Tweet from The Wasington Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran in response to Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearing:
At Hagel hearing, 136 mentions of Israel and 135 of Iran. Only 27 refs to Afghanistan. 2 for Al Qaida. 1 for Mali.
— Rajiv Chandrasekaran (@rajivwashpost) January 31, 2013
Well, of course. The discussion, like most discussions in Washington, centered on what Republicans wanted to talk about, and what they wanted to talk about was -- exclusively -- whatever they thought they could use for political advantage. It doesn't matter that this is a dangerous world, and this was the Senate Armed Services Committee questioning a nominee for secretary of defense -- nobody talked about Mali because Republicans haven't yet figured out a way to use Mali to hurt Democrats. Republicans can no longer use Al Qaeda and and Afghanistan to hurt Democrats, because it's not Bush's first term anymore, so Al Qaeda and Afghanistan barely came up. It was all Israel and Iran, all the time.
We literally no longer have Republican officeholders in Washington who have any larger interest than scoring points for themselves and their side. (Oh, yeah -- they also care about cutting taxes for the rich, but that wasn't relevant here.) On foreign policy, the Republican Party was once dominated by isolationists, and later by realists and by interventionists -- but now the party is dominated by Republicanists. It's all about politics. Republicans have no greater concern. America and its role in the world? Who cares! All that matters is beating their political enemies.
Yup, Republicans don't care about policy - it's ALL about politics.
ReplyDeleteAnd, uhm...
Hagel's up for SoD, NOT SoS!
So, a lot of questions were (no surprise) really stupid.
It's President Obama who'll be setting policy.
John Kerry will be negotiating with other countries, putting Obama's international policies in place, and representing America.
And SoD's job, is to oversee our military, deal with Congress, the military contractors, the budget, adjoining agencies and departments, and making sure our military is ready if, or when, it's needed.
Imo - McCain disgraced himself. He looked like he's fully embraced his role as an angry old foof. He thought he was playing a DA on a C-SPAN detective series yesterday.
Now, I'm not the greatest Hagel fan in the world, but I trust his knowledge, judgement, and abilities a hell of a lot more than those of Johnny McCain, "America's Shittiest Fighter Pilot."
There were many reasons "The Surge" wasn't the disaster it could have been. Hectoring Hagel over whether he was right about it, by one of the most war-loving Senators, and supporters of Bush's Follies, foreign and domestic, was grandstanding of the best and worst.
You lost, Senator McCain.
Big-time!!!
And worse, you inflicted Sarah Palin on us. And I don't think we're done with that grifting Klondike Klown.
She, your incompetence, your anger, and your loss to President Obama, are the legacy you'll leave behind.
In other news, Ed Koch, former Mayor of NY City, has died, at age 88.
Love him or hate him, that guy LOOOOOVED NY!
He was funny, goofy, stubborm, witty, obnoxious, smart, and a whole gamut of other things - often in the same day. Hell, often in the same HOUR!
R.I.P. Mayor Ed Koch.
You'll be missed.
From the annals of turning it back in their faces: I'm sure we all the "America Love It Or Leave It" bumper-stickers of yore... tea bagger grousing the other day about how bad things are under the Dictator Obama, asked me what country I would move to were I to move to another country because he's thinking about moving to another country because... you've all heard the drill. What could I say but (other than dude, I'm a Native Cascadian, I don't have a "country") "well Bill, if you don't like it here you're certainly welcome to leave!"
ReplyDeleteYup, I'm old enough to have seen enough of those "Love It Or Leave It" stickers to gag a maggot. Nice judo move on it with the 'bagger, TB.
ReplyDeleteWhy, it's almost as they were acting in bad faith! (As they are on almost every single issue.)
ReplyDeleteIn a country tired of America spilling oceans of blood for Israel, it's own and that of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, this does them about as much good with the public as a whole as yelling about the 47%.
ReplyDeleteTruman was wrong.
The best way to live with his error is to stay out of the mess caused by his mistake.