http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=61886&mesg_id=61886Condi goes up to Capitol Hill. She presents her part of the budget. Several obviously bright Senators, starting with Biden, mention that the War in Iraq is 'off the budget' right now. Condi says it was a typo and they meant to put it in but forgot. (It slipped her mind. She's been really busy lately.) Sen. Biden tells her a long story about this time when he was a kid and someone asked him to steal a cross and it reminded him that he was Irish. (Name changed at Ellis Island from O'McBidenivan, btw. ) Condi, along with everyone watching, is befuddled by the good Senator's comment and can't figure what it has to do with Iraq. She starts to daydream about what it would be like to actually be Commissioner of the NFL. Biden finishes, reminds her that Rummy is an idiot, Condi stretches and gives him one of those freezingly tight smiles of hers and moves on.
Sens. Lugar and Hagel attempt to say something intelligent but not so intelligent that it turns 'the base' against them. Sen. Hagel gets in some good lines about Iraq not going well and how much it worries him. Sens. Sarbanes and Dodd make really good points about how the budget really should include Iraq as we are spending $5 billion a month over there and someone might notice eventually. Sen. Chafee attempts to waffle his way through the hearing. He has a tough re-election campaign to run so he has to appeal to the tiny Republican base in RI who don't really like him and the huge Dem voter base who don't really like him. He ends up making and refuting his own points, just to be on the safe side. Sen. Allen can't figure out why Sen. Chafee doesn't like the war and kicks him under the table. Sen. Allen congratulates Condi on the amazingly great job that she and the entire Admin is doing in Iraq and proposes that people should really think about buying vacation homes in Baghdad now, before the word gets out and the price hikes start to kick in. (Sen. Hagel wonders if Sen. Allen took his meds that morning and tries not to look at him because Sen. Hagel doesn't suffer fools gladly and is afraid he might have to get the duct tape.)
Sens. Kerry & Boxer have at Condi and get her to admit that Iraq is a real mess, the Pentagon knows that there is no military solution to the troubles over there and that the US is in no shape to do any serious sabre rattling at Iran and everyone knows it. Condi admits that she likes Sen. Kerry's ties, says she tries not to talk to the Pentagon that often, lest it prejudice her actions unduly. (She hates to go into any war-like situation with any pre-conceived notions or indepth intelligence. It might affect her opinions and course of action unduly.) Condi & Sen. Boxer spar over a giant chart that Sen. Boxer brought that says, 'Condi is a liar and here's why.' Condi thinks it's in bad taste to bring up things with that much truthiness in it.
Sen. Coleman says something that winds up inferring that the 'UN Oil for Food' program was so bad that we had to invade Iraq just to change the topic. (The UN is evil and we had to do something, otherwise they might have gotten away with gross mismanagement, inept planning and a failure of leadership. That's at the ahm, Oil for Food program, just so we're clear on that.) Sen. Allen spends 15 minutes trying to read Sen. Boxer's chart, but has to give up, cuz it's just too complicated for him. The hearing ends when Sen. Lugar figures he isn't going to get Condi to admit to anything and he can't stand being in the room with Allen and Coleman one more minute.
Sigh! How do you guys see it going?
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