefensible Donald Rumsfield…and his subsequent replacement of Donald Rumsfield.

We have watched him needle the left about pork in the national budget while failing to mention its bipartisan appeal.

We have watched him refuse to engage Iran and Syria in bilateral talks to help create an environment in the Middle East where Iraq has the slightest chance of survival should we ever leave.

He has looked up the word veto and upon discovering it’s meaning and has threatened to exceed his previous grand total of ONE.

And as of my last check as midnight my time today he was still showing support for his beleaguered Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez.

Now, say what you will about this issue reeking of retaliation, the truth of the matter is the President’s office does indeed have the right to fire U.S. Attorneys at will. The problem is this issue left behind the discussion of legality the minute Mr. Gonzalez proved himself incapable of towing the line with any conviction or believability.

Now it just all seems to support the idea – right or wrong – that this administration actively participates in subversive and illegal dealings to advance its agenda.

Saying, “Hell yeah! I fired ‘em. They wasn’t my kind of people. I like good people. Good people work for me” may have left a bad taste in folks’ mouths but the issue would have been dead.

Instead this issue has lived for over two weeks now – an eon in political time – and taken on an almost Nixon-ish air. Average folks can’t tell you the details of this issue but every day it takes up another corner above the fold or crawls across the bottom of the screen they get the feeling that something ain’t quite right.

And it is that feeling, more so than email communications that point out blatant inconsistencies in Gonzalez’s previous assertion that he had no part in choosing who got fired, that will linger long after the fall guy takes his hit for the team.

Now…who wants to put money on if and how the whole issue of Monica Goodling choosing to, in the words of Dave Chappelle, “plead da FIF!” will play out?

C’mon! I got that reference right!

State of the DisUnion

I watched the State of the Union address. I did not mean to but I thought it was the D.C. episode of American Idol.

Nancy looked equal parts vicious and couture and I loved it.

Cheney looked like he was gnawing a hole in his tongue to refrain from shouting, "I'll shoot all you commie healthcare loving bastards!"

And Dubya? Well, I have become quite apt at removing myself from the heinousness of his politics to see him as the gifted politician he is. He has jokes, he works the crowd, he is self-effacing in that alpha dog way that makes it clear he thinks he's more man than you. He kisses the ladies, daps up the pseudo-cool frat boys and signs autographs.

Should he have a legacy it will be that of a master cook-out host - even when the food sucks the folks have a great time.

But on policy he loses me.

If I am clear his goals for the final two years of a lame duck presidency with a Democratic congress he plans to:

* increase spending and troop levels for this war
* create a national guard like civilian support group that is the military but not?
* fund the No Child Left Behind Act
* balance the budget
* save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and

he plans to do all of this without raising taxes!!!!

Holy crap Batman. I had to stop to make sure I hadn't been hitting the bong. Alas, no such luck. I was sober, but I must question if he was.

The deal is he knows he has lost this battle. His own party is increasingly eyeing re-election and jumping ship.

Nancy and Co. smell blood in the water and Hillary has put roots on him.

I cannot help but think that this last stand is all about some super-secret post-presidential career plan. Like, we'll look up one day and he will be the Chief Consultant to Iraqi overseeing oil disbursement at 5 million an hour.

But whatever. He won't be the first.

The real issue is: are the American people tired yet of being sick and tired and gang raped by their elected officials?

Only time -- and a national election -- will tell.