Bloodless Coup

It's Been an Ugly Week

At least in my opinion, it's been a bad week for American politics. The inevitable flexing of conservative muscles since the re-election of W has begun in earnest, and brought us this:

1. Paul Wolfowitz has been nominated to head the World Bank. While I'm happy that he won't be at Defense anymore, I'm not really sure what qualifications he has to run a major component of third-world development (other than a correct ideology).

2. John Bolton is going to be our ambassador to the United Nations. For those who don't know him, he's on record as thinking the UN is useless and should be dismantled. He ought to be fun at cocktail parties.

3. Congress (i.e., the Republicans who run Congress) are refusing to investigate whether the executive branch lied to Congress or the American People with regard to what they made public to justify the invasion of Iraq. This is far more dangerous than the little publicity this story has thus far garnered. One of the little-reported slow-moving stories of the George W. Bush adminstration is the glacial but still apparent movement of power out of the Legislative Branch into the Executive Branch. Congress has consistently abandoned it's role as a watchdog on what the President and the branch he represents does in the name of the people. I freely admit that Bush et al. may not be guilty of evasion or lies to Congress, but there is a prima facia case to made that they did deliberately distort the truth, and Congress needs to investigate.

4. In a little noticed vote earlier this week, the Senate voted to open drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). While it is possible that getting the oil out of this desolate location won't harm the local flora and fauna, I wouldn't bet any amount of money on it. Sometimes I really wonder what Americans in 100 years will think of us (when they have no oil, and no wildlife refuges).

5. The Senate passed the perfectly odious bankrupty bill this week (the House will not oppose it). This bill was written by lobbyists from the credit card companies, and is a significant financial windfall for them. It is uniformly awful for anyone who is living on the margins and suffers a random misfortune (fired, gets sick, etc.).

6. The Senate voted down a Democratic attempt to invoke PAYGO (Pay As You Go) rules for the budget. Had this amendment passed, any spending (or less income, like cutting taxes) would have had to been paid for by offsetting spending cuts or tax increases. In other words, it would have forced the government to be fiscally responsible (can't just vote to spend any amount of money on Iraq, free drugs for Senior Citizens, or anything without somehow paying for it). Needless to say, it didn't pass. How can any Republican say with a straight face that they represent the party of fiscal conservatism and small government? Read the Obsidian Wings catfight between Katherine and Sebastain about which party is more sane.

7. Last but not least, Congress spent a good amount of time this week dealing with steroids in baseball and Terry Schiavo. On the baseball thing, I'm sadly resigned to seeing Congress (who clearly has better things to do with it's time) spend a few hours trying to get some millionaire baseball players to admit they took quasi-legal drugs to get paid yet more money. It's completely irrelevant to actually working on laws (or, as noted, investigating what the Executive Branch is up to), but I'm beginning to expect this. On the other hand the Terry Schiavo thing is unbelievable. The issue has worked its way throught the proper court channels. There is nothing left for any government to do. The courts have ruled (properly or not I can't say) that Schiavo's husband has the right to remove the feeding tubes (hence, allow her to die). The parents have offered to pay whatever the costs are to keep her alive, and the husband has refused. The fact that Congress has subpeonaed her (she is in a coma - she clearly cannot testify) is turning this into a circus. If Congress wants to get into this general issue (not this specific case) they have that right (though why Republicans, who claim to like small government, would get involved in overruling individual states is beyond me). They should leave Terry Schiavo alone, and let the individuals involved work out the end of this tragedy.

It has been an ugly week. I hope things brighten up.

Posted by baltar at March 19, 2005 03:21 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics