WORLD NEWS TRUST: My Kingdom for a Backbone (Mary Lyon)

[Tace]

(World News Trust) -- I've been watching a parade of slapstick worthy of the Keystone Kops lately, but it's not on Vintage Movie Night -- it's in Washington D.C. Hapless doesn't even begin to describe it.

It might be the FISA cave-in in the Senate. It might be the Karl Rove impasse with the House Judiciary Committee. It might be the statements from Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and others in his government including his national security advisor that it?s time for a US troop withdrawal, or at least for a timetable for withdrawal to be set -- about which the White House naysays and Congress remains silent. Or any number of other issues. Actually, there is no "might be" about it. These problems ARE all present. Only one thing is not here, and there's no "might be" there, either. There is no backbone.

There is NO backbone. And if there was ever a time for lots of it, we're there now. I'm thoroughly convinced that this explains the latest Rasmussen poll -- in which Congress has now fallen from 11 percent job approval to 9 percent. NINE percent. It's the first time in that survey's history that the number of voters giving Congress good or excellent reviews has cratered so deeply -- into single digits.

I'm so there. I'm invited to take polls online and on the phone fairly frequently, and my built-in wish to grade the Bush administration far more poorly than a now-Democratic controlled Congress (mainly because I've long considered the Bush administration worse than anything else) is no longer active. I can't give Congress A's or B's when I'm repeatedly convinced that they're earning F's. Even F's are sometimes too good. How far down the alphabet do I go? Certainly way down past even W, these days.

My kingdom for a backbone. Any backbone among the Dems. Any at all. At this point, I'm not proud. I'll take anything. This is the time they should be flexing their muscles like nobody's business and seizing the momentum. After all, we have a White House occupant with lower-than-low approval ratings -- so dismal that Bush?s biggest fan and would-be heir, John McCain, shrivels from him in revulsion and goes virtually Cirque du Soleil in twisting his schedule in knots trying to avoid being in the same zip code Bush is in. So dismal that Republican stomachs are tied in knots wondering what they're going to do with the Toxic Texan at their upcoming convention -- when almost nobody wants to admit they've even heard of the guy.

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/my-kingdom-for-a-backbone-mary-lyon.html

[midnight]

1. Things could be so much better.

[calimary]

3. I SERIOUSLY believe that Congress's job approval ratings would be far higher than

NINE percent if they just started showing some spine - and using it.

Where are all the maneuvers and manipulations to get their way, inch by inch, like the bad guys have done? Our side has the majorities now, but you'd never know it. And for those who say "we still don't have the votes", I would point to what the republi-CONS still seem able to do - WITHOUT the votes.

[calimary]

2. Thanks, Tace!

It's just getting REALLY frustrating!!!

When are our people going to start fighting, for real?

[JeffR]

4. K & R. Deadly accurate piece.

Should be required reading for every Dem in Congress.

[calimary]

5. Thanks, Jeff!

:yourock:

Well, one can hope anyway.

[ihavenobias]

6. K & R, you're dead right. THIS is why the Dems have such low approval ratings in Congress n/t

[calimary]

7. Yep, I'm convinced this is why.

Think of the mandate they had. They said they were going to stop the war. They haven't. They haven't really even tried. I think we were hoping for some dramatic action, or at least a dramatic ATTEMPT at action. There was nothing of the kind.

I am getting pretty tired of hearing the whining - "but we don't have the votes." Especially when you look at what the republi-CONS have been able to do, very nicely, WITHOUT the votes. And when they had a majority but not all the votes either, they did just fine, too. WHAT THE HELL is the matter with our people????

BTW - Thanks for the K&R! :hi:

[calimary]

8. Kick!

My Kingdom for a Backbone.

And I've been saying this for - how many years now?

Frustrating, isn't it?

[MarjorieG]

9. People still don't understand the terror vs privacy issue. No time or media chance to educate B4 Nov

[calimary]

11. They sure don't get that Benjamin Franklin quote:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

[depakid]

13. Even after failures in 2002 and 2004, people don't understand the charatcer issue

George Lakoff explains it once again in layman's terms here:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/07/10162/

[calimary]

14. Thanks for this! I LOVE George Lakoff!

He's always worth a read, and a listen. Always. I wish the DNC would pay more attention.

[CrispyQ]

10. My Kingdom for a Backbone

Hear! Hear!



The Toxic Texan -- that's great!!! :thumbups:

[calimary]

12. "Toxic Texan" is a famous one. Wish I'd originated it.

But it sure fits, like a glove, doesn't it?