Vacation, all they ever wanted…

July 14, 2007

There was some talk in the spring that the Iraqi Parliament, barely able to function anyway, would break for the summer. The reaction was overwhelmingly negative in the U.S., even among White House allies, and soon after the talk disappeared.

Yesterday, Tony Snow acknowledged what the administration would prefer not to talk about.

Q: Is the Iraqi government and the Iraqi parliament taking the month of August off?

SNOW: Probably, yes. Just not —

Q: They’re taking the entire month of August off, before the September deadline?

SNOW: It looks like they may, yes. Just like the U.S. Congress is.

Q: Have you tried to talk them out of that?

SNOW: You know, it’s 130 degrees in Baghdad in August, I’ll pass on your recommendation.

Q: Well, Tony, Tony, I’m sorry, that’s — you know — I mean, there are a lot of things that happen by September and it’s 130 degrees for the U.S. military also on the ground —

SNOW: You know, that’s a good point. And it’s 130 degrees for the Iraqi military.

The White House’s defense is straightforward enough: it doesn’t matter when Iraqi lawmakers are in session; what matters is what they’re accomplishing. That might even be a persuasive spin — if there was any political progress in Iraq at all.

With that in mind, I’m curious how congressional Republicans are going to deal with the news. In early May, war supporters were surprisingly livid about the prospects of a parliamentary vacation.

* Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.): “If they go off on vacation for two months while our troops fight — that would be the outrage of outrages.”

* Sen. John Warner (R-Va.): “That is not acceptable. An action of that consequence would send a very bad signal to the world that they don’t have the resolve that matches the resolve of the brave troops that are fighting in the battle today.”

* Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.): “I certainly hope they’re not going to take any sort of recess when the question is whether they’re going to make any progress.”

On May 8, 11 nervous House Republicans had an “unvarnished” conversation with the president about Iraq policy. One congressman said, “How can our sons and daughters spill their blood while the Iraqi government goes on vacation?” The president responded, “The vice president is over there to tell them, do not go on vacation.”

And now they’re apparently poised to go on vacation. Are the stay-the-course Republicans going to do anything about it? If the past week is any indication, they’ll bluster a bit before doing what they always do — acceding to the president’s demands.

SNOW: It looks like they may, yes. Just like the U.S. Congress is.

[Looks out window. Notes complete and utter lack of bloodshed, carnage, soldiers, smoke rising from car bombs, bodies riddled by nail gun holes…]

I guess this is an extension of the streets of Detroit being as safe as Baghdad argument.

Shit like this is why I wouldn’t let myself feel sorry for Snowballs just because he has cancer. A snide, flippant, lying fuck with cancer is still a snide, flippant, lying fuck.

tAiO

p.s. I looked up the weather for Baghdad. Tony’s weather report is off by 20 degrees, but that’s 160 better than his view of his reality.

  • Gee, maybe if we hadn’t invaded and completely fucked up Iraqian society, they’d still have 24 hour of electricity in order to power the air conditioning needed to cool the parliament.

  • Four thoughts:

    If no work gets done in August, doesn’t that mean that the September deadline is really July 31st?

    George Bush has made a habit of taking vacations in August… and going to a place with ungodly heat.

    Third, let’s compare the Iraqi government to the Founding Fathers again; they did their work in Philadelphia in July. Before AC was invented. With the windows shut. While wearing wool.

    Finally, the fact that Congress takes any weeks off is a good thing. We should aspire to having a federal legislature that is not in session year-round.

  • before doing what they always do — acceding to the president’s demands

    When I think about what they always do, I start with very different verbs, and the nouns I end up with are also qualitatively different, usually having to do with body parts

  • You know, Iraq is not a very safe place and it strikes me as very rational for any person who lives there to want to leave for one or two months a year. What strikes me as more unreasonable is all the time the Republicans in congress took off when they controlled both chambers, before the Dems came back and set things straight. I sincereky doubt the U.S. troops hold it much against the Iraqis for leaving. Our troops are soldiers, and it is required of them, it is their job, to stay there. The legislators are free civilians and the U.S. troops probably understand any civilians wanting to get out of there. It certainly would be more noble if the Iraqis would stay, but maybe that country is not safe enough in its current form to expect anyone to want to stay there spinning their wheels in a deadlocked parliament.

    I wouldn’t vouch for it, but maybe the country needs partitioning into smaller states. I suggested the idea on the blogosphere a very long time ago, and now I hear it’s getting some traction, but hopefully things haven’t been ruined so much there that a chance for success with that has been lost, if Iraq is not viable as a country as it is presently composed.

  • I guess Cheney’s only able to order Bush around, not the entire planet.

    And yeah, the Republicans will suck this latest outrage up, along with all the others.

  • They’re going on vacation instead of making the “progress” we are asking them to. They are ambivalent about our presence there, and if you poll Iraqis themselves overwhelmingly they want us to leave. Americans overwhelmingly want to leave. Why are we still there? Perpetual war to prop up a failed presidency?

  • That’s still an improvement on “I don’t know”, which is what Snow usually says when he means, “I don’t want to talk about it”.

  • How much vacation is George Bush taking this August?

    Doesn’t he hold the record for most days on vacation by any president? I would be very interested to compare his vacation days to any other war-time president. Do you suppose FDR or Truman or LBJ took so much time off?

  • Just one day after the Iraqi government received failing marks in President Bush’s surge interim progress report, Americans learned that the Iraqi parliament is proceeding with its plans to take off the month of August. But while the American people may be up in arms, President Bush’s amen corner is predictably silent. After all, given Bush’s own record-setting penchant for vacationing during crises here at home, Republicans are understandably reticent to criticize the absentee government in Baghdad.

    For the details, see:
    “Republicans Quiet on Iraqi – and Bush – Vacations.”

  • If the 26%ers were livid in May, but not livid in July, then why is that so? Do they know something we don’t? Is it a vacation or an evacuation? Sorry, but my “We’re getting ready to get screwed again” meter is blinking red. I hope that it’s a false positive reading.

  • It’s a 130 degrees for our soldiers and military in Bagdad, too. Guess that doesn’t matter. How many more will die and be wounded during their vacation month of August?
    The Bush/Cheney government need to be impeached ASAP. They have sympathy for the Iraq puppet government, but no regard for our people sweltering there in horrible danger, heat and destruction.
    As for Tony Snow, he comes from Fox Noise, that should make it clear to everyone he cannot be trusted.

  • Well, wouldn’t that be something if the Iraqi Parliamentarians took a month off just before Petraeus reports on the surge? Republicans will have approved the Iraqis’ vacation time, but would have blocked US soldiers getting their deserved time off. Which leaves the soldiers with the burden of making the surge work in this last month, whether or not the Iraqi Parliament gets blamed after the fact.

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