After the election, I took a news hiatus—a vacation from the news, if you will. I visited with friends and family, bought a new smart phone, promptly discovered Pandora and floated effortlessly into a few days of music of every genre for every mood. When I awoke from this Rip Van Winkle-type vacation, I learned I had missed my deadline for this column last week. Fortunately, I felt no guilt as the deadline had come early due to Veteran’s Day, and since I am a Vet… well, you see where I’m going…
Having returned from my self-imposed news blackout, I’m tempted to crawl back into Pandora’s Box and escape back into the music. No, I must face the new reality, (or is it really new?) of the remainder of this Congress and the beginning of the next. I’m not a scholar and perhaps I should take a quick review of Greek Tragedies before I make this observation, but to find Senator McConnell unabashedly re-iterating his adamant position that his #1 job going forward is to make sure President Obama is a one-term president, while playing “bad cop” to soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner’s new persona of “good cop”; President Obama seemingly once again negotiating away the most widely supported position of not adding another $700 billion to the deficit by renewing the tax breaks for the wealthy; and lastly, more-clueless-than-even-I-ever-thought-possible former President Bush admitting, on camera in front of all the world, that he committed war crimes. Does that not a Greek Tragedy make?
When you break it down, none of it is really new. I mean, other than John Boehner changing personalities on us all of a sudden. Ol’ Mitch (bless his heart) is living proof that what your mother told you when you were little about your face freezing that way was most definitely true. No real surprise there. And, I’m sorry President Obama, I’d like to give you a swift kick—is this going to be the same as with Health Care Reform? Are you going to give away the store, before we even get to the table? They are not going to negotiate with you. They have been pretty clear. (I think we all know who “they” are.) As for George W. being clueless? Clearly, there was no big "Stop the Presses" headline there.
What does take my breath away, though, is the depth of his cluelessness. It apparently has no bottom. Beginning with the world-changing tragedies of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, continuing with the man-made tragedy of the War in Iraq (where “man” in this case being an actual man, Geo. W, himself) and, as yet, no end to the young American lives lost in the wars that were authorized by him; but strangely, the thing that gave him the most pause during his presidency was Kanye West accusing him of not caring about black people. If this doesn’t show how completely out of touch from reality this man was and is, then I don’t know what possibly could. The pain that was unleashed upon the citizens of this country and around the world, some of which can be traced directly back to his door, not to mention the near-collapse of the world economic system—again some of which can be traced back to his policies—but none of these are the things that stand out in Bush’s mind, no, in fact, he claims to sleep well at night.
If it weren’t for the missing family members, the broken hearts of the families of our lost heroes, all the above could almost be amusing. But I can’t laugh. No, not knowing there is a mother somewhere looking after her young, maimed son who was strong and full of life and can no longer feed himself. Nor can I laugh when I think about the little sister who has to visit her brother’s grave, or the newly widowed, young mother-to-be who will give birth to the fallen hero’s baby. But, I haven’t even gotten to the really bad part yet. A former U.S.
I am not saying all this because I necessarily think Bush should be prosecuted for war crimes, although I do. I’m just saying that right now, we have more immediate things we have to face and deal with and I don’t want my congressional representatives to waste their time and our money with long, drawn-out hearings and so forth. The focus MUST be on jobs, the economy, the deficit—anything else at this moment in time would be a dereliction of duty, as far as I’m concerned. Let’s have that adult conversation that Republicans are mentioning every time a microphone is put in front of their faces lately. We ARE ready. We’ve been ready. So far, though, I’ve yet to hear a single one of them explain how we are going to pay for extending the tax cuts to the wealthy or where they will cut the budget. Not yet, not from even one.
On the other hand, if someone decided to start investigating (What’s to investigate? He’s already confessed!) Bush for war crimes, then I wouldn’t be opposed—especially if soon-to-be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor gets his way. Three days after the election he was ready to tackle the big issues—no, he didn’t come up with a jobs plan or ways to slash the deficit. No, he is ready to make sure that “... Republican-led committees will devote more time investigating and exposing lapses by the Obama administration and problems with its programs, including bringing critical oversight reports to the House floor for very public debates. Rep. Eric Cantor wants every committee chairman to investigate administration programs to make sure taxpayers are getting their money's worth. He's proposing a featured "oversight" hearing of the week. He's even ready to limit naming of post offices to one day a month, so that committees can spend their time on investigations.”*
Yeah, if that happens, then why not start the Bush war crimes investigation? There won’t be any significant work being done in Congress for the good of the people anyway.
I’m going back to my Pandora world of music for a little while…
*Taken from http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/11/4/917500/-Finally,-Eric-Cantor-lays-out-what-the-Republican-majority-will-do
