Why I’m pessimistic about the Senate GOP

July 10, 2007

Over the weekend, the LAT reported that Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) had joined the growing chorus of Senate Republicans no longer willing to support the president’s war policy.

“It should be clear to the president that there needs to be a new strategy,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. “Our policy in Iraq is drifting.” […]

Alexander warned Friday that the president is running out of time.

“The parade is forming. We hope he’ll get to the front of it,” he said. “It may not be this week or next. But it needs to be soon.”

And here’s Alexander on CNN this morning, just a few days after rejecting the status quo.

This morning on CNN, Alexander undercut his own stated desire to change course. While announcing his support for an amendment that would adopt the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, Alexander said, “The surge can be within this larger strategy of the Iraq Study Group.”

Actually, it really can’t. The Iraq Study Group rejected the notion of a surge in the first place. The panel’s policy, as presented in December, was the opposite of the surge. So where, exactly, is Lamar Alexander on Iraq policy?

This is exactly what makes me nervous about the Senate GOP. Over the last week, plenty of them made encouraging remarks about breaking with Bush’s status quo and embracing something dramatically different, but then, a few days later, we hear comments like, “The surge can be within this larger strategy of the Iraq Study Group.”

When push comes to shove, one gets the distinct impression that no one should count on more than a handful of Senate Republicans to follow and accept reality. Shocking, I know.

who cares if the republicans break with bush’s policies. what the democrats in congress have to do is to make these idiot republicans the ones who are responsible for continuing this war. they need a little bit of pr!

  • Specter disease is contagious.

    My stupid take is this.

    As a group, these guys are probably very insecure with themselves and or manhood. And anyone who seen folks like this in action know they can’t ever admit to making a mistake or feel “weak.”

    They do just enough to show the angry little people aka voters that they care about the waste of lives, money and resources and that they are no fans of the surge but just enough to keep the voters from throwing them out via votes or pitchforks/torches. However, they don’t do enough to put their money where their mouth is because they’re afraid of what the rubes/Party elders/Rove/Bush will do to them and they put their rank/privileges/status ahead of doing the right thing.

    There is are two words to describe folks like this:
    MORAL COWARDS

  • When push comes to shove, one gets the distinct impression that no one should count on more than a handful Senate Republicans to follow and accept reality. Shocking, I know.

    When push comes to shove, you can expect Republicans to be Republicans: moral cowards, hypocrites, liars, thieves, war criminals, robbers, and scum.

    As my great-grand-uncle said, “The only ‘good Republicans’ are pushing up daisies.”

  • The Bush-Cheney Crime Family just picks up the phone to enforce the political line and another Republican senator caves. Same old story: They don’t use horse’s head dumped in a bed, but their threats are just to big for a chicken-shit senator to ignore.

  • I guess Cheney showed Lamar his collection of photographs, the ones Karl took with a telephoto lens from the roof of a building opposite a rent by the hour hotel. Or a barnyard.

    Actually, suggesting they’ve been blackmailed or brow beaten gives these shits too much credit. They’ve always been about the sound bite and they’re too stupid to remember that everyone else will remember what they said three minutes ago.

    Either you want the soldiers to come home or you don’t, senator. Pick one and ride out the consequences.

  • It’s hard to remember sometimes, but when Rs break with Bush, they usually do so for different reasons than Ds. To some, a needed change of strategy could be an escalation. As always, their votes will tell us more than anything they say.

  • This morning on CNN, Alexander undercut his own stated desire to change course. While announcing his support for an amendment that would adopt the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, Alexander said, “The surge can be within this larger strategy of the Iraq Study Group.”

    “Intelligent Design/Creationism/ can be within this larger theory of Evolution.”

    “Abortion’s wrong, but not if the pregnancy was unintentional.”

    “Climate change still needs more study. I don’t feel hotter.”

    “Government needs to leave people alone, but not if what they’re doing can be taxed or exploited by one of the big businesses in my pocket.”

    “Welfare and other social programs are wastes of time, but not if said programs can be privatized to make my pals really rich, especially with no-bid contracts and zero oversight.”

    For every George Allen that doesn’t get reelected, there’s dozens more like him still in the Senate.

  • i wonder what kind of dirt the whitehouse has on everybody who speaks up on this issue. everybody changes their mind a day or so after speaking up against the surge policy. or could the whitehouse know of some impending crisis (i.e. peak oil) that they use to persuade wavering republicans to again parrot the party line? what is going on here?

  • I don’t even think they are “moral cowards” because their morals are for sale meaning they don’t really have any besides what you want to give them and then buy back.

    They just wanna look good they don’t have to be clear. I don’t believe these obstructionists for a second. I just look at what they do and so far they are still just rubberstamping Bush’s policy and then bitching as if they have no other choice. They are after all the party of hypocrisy who demand oversight and punishment for everyone but themselves.

  • I don’t see that the appellation of ‘MORAL COWARD’ is applicable only to Republicans. We have seen considerable Moral Cowardice from Democrats of late. I would imagine that Rove both knows where the bodies are buried and can control a sizable portion of any Republican’s campaign funding – it’s how he worked in Texas.

    When the biggest threats that OUR (Majority) Party are willing to use consist of non-Binding Resolutions and votes of No-Confidence it is obvious who the True Moral Cowards are. The Republicans are accomplishing far more with far less.

  • Well I imagine there are some trial balloons going up right now to see which way the wind is blowing. Keep in mind that it’s summertime and the only people paying much attention to politics are complete junkies like us. So it’s a good time to experiment, with only minimal consequences for any missteps.

    Even in cases where their intentions are sincere, and I expect there are a few of those, any Republican contemplating departing from the party line on anything at all is exercising a part of the body (i.e., the spine) that they have not used in a long while — maybe never. So that’s got to be a painful process. But I think that may get easier for them with practice. Some may even discover they kind of like thinking for themselves. Also expect more cracks to form and faster as the season heats up in the fall, with an election year looming and ever-increasing pressure to show some kind of progress in Iraq. Republicans from more moderate states and districts are feeling it already.

  • what CalD said.

    We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg here. Next year the Republicans who are up for election will be screaming to cut and run for a new strategy. Funny how looming elections can affect some people’s positions.

  • One should sooner expect the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fair, and Santa Claus to round out one’s poker table than one should expect any Senate Republicans to take affirmative steps to thwart President Bush/Cheney.

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