A pox on both houses … when only one will do

June 1, 2007

Roll Call Executive Editor and Fox News contributor Mort Kondracke agrees that the U.S. policy in Iraq is a disaster, and is ready to assign blame … to everyone. (via TPM)

Barring a miracle, the United States faces a catastrophic defeat in Iraq, with President Bush and both Republicans and Democrats in Congress sharing in the blame.

Yes, Dems, who haven’t been able to shape the Iraq policy in any way are partially responsible for the disaster. Why? Kondracke has a novel argument.

Most [congressional Democrats] agreed with Bush on the presence weapons of mass destruction and voted to authorize the war — then quickly backed off when the going got tough.

Hardly any Democrats joined Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in arguing that more troops were needed to achieve victory. Democratic policy almost from the beginning was: “get out,” regardless of the consequences.

Take a moment to mull over just how dumb this is. Dems bought into the White House’s bogus case for war, and have opposed the president’s policy, as Kondracke put it, “almost from the beginning.”

I’m having the darnedest time wrapping my head around such a bizarre argument. Dems should be blamed for Bush’s “catastrophic” policy, despite having resisted and challenged the policy from the outset because, well, Kondracke thinks it would be nice.

Fox News, give this guy a raise. Most professionals wouldn’t want their names on such tripe, but Kondracke appears willing to take one for the team.

Post Script: It’s a bit of a tangent, but Kondracke notes in his first paragraph that “Republicans…in Congress” deserve some of the blame and then went on to ignore the role of congressional Republicans for the rest of the column.

Nothing about the lack of oversight, nothing about hte lack of hearings, nothing about the rubber-stamp attitude, nothing about the mindless, automatic approval of every Bush spending request.

To read Kondracke’s piece, congressional Dems were more responsible for the Iraqi failure than congressional Republicans — despite the fact that Dems never had any power at all. Amazing.

“Yes, Dems, who haven’t been able to shape the Iraq policy in any way are partially responsible for the disaster.”

The hell of it is, many on the farther left seem to feel pretty much exactly the same way.

  • Any respect I ever had for Kondracke is long long gone. The man’s an embarrassment even as a hack.

    What is it with all these ex-New Republic types who become mindless rightwing drones? Krauthammer, Kaus and Kondracke? KKK? Is there something I’m missing? Hmmmm.

  • This is exactly like blaming a rape victim.

    Dems had WMDs held to their throats, figured out what was happening too late to prevent it, and are now sitting in a police station wondering “what the fuck just happened?” And Repugs are saying, “Well, you should have covered up your neck.”

  • Let’s not pretend the Dems are innocent. The fact is they could have made a lot more noise. More of them could have voted against the use of force. More of them could have done their own research. They let it happen and they helped it happen. Let’s not kid ourselves.

    And they can and should be blamed for that pitiful cave in the other day.

  • Sure, they could have made a lot more noise, right into the 40 foot tidal wave of patriotism that overtook the country after 9/11, and which Bush and the rest of the neo-cons used to full effect to instantly and irrevocably demonize anyone who dared even ask the right questions. Remember that?

    Remember the “hearings” the Dems had to have in the basement because the Republicans would not allow them to use an actual hearing room? Remember how Dems were not even allowed in some committee meetings?

    It’s very hard to be heard under these circumstances – the Dems were like the only sober people at a drunken frat party, and no one would even allow them to be the designated driver.

    Kondracke just can’t bring himself to accept that the GOP was largely to blame for where we’ve ended up, because he was right in there cheering as the lemmings went over the cliff.

  • CalD is right. We of the “far left” do blame the Dems for their part of this mess, but certainly not to the extent that we blame the Republicans. And since we expect such crap from Republicans we’re almost angrier at the Dems sometimes.

    The Dems should have read the NIE before voting on the war, those opposed to it should have risked their offices and staged protests against the obvious bullshit that the warmongers were spewing, and they could have called for an impeachment vote as soon as they regained power, whether they had the votes or not. It’s called providing leadership, which is of course not what Kondrake has in mind.

  • Question for Haik: What exactly was it again that Dem’s were supposed to do instead?

  • I meant instead of “caving” BTW, in case that wasn’t clear. I’d like to hear the specific alternatives.

  • You see, people like Kondracke must write article such as this to maintain their (quite impressive) cognitive dissonance. They have to believe all of these things, because if they didn’t their head would explode.

    Yet, these same people continue to dominate the cocktail-weenie circuit and, more importantly (or disastrously, from the standpoint of honest discourse), they continue to be propped up as serious policy experts whose views are to be lauded and contemplated with seriousness.

  • It’s very hard to be heard under these circumstances

    I agree it’s hard, but it’s not impossible. It’s only impossible if you don’t try. Russ Feingold is not super-human. He just has principles and courage. We need more leaders like him.

    And I am not on the “far left.” I’m an Independent and I’ve cast votes for Dems, Progs, Republicans and Independents. I happen to be quite happy with my Republican governor, as a matter of fact.

  • imho, i don’t blame the democrats for getting us into iraq, but i do blame them in part for not getting us out.

  • Does anyone believe people of the ilk of Kondracke actually care about the facts? These folks are desperate for any type of scapegoat. They hope no one is paying attention, and, in point of fact, many people aren’t. It’s the big lie again, told over and over to a mostly gullible public. Perhaps they can spread the blame around, so it will look like there is no real choice between candidates, so they hope everyone stays home in November. Why blame the republic-thugs when the Dems did it too? And, sadly, their strategy may work.

  • Remember after the 2004 US elections that the Repubs were bragging, no, CROWING, no YELLING from the rooftops that they had CONTROL of the ENTIRE Federal Government?

    Just saying…

  • What exactly was it again that Dem’s were supposed to do instead?

    Make some damn noise. That’s what. Go on TV at the height of Bush’s popularity and say attacking Iraq is BULLSHIT. They did not attack us and they do not have WMD.

    It’s easy to pile on now. And it’s easy for Clinton and Obama to wait around the Senate floor until the damn supplemental bill has passed before they cast their politically expedient “no” votes.

  • I meant instead of “caving” BTW, in case that wasn’t clear. I’d like to hear the specific alternatives.

    Specific alternatives-

    1) Vote no- send another bill with withdrawl to Bush- let him veto it- send it again.

    2) Fund only a redeployment.

    3) Fund only a withdrawl.

    4) Cut funding to the Exective Branch

    5) Impeach the monster in the white house.

    Jesus! There are a ton of other options.

  • Please refresh my memory –
    There was a vote to authorize military action against Iraq, and I remember that one reason was to get Sadaam to allow the inspectors back in.
    Sadaam then let the inspectors in, and I was pleased.
    There was talk of other actions, if the inspectors were hampered, as they were in their previous work. Other actions like “forced inspections> with an armed force, but short of war.
    Then, before the inspectors really had a chance, Bush sent our troops in. He could not take “yes” for an answer, it seemed that war was the purpose all along.
    Is this correct?
    If so, the Dems were right in voting for the measure, and the war belongs completly to the Republicans.
    Period.
    No one would believe that the Bush gang would be so evil that they would unnecessarily take us into war, and they were all wrong. But it was the people who voted this criminal into office that bear the blame.

  • No one would believe that the Bush gang would be so evil that they would unnecessarily take us into war

    I did. I thought it was patently obvious on its face. I should be in congress.

  • Exactly anne comment #5….
    I’m on the far left and I don’t blame the Dems for this occupation or the war.
    If Dems would have tried getting their own intel or doing an investigation they would have run into the CIA, NSA, Pentagon intel, etc..
    Remember the fear after 9/11 and “…the smoking gun could come in form of a mushroom cloud” crap.
    Only this President and his Administration and the Congressional Republicans are to blame. I do hold Dems to blame for continuing the funding now but they do so with the agenda of trying to stop this fiasco.
    The only other equal partner to this hideous crime is the MSM and especially Fox news.
    Don’t try to push any of the blame off to the Dems because it won’t hold water in any significant way.

  • Don’t try to push any of the blame off to the Dems because it won’t hold water in any significant way.

    The Dems that voted to authorize the use of force are responsible for those votes. This is exactly why Cindy Sheehan is hanging it up. We have to look inward to grow.

  • Don’t forget that the October ’02 resolution was more of a blank check than a call to arms. It gave Bush the leverage needed to get the UN 1441 passed and force the resumption UN weapons inspections after a gap of several years. By March ’03, when Bush invaded, the UN inspectors had been on the ground in Iraq for several months and had found none of the expected WMDs. Also, by that time more of the flaws in the original WMD evidence emerged.

    In some ways, the October ’02 resolution was the best hope for AVOIDING war because it helped convinced Saddam to cooperate with UN Weapons Inspectors.

  • haik makes a lot of good points. there were many of us who made ourselves informed enough at the time of the vote to authorize the use of force to realize it was all a charade. democrats in congress should have also realized that, so those who voted in favor are responsible for the way they voted. having said that, however, even if every democrat had voted against it, i believe (i may be incorrect) that there would have been enough republican votes to pass it anyway.

    on the other end of the story, now that the democrats are back in charge (yeah, i know, lieberman, one vote majority in senate, etc., etc.) i think they are not doing enough to bring this war to a close, and they also must take responsibility for that.

    however, the bottom line here is the way that idiot Kondracke put it was absurd.

  • Buzzmon, I agree with what you wrote and would add that I don’t think any Dem suspected that Dubya and his minions were being as duplicitous as they were. It boggles the mind that someone would take the US into a catastrophic war for reasons we still don’t know. What is more mind boggling is that now that we know that all of the reasons Dubya gave were nonsense and that Dubya suppressed all of the information that didn’t support invading, that Dubya continues to receive as much support as he does from Republicans, religious leaders and pundits.

  • What Buzzmon said, except for that last sentence. It’s not the fault of the people who elected Bush. Bush ran as ‘a uniter, not a divider’, then did the opposite. Bush the candidate ridiculed the idea of nation-building. How could the voters have known that he would embark on the most ambitious, risky, ill-planned, costly ‘nation-building’ adventure since Vietnam?

  • RE: Comment #16 (above) by Haik Bedrosian — 6/1/2007 @ 4:21 pm

    1) Vote no- send another bill with withdrawl to Bush- let him veto it- send it again.

    Sorry, Haik, but the clock was already run out. If the Defense department had not gotten a check by June, they would have had to start doing things so unpopular it would have virtually assured a Republican resurgence in 2008.

    2) Fund only a redeployment.

    And Bush vetos that bill too. Same result.

    3) Fund only a withdrawl.

    See #2.

    4) Cut funding to the Exective Branch

    This wasn’t the regular budget, silly. It was a supplimental funding bill specifically to fund operations in Iraq. Also, the president has to sign the federal budget too and the “funding for the executive branch” is the budget for all federal spending programs, healthcare, education, everything.

    5) Impeach the monster in the white house.

    Do you imagine that is takes less votes to impeach a president than it takes to override a presidential veto? Or maybe you think more Repblicans would get behind an impeachment attempt than would vote for an Iraq funding bill with some time limits. You would also alienate the 60%+ Americans who are firmly opposed to an impeachment attempt by trying, which would do nothing to help your cause.

    I guess we’d better move on to examining that “ton of other options” you mentioned. Keep ’em coming.

  • Oh, please!
    The same people who elected him are the people who RE-elected him four years later. He was their wet-dream come true.

  • Let’s not forget that the Democrats voted to authorize the war after swallowing BushCo’s load of BS about Saddam’s WMD and their ominous warnings of smoking-gun-mushroom-clouds. So did the Republicans. It was very quickly obvious to them (and to many of us, long before the authorization) that Bush’s arguments for war were a pack of sickening lies. The Democrats had the balls, at least, to push back. The Republicans just sat back and enjoyed the largess from the war while our soldiers died. And continue to die. It stuns me that Bush/Cheney weren’t impeached immediately — even before the 2004 elections. It stunned me again when they weren’t impeached after the monstrous neglect of New Orleans after Katrina. And again, when they made torture an American shame. It all still stuns me today … and each day this administration continues to run roughshod over this country, its people and the Constitution.

  • #19: I do hold Dems to blame for continuing the funding now but they do so with the agenda of trying to stop this fiasco.

    I’m not sure their agenda is that benign. I hate to think it’s true, but it’s hard not to see their caving on the timelines as a callous political calculation: let the Repubs drag it on ever closer to the next election and hang themselves with their own rope. Probably a good move tactically, but there are a lot of people who’ll die unnecessarily because we’re not pulling out sooner. I’m with Edwards on this: they should have just sent the same bill right back to Bush, over and over. Or made it even tougher and then sent it back. Political calculus or no, it would be the right thing to do.

  • 1) Vote no- send another bill with withdrawl to Bush- let him veto it- send it again.

    Sorry, Haik, but the clock was already run out. If the Defense department had not gotten a check by June, they would have had to start doing things so unpopular it would have virtually assured a Republican resurgence in 2008.

    I’m not so sure.

  • some of the idiotic LEFT-WINGERS who voted for Nader, or decided not to vote because, like a 3-year old they threw a tantrum because they didn’t agree with EVERY single issue the democrats ran on.

    Those left wingers should be ashamed of themselves, we wouldn’t even be in this mess if it wasn’t for their selfish short sighted views.

    … and just in case, I’m not even a Democrat saying this, but I do defend the democrats on this. Eventhough I don’t agree with some of the issues they seem to advocate, they at least stood up, even if it may not have been enough…. Keep in mind that the Republican party is by all intent run by fascist principles. Does anybody need a history lesson in regards to what unrestrained Fascism does to a country? The democrats may be whimps but it could be a lot worse, a LOT worse…..

  • Who of the people complaining about the Democrats has contacted their representatives in Congress in regards to the secret hold McConnell has placed on a S223 in regards to FEC transparency in reporting. Once again, a bi-partisan bill will enough support to pass handily has been held up by a cowardly Republican through a secret hold.

    I contacted my Republican Representative Gordon Smith to insist that he inquire who the Republican obstructionist is. Will this do any good? I don’t know, but I feel that if thousands of people contact their Republican representatives, they may have a change of heart.

    What does this post have to do with the topic at hand? I feel if you don’t do your part by being active, you shouldn’t complain, and their seems to be a lot of complaining… I’d rather see that energy put into something that gets followed by the politicians: letters from constituents.

  • Who of the people complaining about the Democrats has contacted their representatives in Congress in regards to the secret hold McConnell has placed on a S223 in regards to FEC transparency in reporting. Once again, a bi-partisan bill will enough support to pass handily has been held up by a cowardly Republican through a secret hold.

    I contacted my Republican Representative Gordon Smith to insist that he inquire who the Republican obstructionist is. Will this do any good? I don’t know, but I feel that if thousands of people contact their Republican representatives, they may have a change of heart.

    What does this post have to do with the topic at hand? I feel if you don’t do your part by being active, you shouldn’t complain, and their seems to be a lot of complaining… I’d rather see that energy put into something that gets followed by the politicians: letters from constituents.

    I’ll thank in advance any of the readers who will be contacting their representatives. You earn the right to complain 🙂

  • Hey Bruno, I voted for Ralph.
    I voted my principles.

    Not just the lesser of two evils, like some defeatists do.
    The Dems serve the same Corporate Fascists that the right does, they just do it with lubricant.

    The word idiot is derived from the greek “id” or self, and the word “ote” , or devotee. . By definition, those of us on the far left are motivated to sacrifice matierial excesses for the greater good of the majority of people.
    Please don’t throw the word idiot at us. Try “jerks” or “pinheads” please.
    Save “idiot” for the capitalists.

  • Considering the source of this fermented roadkill—Mort “Conned-Iraq-ee”—it’s common shill-drool. One must remember that, if “Morte” was given the opportunity to edit other pieces of history, we’d all be thinking that:

    *The unpatriotic kids who died at Kent State on May 4 1970 were personally responsible for the US not winning in Viet Nam, because they didn’t enlist after eating a bullet. This is especially ironic, as the four who dies were merely walking from one class to the next, and had nothing to do with the anti-war protests. But such “miniscule details” have historically escaped “Morte the Heathead.”

    *The Jewish population of Auschwitz was personally responsible for the atrocity of Auschwitz, because they didn’t rise up against their oppressors after being gassed and cremated.

    *The Confederacy lost the Civil War because all those soldiers who fell in Gettysburg—in 1863—weren’t with Lee the week before Appomattox—almost two full years later.

    Kondracke isn’t worth throwing under the bus (he might damage the undercarriage). He’s not worth the wholesale price of a bullet. He’s not even worth the stagnant creek-water needed to rinse off a rusty knife blade. However—it’s June, this is Ohio, and there are rabid skunks and raccoons out in the woods. I suppose we could just feed Kondracke to them….

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