The Heretik

"RADICAL" HILLARY CLINTON

THE BIGGEST JOKE in politics is the Republican desire to run against not at all “radical” Hillary Clinton in 2008.  Hillary Clinton is a radical candidate the way wheat bread is radical for somebody who thinks lunch must be another sandwich and the supermarket is out of white bread.  If there is mustard on her sandwich, it won’t be French dijon or anything with a bold flavor. Her allies call her cautious, which is another way of saying I will wait and see what works. Dan Balz in the WaPo has some “analysis” on her on the war

As she told Kentucky Democrats earlier this month, "I reject a rigid timetable that the terrorists can exploit, and I reject an open timetable that has no ending attached to it."

REJECTS This country is waiting for somebody who doesn’t wait to make up his or her not very radical mind.

Some analysts call her approach a classic example of the kind of third-way triangulation -- putting herself at odds not only with the Republicans but also with much of her own party -- practiced by her husband, former president Bill Clinton. Others say she has been on target in her approach. "I think she's been very measured and very thoughtful and very consistent with her criticisms," said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

THOUGHTFUL, CONSISTENT Dan Balz is buying it. His piece is titled: Hillary Clinton Crafts Centrist Stance on War. The craft?  Let us now march forward in place. The Republicans on the other hand will consider Clinton the product of witchcraft.  The Heretik knows which craft will be used by Clinton as she campaigns. Only the craft which will work.

AGENT LIEBERMAN

LIEBERMAN KNEW he alone was right for the job. It had nothing to do with ego. When he told Hadassah, she cried, but agreed. This could be the kiss of death. There could only be one winner in the debate about the war in Iraq.  It would be a lonely task. In service for the greater good, only Joe Lieberman could venture into such dangerous ground and come out with what the nation needed.  It would require all his skill, all his considerable acumen, to access the door to the other side.  And when he opened it, he knew there would be shooting.  The prize he would hold in his hands would honor the nation.  Some in the end would appreciate his sacrifice. If he bled a little, he would bleed true to the greater truth. He was in the end clearly a member of the Republican Democratic Republican party.

LIEBERMAN BLOWS

Lefty Leonardo di Luna’s more lefty sister Louise lamented the loss of Joe Mentum.  “Lieberman says he wants a war cabinet for Bush.  They must have all the little wars stored away, ready to be pulled out.” Then she laughed. “Oy,” she muttered.  Lieberman blows.  Look what he says.”

Lieberman, whom the Bush administration has praised repeatedly for his war stance, defended the president. "It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he'll be commander-in-chief for three more years," the senator said. "We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."
There was no immediate response from the White House or congressional leaders.

"I hope Bush does form that war cabinet," Lefty Louise said."I'd help him get in that cabinet.  Yeah, I would. The little putz.  Then I'd shut the door on him fast.  And throw away the key." 

OLIVER WILLIS says: It wasn’t enough that Joe Lieberman has betrayed his party again and again and again, but now he’s decided that speaking out against the war isn’t acceptable.

THE HERETIK NOTES Lieberman might be happier if there were just One True Party, as long as he were near the top of it.  Perhaps something Bush is lodged in Lieberman's throat and the words we are hearing here are the echo of Ari Fleischer: Watch what you say, watch what you do.  Which in the case of Lieberman here might be: Watch what you say, watch who you do.

QUESTION OF THE DAY Who would the Democrats run against a Republican 2008 ticket of Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller? 

LARGER QUESTION How big can the big tent be before the only thing holding it up is hot air from overinflated egos like Liebermans?  On the Republican side, when will Coulter issue a fatwa on Republican "moderates?"  Having had her fill of libruls and traitors, when will she begin to dine on the Republican youth?

AND THE LARGEST QUESTION What time is Lefty's Lounge Open?  Answer: Now.  So stop in for a drink and leave a link.

THE BIDEN 2005

OWNER'S MANUAL Your Biden 2005 should give you long years of service and enjoyment if you follow these simple tips!  Do not be surprised if your Biden 2005 seems stiff and unresponsive.  Before use, read all the instructions.  Lube your Biden gently with small campaign donations at first.  You willl be surprised how quickly the Biden will respond. 

OCCASIONALLY IT MAY SEEM your Biden doesn't act like the Senator you bought.  Do not be alarmed.  Part of the design of the 2005 is that it remain silent for long periods of time.  We added this "thoughtful" module for contentious times like the debate on the war in Iraq.  When the time is right and the moment is safe, switch your BIden to "Leader Mode" and your Biden will speak out strongly.  The fence your Biden may sit on until that crucial moment is available at a small charge, recurring monthly. 

WE HOPE YOU ENJOY your Biden 2005 for many years to come.

OTHER RECOMMENDED NEW MODELS FOR 2006 SOON
Eleanor Clift Withdrawing or Redeploying?  The Heretik notes it won't just be Biden who takes a remodel on Iraq. He may just be the worst of the lot.  Jamie Glanz in The NY Times: Saving Face and How to Say Farewell.  The Heretik believe it is time for facing facts.

YEAH, WHAT HE SAID [AFP] "Senator Biden Adopts Key Portions Of Administration's Plan For Victory In Iraq," McClellan said the Bush administration welcomed Biden's voice in the debate.
"Today, Senator Biden described a plan remarkably similar to the administration's plan to fight and win the war on terror," the spokesman went on to say.
He added that as Iraqi security forces gain strength and experience, "we can lessen our troop presence in the country without losing our capability to effectively defeat the terrorists."
McClellan said the White House now saw "a strong consensus" building in Washington in favor of Bush's strategy in Iraq.

NOW THE HERETIK SEES the policy model is in place. The question now is who will have their name on a policy tomorrow that nobody wanted to touch two weeks ago.

Maha has more.

THIS BLOWS

THE WIND BLOWS but not so much as Joe Biden who now is prepared for what he wasn’t prepared for last week.  We should be prepared for “leaders”  like Bush and Biden to look at the polls and blow accordingly.  The time has come for many things, to speak of Iraq and withdrawal and the dream of would be kings.
 
BIDEN BLOWS ALMOST as much as Bush. Bush blew hard for war and the likes of Biden blew for him as much as possible.  Now comes the blowback for the blowhards who hardly cared until the wind blew strong.  Truly this all blows
.
A BLOW BY BLOW account would be in order for how things got so out of order, but the people are already bored.  Boredom blows, particularly for the politicians who are excited about “ideas,” but only ideas that overexcite voters who end up blown away.  Where are we now?

NOW WATCH THIS DRIVE said Bush not so long ago.  Stay the course has gone off course and all of Bush’s balls have landed in the rough.  Biden in the gallery declares:

If the administration shows it has a blueprint for protecting our fundamental security interests in Iraq, Americans will support it.

AND IF BUSH DOESN’T have a plan, Biden come lately surely does.

AND NOW FOR SOME BLOW BY BLOW
A HARD RIGHT TO THE HEAD Captain Ed via All Things Beautiful: Nations do not deploy their troops in order to engage in timelines for their return. They send their men (and women) abroad to tackle specific missions, and the only timetable that matters is victory.

THE HERETIK NOTES some problems arising from the war in Iraq are who “ the enemy” is, what “the war” is, and not incidentally what “victory” is.  In large measure whether one accepts Iraq as the central front in the “war on terror” will determine whether you accept “success” where it can be found.  Or not.  Bush who threw everything together quickly at the start of this war should not be surprised when everything falls apart with equal speed. Americans suffer ill focused  wars less than well.  Impatience with a war’s progress is an inevitable bastard pup of the impatient bitch of a policy at its start. The pup now bites at Bush’s teat. Or somewhere else.  Should anyone who was shocked at Bush’s impatience before be surprised by his irritability ahead?
 
WHO ATTACKS BIDEN today may not realize who they attack is the Bush of tomorrow.
 
AN UPPERCUT TO THE HEAD Ron Beasley at The Middle Earth Journal says it is just another round of Biden BS:  . . . professional politician Joe Biden is one who watches to see which way the tide is flowing and he knows there already is a timetable. So what does Joe Biden do? He proposes one of course.

THE HERETIK SEES Biden is just doing what is inevitable for a Democrat who follows polls to plot positions  . . .  run for president.

DAMNED BIDEN

NOTHING LIKE GIVING away the cards you might play before the game has even started. When it comes time for poker, let me know when Joe Biden can play.  Perhaps I can win some of the money he so generously receives from the credit card companies. [story]

Samuel Alito should get an up-or-down vote on his Supreme Court nomination, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday, playing down the chances of a filibuster.
"My instinct is we should commit," said Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., minimizing prospects of the Senate maneuver that would prevent final action on
President Bush's choice to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

"I think that judgment won't be made until the bulk of us have had a chance to actually see him and speak to him. But I think the probability is that (a vote) will happen," Biden said on ABC's "This Week."

BIDEN SHOULD STICK to stealing speeches from British politicians before he sticks it again to opponents of Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
TEXAS FOLD’EM [Pam’s House Blend] Sounds like the Dems will fold again. Either Alito was smooth as silk in those face-to-face meetings, allaying fears that he's a wild-eyed rightwinger (despite a scary paper trail), or we're seeing balls-free default Dem mode, afraid to use the fiilibuster and thus triggering the nuclear option.

THE HERETIK NOTES the Democrats’ deck is overloaded with jokers.

FILIBUST [Captain Ed] The political momentum of a Democratic filibuster appears to have dissipated over the weekend after a momentary corrective earlier this week.

THE HERETIK KNOWS Biden cannot be criticized for not finishing what he started if he bravely . . . never starts in the first place.

[The Moderate Voice] Biden is probably correct. A filibuster would probably only trigger the "nuclear option" unless it's a person who is truly a highly polarizing figure. So far Alito hasn't proven to be that. In fact, news reports of Senators meeting with him find that many of them are impressed.
A filibuster is sort of like a silver bullet: you can use it...perhaps more than once...but its use had better be warranted.

BUT THE HERETIK KNOWS a poker player never loses by keeping the cards close to the chest

DAMNED DEMOCRATS

THE REPUBLICANS ARE IN TROUBLE but Democrats won’t  have much of a chance to improve their chances if they don’t stand for something. Bush is not trusted [story]

One bright spot for the Republicans is the low regard in which many Americans hold the Democrats. The public sees the Democrats as disorganized, lacking in clear ideas or a positive alternative to the GOP agenda, and bereft of appealing leaders.

THE LAST CANDIDATE the Democrats ran for President allowed himself to be defined by his opponents as weak, his strengths as a veteran got twisted into a weakness, and he was defeated by a slacker party boy who ran away from his National Guard commitment.  But now we find out what a loser Kerry really was. Mark Crispin Miller just wrote a book Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They’ll Steal the Next One, Too. He spoke with Amy Goodman recently about the book and Kerry came up [Democracy Now]

Speaking of John Kerry, I have some news for you. On Friday, this last Friday night, I arranged to meet Senator Kerry at a fundraiser to give him a copy of my book. He told me he now thinks the election was stolen. He said he doesn't believe that he is the person who can go out front on the issue, because of the sour grapes, you know, question. But he said he believes it was stolen.

SO EVEN WHEN DEMOCRATS WIN elections (or believe they did), “leaders” like Kerry lack the BALLS conviction to fight.  The Heretik wonders whether the Democrats can summon the strength to show up next time around

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
SORE LOSER OR JUST LOSER? [Robert Parry/ Consortium News] Kerry told Edwards in a phone call that Shrum and other advisers insisted that a concession was the best course. “They say that if I don’t pull out, they (Kerry’s political opponents) are going to call us sore losers,” Miller said, recounting the substance of Kerry’s phone call to Edwards.
Miller said Edwards responded, “So what if they call us sore losers?” But Kerry pressed ahead with his decision to concede.
“Kerry’s caving in like that gave an enormous gift to the right wing,” Miller said. “They (the conservatives) could now claim, ‘well, even their (the Democrats’) candidate doesn’t think it was stolen. And they (Kerry and his advisers) left … the American people hanging out to dry there.”
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also has questioned the security of U.S. electronic voting systems. 

THE HERETIK RECALLS what the exit polls said and we heard analysis of how well they predict elections. When the announced numbers changed, how could Kerry so quickly have made an exit?

DUMBASS DEMS [Words Have Power] It is hard to figure out how Democrats can be some stupid. The point here isn't that Kerry got Swiftboated and lost the election. The point here is that the Bush Machine stole their second presidential election in a row and the man who had the election stolen from him is afraid to stand up and talk about it in public. How Democrats could be so fooled by Kerry. He is not a man of courage or integrity. The Republicans were right, he is a coward.

STILL SMARTING [Raw Story] Kerry's campaign quickly denounced the claim.
"I know Mr. Miller is trying to sell his book and he feels passionately about his thesis but his recent statements about his conversation with Senator Kerry are simply not true," spokesperson Jenny Backus said. "The only thing true about his recollection of the conversation is that he gave Senator Kerry a copy of his book." [via Mark Crispin Miller]

MORE TO FOLLOW

DAMNED DEMOCRATS

FROM THE SAME PEOPLE who brought you:

I’m John Kerry reporting for duty.  I’ve got a better plan for (fill in the blank). (Repeat, repeat, until people see you have no plan). Rinse.  Repeat.  Hey, but your hair looks terrific. My hair?  It does look terrific.  Now let's talk issues.  Did I mention my plan?  I've got a better plan.

THE DEMS MUST HAVE DONE new demographics, but mixed them up with the losing load from last year.  The finalists for the new Dem slogan?  We Can Do Better. Or the don’t blame us version:  America Can Do Better.  Throw in a together.  Together, We Can Do Better.  Oh, don’t forget America.  Together, America Can Do Better. [story]

COULD THIS BE worse?  No.  Say it together. No.  Damned Dems damn themselves to political hell again. [via Political Wire via Shakespeare’s Sister via con Dios]

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

SILENCE MAY BE GOLDEN, but more often is far less than that.  Our leaders of late are leaden, without courage, waiting for in some way to be convinced of what is now so obvious to others.  [story] Only two Democrats from Congress appeared yesterday to speak out in Washington against the war. If Democrats cannot speak against the war, just what can Democrats speak for?

DEMOCRATS STILL LACK THE COURAGE to join the fight when even overwhelming numbers speak out against the war.    Leading Democrats don’t want to be associated yet with what is right.  Who speaks courageously now will want to be associated with the silent cowards later?  Democrats might want to think about that.

RECOMMENDED READING
DEM DEMS [The Sideshow ] Fear. What, are they afraid the right-wingers won't respect them? Too late! Are they afraid Karl Rove will release falsehoods about them (or maybe even a few real skeletons)? Do they really think appeasement will stop him? Are they worried that the wingers might send them some more anthrax? That might be a realistic fear, at least.

HEART OF DARKNESS [Whiskey Bar] I've read and considered the views of those who argue the American occupation is provoking, not restraining the march towards civil war, and that a U.S. withdrawal would lead to a reduction in violence, not an explosion of it. But to me, those arguments have always had a wiff of rationalization about them -- of ducking the hard moral choices involved.