Cheney Challenges Democratic Leaders' Masculinity
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Dec 05, 2007 7:01pm
I paraphrase, of course. However, this whole interview seems like a Freudian analysis waiting to happen. The Politico:
Vice President Cheney warned in an interview Wednesday that a premature withdrawal from Iraq would invite "further attacks" against the United States and said he has been surprised by the weakness of the Democratic Congress.
Most striking were his virtually taunting remarks of two men he described as friends from his own days in the House: Democratic Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and John P. Murtha (Pa.).
In a 40-minute interview with Politico, he scoffed at the idea of two men who spent years accruing power showing so much deference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the big spending and energy debates of the year.
Murtha "and the other senior leaders ... march to the tune of Nancy Pelosi to an extent I had not seen, frankly, with any previous speaker," Cheney said. "I'm trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn't have happened."
But his implication was clear: When asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, "They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected."
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who as Democratic Caucus Chair is the party's fourth-ranking House leader, replied: "Some of us were surprised that the president didn't have a bigger stick when he could have stood up to Dick Cheney."
Bigger sticks??? My goodness, we have devolved into governing the country by pissing contests. And Dick (your choice of nickname is very revealing in this context), it appears you have some serious issues with women in authority positions.
When asked for his response, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "Dingell and Murtha still carry very big sticks." Um, okay. I think this whole analogy is starting to creep me out.
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Yeah, this coming form the guy who did the tuck dance everytime his chance came up to serve in Vietnam.
I can name half a dozen Dems that have bigger conhones than this POS.
Yip, it all comes down to being a man.
You gotta' be tough. You gotta kick ass.
Cohones*
And imagine. taking orders from Nancy Pelosi. Taking orders from a WOMAN.
What kind of man does that?
How big a stick does it take to dodge a draft five times?
Stand by ur' man!
Doop do waaaaaa
In his dementia, dick obsesses on things of his that dont work that used to. Hence is obsession with guns and junior high locker room humor. He's just a big useless blob, that can no longer perform.
Does a draft doger with a gay daughter really want to attack Murtha's Masculinity?
How ironic. Cheney engaged in a literal dick-waving contest.
Cheney should know about premature withdrawl. At his age and health, I doubt he is all that familliar with insertion anymore.....
Naving the name DICK does not make you a man. In this case it just makes you a DICK!
Dickhead Cheney should shut the fuck up and begin preparing for his defense when he is arrested for war crimes among other things.
Well, if there's anyone you can trust to be obsessing about fellow politicians' penises, that is, when they're not obsessing about under-age subordinates' penises, it's Republicans. (And of course devout moralizing Evangelical preachers, but that's another matter.)
I'm sure we all remember how many times Dennis Hastert bludgeoned Tom Delay with his massive stick.
Thanks cheney but we can bash our own. WE are smart and honest enough to say so when our reps screw up. The problem here is that the ones cheney is bashing are trying to stop a war with 70% of the people supporting them. What is his party's excuse for their lips being sealed to bush ass?
And this from a guy with a 3 foot long vagina.
Hey Dick, "Go Cheney Yourself"!
i hope and pray Kucinich succeeds in Impeaching this traitorous War Criminal, it would serve him right for his dirty bloody oil profiteering based on lies and conspiracies to defraud our nation and murder millions of innocent human beings.
Can you say "Guilty"?
Cheney may be a psycho...but what can you say about Reid, who accepts Cheney's frame and then argues stick size!!!
ask Dick and Karl to testify under oath about their little escapades in the white house with Jack Abramoff and Jeff Gannon/Guckert.
Or are you going to go with the Larry "Wide Stance" Craig approach and deny it ever happened?
I would just like to say penis and vagina.
Hey Dick! Any more brilliant Ideas Dick? - song and images by thinking blue and peanut - Impeach Cheney first - from Guantanimo and Torture to spying on Americans ... this guy who avoided Vietnam is the ultimate chickenhawk. I hope Murtha laughs at him then lets him have it.
KO is having a "Special Comment" tonight.
Well, Mr Cheney, if we're going to use the offensive logic of the frathouse or the lodge, here's another:
Maybe the reason the Republican house leadership would never capitulate to a woman is that they are all, to a man, immune to a woman's charms?
;)
LibertyLover @ 4:
cojones....
sharkcellar @ 22:
Feel better?
Go fuck yourself, Cheney.
Impeach this pustule.
I actually have to agree with Cheney on his two major points. I, too, have been surprised at the weakness of this Congress, and I think they show far too much deference to Pelosi's opinion.
I mean, Cheney really should've been thrown in jail by now.
Dickula strikes again.
Five! Five draft deferments. Ha, ha, haaaaaa!
- The Count
Go fuck yourself, cheney - you are a murderous war criminal who deserves to suffer as much as those you have murdered. Why doesn't your mechanical heart stop already?
Ya know his pacemaker god, please please make dick walk into a room full of microwaves at the pentagon. make them all, all of them knock each other into oblivion with their big sticks. this is a dream on caffeine, a busy meaningless mall with no exits, no point no ground no windows with people going up and down getting more stuff. always more stuff. cars. buy more cars. who buys these cars, fuck if we know. murder is normal. shitting where you eat is normal. making circular sentences. being sociopathic yet religious is normal. going into countries and deliberately cock-fighting one nation against another so they'll destroy each other so they can steal their resources. to poison land for thousands of years and ruin bloodlines forever. to cause so much grief so fast and profoundly people have lost the soul to speak. to steal from your own people from so many sides they are dizzy and disoriented from everything turned inside out and against them they are the new enemy.
Just oh.......fuck. where is a giant meteor when we need it the most.
Okay... anyone with a first name Dick should not throw those stones!!!
I'm guessing Cheney's a Viagra-boy given all his cardiovascular problems (and the ogre of a wife he's got), so it's no surprise he's fixated with the male member. Maybe he's had extensive conversations with Larry Craig about this in the mens' room?
Any plan to mention the destroyed CIA torture tapes on this blog?
Great, even the VP is challenging the DNC leadership.
If the DNC leadership will not challenge the VP, why not?
How far will the VP be able to go before the DNC leadership dares to assert its power? There's nothing stopping the VP from doing what he wants: Impeachment is off the table.
Let the VP rip into the DNC leadership. They deserve it. They've been lazy, and have not confronted the VP.
What took so long, Mr. VP to challenge the DNC leadership?
Just for the record; Cheney is the worst president this country has ever had.
I wonder if he thinks Jeff Gannon carries a big enough stick? What a Dick Head. I hope he goes to jail or dies.
DICK shootem in the face while I'm hammered out of my mind...and waits till the next day to call the cops(home owner next door).......and his hammered buddy says...it's ok.it's not a big deal
"the water is cold"
"deep, too"
This feud between Murtha and Cheney has gone on long enough. They should sit down and trade war stories ... oh that's right.
The "big stick" talk is not Freudian at all you silly mooks ;) It's a reference to Teddy Roosevelt's saying, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far"
But then again I doubt Cheney would have reference it if he'd realized Roosevelt used the saying to describe a called bluff.
Liar@36, all we know is that this metasticising cancer will continue to eat it's host for another 13 months. Conyers is exercising 'patience' by which time we can enjoy a virtual hell on earth.
Maybe the dem's should pop a couple beers then go shoot their friend in the face.That sure would show a big stick.Must have been a real man ,by this theory ,who pumped three shots into TILLMAN'S face.
How many Germans now admit they supported the nazis and I can't wait for the day in our country,when nobody will admit to ever being a republican.
"Bigger sticks??? My goodness, we have devolved into governing the country by pissing contests"
Bigger sticks, growing balls, what's the goddamned difference?
This is the rhetoric of a culture stuck in basement (or the mezzanine).
Cheney would have the Statute of Liberty decked out in gold nipple rings if he thought it would offend enough people.
zip. PLOP.
I LOVE these "civil" discussions!
crazytown @ 43:
One man's "patience" is a lady's "malfeasance".
mudshark @ 26:
TY! It's later than I think... my fongers won't work...
:lol:
KO's special comment was.......whew!man o man....if I was him,I'd be looking over my shoulder.
LibertyLover @ 48:
LOL....oh yeah....been there.
Murtha's stick curves to the right most of the time.
The good ol' usa... where all the wrong faces get blown off.
Cheney's playing the game of, "Only real men would have problems with legislation." This is a trick to get the DNC to say, "Hay, we can focus on legislation". Cheney's doing this to get the DNC to "prove" that they will not get distracted by an impeachment investigation. Only clowns would fall for it. Oh, that's right: DNC clowns are falling for it.
The more media energy-time on this, less time on impeachment investigation. Yes, that's the legal streategy: Do what they have to ensure the pardon-option remains on the table. Dissuade the Congress from spending any time on any impeachment proceedings.
It's working. The GOP, despite "losing" the 2006 election, can still get the DNC to react to this childish non-sense. DNC is being played for the fool it is.
I don't understand why the GOP doesn't accept what VP is saying, "Yes, MR. VP, you're right: the DNC leadership is awful. Let's challenge the DNC leadership to make way for new DNC leadership." The DNC will not change, and stick with the DNC leaders who refuse to challenge the VP.
See how that works? Even though you're in the minority, get the majority to not assert power. DNC inaction in 2007 same as a GOP victory in 2006. Yes, the GOP may have lost the election, but it still controls both Houses of Congress: Congress is reacting to the GOP agenda of "not enforce the Constitution" and "distract attention from crimes with calls that the DNC focus on legislation."
Bush & Cheney's tactics: (1) a rapid thrust into an unprepared territory (2) a quick climax (mission accomplished) (3) cease all productive effort without actually withdrawing. Now you know why Iraq feels like it has been screwed, but left unsatisfied. (Laura and Lynn could have predicted this!)
The good ol' usa....where figures of speech are suck the life out of us.
(make it end, make it end)
There could be a very simple, very easy response to all this:
"The Vice President is a man who has been wrong every step of the way since he took office. Wrong about WMD. Wrong about protecting this country. This is just another case of the Vice President being wrong."
Paul in LA @ 45:
He already did that. Burning the Constitution wasn't enough for you? Impeachment is off the table. Constitution is just a piece of paper, Paul.
Let's look at the facts:
A. Nothing can be done. The Congress is beholden to a President who refuses to cooperate with fact finding; if the President's attorney's will not agree with a prosecution, Congress is powerless.
B. The States are powerless. They have no power to challenge Congress. The States must assent to illegal warfare. The States cannot do things the Congress refuses to do. If Congress says the President will not be challenged, we have no choice. Nothing can be done. There is nothing any attorney can do to prevent this.
C. This is a tyranny. Congress refuses to act. There is nothing that can be done. No change in leadership is possible outside the elections. We are struck with this result.
Given the above facts, Paul: Why do you bother to post here, or is there something you believe that would solve this problem?
smass @ 57:
You're right. We don't need to investigate.
Congress has nothing to do. There is no problem.
I think the Dork Lard is overcompensating for some inadequacy. I wonder what that could be...?
Hmf. And this, from a man that stayed as far away from 'Nam as humanly possible? Oh please, I've seen more convincing Bigfoot movies.
What Cheney said especially towards Murtha might hold 1 ml of water if he had any size of stick or stones for that matter and not depended on the rich boys deferrment program and got out of the VNwar. Until then you will continue to be what you really are........................ONE BIG DICK!
I'd like to see Barbara Boxer[deleted--do not advocate violence]. Reid is too much of a pussy to do anything other than whine.
States have options. Where Congress refuses to act, the States are not beholden. State AGs can assert power to enforce the law against the VP. Outside Congress, outside elections. Congressional assent to this non-sense is not the final word. Grand juries can indict a sitting VP, President, or Member of Congress and help put pressure on the leadership in either the GOP or DNC to resign.
Members of Congress can be challenged before the election with direct prosecutions and investigations at the state level. The President has no power to block State officials from prosecuting the DNC or GOP Members of Congress. One allegation is the Members of Congress, by refusing to either prosecute or impeach, and violated the Guarantee to the States to have an enforcement mechanism with a Republic.
Members of Congress in positions of leadership can be unseated from their officer assignments. House proclamations can unseat an officer in the House. Enough GOP Members of Congress forced a vote on impeachment resolution to stir up the DNC leadership. State citizens can pass proclamations calling on the House to remove the current leadership. Something can be done before the 2008 election. We are not stuck with this failed DNC crew for the next 14 months.
We still have a Constitution and Republic. All that's needed is for the States to assert power. Cheney, Bush, Pelosi, and Reid have 50 States they need to content with, now, before the 2008 election. We the People -- all 300 Million of us -- have the collective power to compel this failed crew in DC to assent to our will. Peacefully. Lawfully. ALl that's needed is a single proclamation to call on the House to challenge the leadership.
Why does everyone keep saying, "nothing can be done" when there remain options on the table? This DNC-GOP leadership will not respond. Who is justifying "defending" the leadership in the US government that is responsive? Time to challenge them. Now, before the 2008 election. Either they support investigations; or we move to challenge them, and remove them as Speaker, VP, and President.
What's it going to take, America? You have options. We still can make this US government respond, react, and bend to our will. It's far from over. We have options. They haven't been taken away. Whehter you do or do not assert them is a separete issue. Don't give up.
Hey, do we have a side of Dick we don't know of, wtf with the big stick analogy???. This guy having so many cardiovascular problems is not exactly the epitome of "wood", if you get my drift.
You don't suppose Pelosi threatened to shoot them in the face, do you?
This whole thing IS a pissing match, and the Democrats would rather lose it than stand up to Republicans. Whether this is because they are cowardly or because they are closet Republicans, I don't know or care, all that matters is they get called out again and again and they back down again and again. The voters sense this fear, and are turned off by it. Yes, it's true that Dick Cheney doesn't have the physical courage of John Kerry, but he does have the courage of his convictions, and that's something almost no Democratic politician has.
In the correct context, this is the one time in my existence where I shall agree with what old Dick says: “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”
That's correct.
And when they find their sticks, Dick, you may well be the first to know.
cheney was hiding behind his wife during vietnam and now he's a tough guy.
You can easily recognize a REAL man. He's the guy who shoots a senior citizen in the face. Now, THAT's manly.
I don't really have a comment, I was just too creeped out by the 69 comments listed at the end of the article as already posted.
70 will look much better.
;o}
I love you Nicole. But not in a gay way, mind you....pfffft.
Ha. Terrific post, Sistah....
Let's see here, who the heck is president and who is vice-president? The vice is to standby incase the president can't perform his dutys. So mr. vice...SHUT UP.
"Vice President Cheney warned in an interview Wednesday that a premature withdrawal from Iraq would invite “further attacks” against the United States and said he has been surprised by the weakness of the Democratic Congress."
He said "premature withdrawal..." huh-huh, huh-huh...
Cheney Challenges Democratic Leaders’ Masculinity
I thought that was Coulter's job.
as much as it pains me to admit it...http://fauxrealtho.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/hung_cheney.jpg
saw it on carlos mencia.
Dickk hasn't seen his "stick" since he knocked up Lynne to get out of Vietnam.
Cheney is Satan personfied. The bastard he enjoyed people mispronouncing his name, by calling him Chen-ey as a opposed to Che-ney. What an honery asshole.
Murtha has chunks of guys like Cheney in his shit.
I don't know . . .
Democracy, Monarchy, Oligarchy . . .
Is there some technical name for "government by the well-hung"?
Yah, well, Cheney's got so much credibility. Go back to ICU where you belong.
jaxpagan @ 80:
Yes, it's called Viking Invasion.
Cheney's a HARD man, and he likes to ERECT a wall around himself, and show NO SOFTNESS to anyone, while he KEEPS UP with the news, draws a FIRM conclusion, and PUSHES FORWARD with his POINT of view,
Enough of the analogies, if this asshole had a comedy show of his own, he'd fall flat on his face, but be mildly funny on occasion,
BUT THIS DOOFUSS IS VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND VENTRILOQUIST FOR THE DUMMY, AND A WAR-MONGERING SON OF A BITCH.
How much longer can we, and the world, put up with him!
It's this kind of talk that attracts the likes of Larry Craig to the GOP.
The GOP has "had its' way" with this congress and will continue to do so as far as I can tell. Even today I'm hearing that Congress is gearing up to capitulate on hate-crimes legislation.
Why are we heaping scorn on Dick Cheney, as much as I despise everything he stands for, he is, for perhaps the first time, speaking the truth.
a d00d with a Vietnam allergy that can't have caffeine is challenging our stones
jaxpagan @ 80:
Dick + Bush = Screwed
Anecdotal evidence suggests that Lynne wears the pants in the Cheney family. Someone has to run the household while the big DICK is out slaughtering small birds and animals.
with five deferments, dickhead should be able to recognize cowardice!
Re "Vice President Cheney warned in an interview Wednesday that a premature withdrawal from Iraq would invite “further attacks” against the United States and said he has been surprised by the weakness of the Democratic Congress."
Dick Cheney's policies in Iraq invite further attacks against the United States. I'm surprised by his weakness, as evidenced by his inability to get this connection, between his policies and increased terrorism against the United States.
Re "In a 40-minute interview with Politico, he scoffed at the idea of two men who spent years accruing power showing so much deference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the big spending and energy debates of the year."
During his 40-year career in Washington, D.C., Dick Cheney has spent these years accruing power by accumulating a huge rolodex file of Washington powerbrokers who owe him political favors. During his years as Vice President, he has cashed in these political favors, providing huge profits for the various corporations he holds interests in, including those corporate interests he has publicly postponed benefitting from.
Re "Murtha “and the other senior leaders … march to the tune of Nancy Pelosi to an extent I had not seen, frankly, with any previous speaker,” Cheney said. “I’m trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn’t have happened.”
Many senior political and legislative operatives march to the tune of Dick Cheney to an extent not seen, frankly, with any previous Vice President. In a healthy functioning democracy, this wouldn't have happened.
Re "But his implication was clear: When asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”
The Congress we would all expect to have would not be this spineless.
Re "Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who as Democratic Caucus Chair is the party’s fourth-ranking House leader, replied: “Some of us were surprised that the president didn’t have a bigger stick when he could have stood up to Dick Cheney.”
Some of us are surprised that the Congress doesn't carry a bigger stick and stand up to Dick Cheney.
Liar @ 47:
Who could it be! Oh who could that compli-cit girl be!
This eunic has no stick. He barely has a functioning heart. If he had a stick, his heart would probably quit functioning. Hey...no there's an idea. If we could just find some sacrificial lamb willing to make him raise his stick, we'd have a VP from San Francisco. What a novel idea!!!
One thing is certain, though...The Republicans in Congress cower much more greatly from the "Dick" than they do from Pelosi. He's just jealous, he wants them all to cower from him.
They are all scared of him. Ya never know where the next anthrax attack might come from.
Liar @ 58 "Let's look at the facts: A. Nothing can be done. The Congress is beholden to a President who refuses to cooperate with fact finding; if the President's attorney's will not agree with a prosecution, Congress is powerless."
There are not enough votes, because the Republicans are complicit.
"B. The States are powerless."
This is news?
"C. This is a tyranny. Congress refuses to act."
The tyranny of the Republicans in Congress continues to block effective action.
"Given the above facts, Paul: Why do you bother to post here, or is there something you believe that would solve this problem?"
I don't understand the question. I, unlike you, do not think there is a simple method of stopping a coup. But I, unlike you, recognize that the Democratic leadership of the House is succeeding at rolling back some of the excesses, and for that I continue to be grateful.
I wonder if Lynn Cheney's explicit books about lesbian love have something to do with DickieBoy's anger. He couldn't get some even if he had a big stick.
Draft dodging war mongering chickenhawk. This man is proof that there is no such thing as God or Karma, because if there was this evil son a bitch would be dodging lightning bolts.
I guess Cheney didn't carry a big stick when he was in his 20's and chickened out (or I mean "deferred") from going to Vietnam and fighting the bad bad Communists. Now 40 years later he has become a tough guy who helps his cronies make billions of dollars off Iraq and Big Oil.
It is time to take all the toughness to jail!
Unfortunately for Dick, it is happening in the congress that he is serving in. He's the President of the Senate.
Marvin Canuck @ 84:
FreedomOfInformationAct @ 87:
I have to laugh out loud at some of these comments...very funny...and thats one thing we've got over all these Republican idiots ... a much better and healthier sense of humour. Dick + Bush = Screwed A classic..ha, ha ha.
Sounds to me as if Cheney has been left out of the circle jerk caucus...........it's just no fun hanging out on your own is it Dick?
Speaking of premature emasculation, It is an absolute hoot watching Barbara Boxer defang Inhofe, Craig, Bond, and the rest of the GOP on her committee.
Barbara Boxer should be the Senate Majority leader rather than Reid...............that would make Cheney a bit stiffy.........eh?
on the bright side of manhood...
my 3 year old boy has discovered one of the joys of manhood...
"i can pee in circles, daddy!"
just sharing... just sharing...
This guy's still around? I thought he "disappeared" a couple of years ago.
*
An Early Fitzmas for Henry Waxman?
By: Swopa Thursday December 6, 2007 4:39 pm
It's a good thing we have supercomputers nowadays, because otherwise there'd be no way on earth the White House could keep pace with the revelations of its lies. Now on top of the Iran NIE, and CIA torture tapes (see Emptywheel about that), there's this Plame news in the Providence Journal:
Valerie Plame Wilson, whose cover as a covert CIA agent was famously blown by top Bush administration officials, told a Brown University audience last night she is pleased that the U.S. intelligence community has released an assessment concluding that Iran halted its covert nuclear weapons campaign in 2003.
. . . After her hour-long speech and question-and-answer session, Plame dropped one bombshell almost casually.
She said a lawyer had called her just before her talk began and told her that special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald had agreed to turn his transcripts of interviews with Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over to U. S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who is known for his relish for investigating wrongdoing by Republicans.
Let's hope that is being reported accurately. There had been reports that the White House had denied Fitz permission to hand over the interview transcripts, but it seems like extending Fitz's notoriously by-the-book nature for him to absurd lengths for him to let Dubya stonewall his own testimony. Supposedly Waxman asked new attorney general Mukasey to intervene, but wasn't Fitzgerald already given de facto AG authority over this case?
(NOTE: Kudos to CTuttle in comments on the previous thread for finding this news story)
221 Responses
http://firedoglake.com/2007/12/06/an-early-fitzmas-for-henry-waxman/
Puppet-boy gets bounced, lol
Bush: Pathological liar or idiot-in-chief?
Olbermann: We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War III about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole, or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked, at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so, whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed were still even remotely plausible. Full story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22134108/
More Special Comments
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16270176/
It's quite obvious he doesn't want the gay jr. high locker-room that is his perfect neocon congress to be infiltrated by stinky girls.
The war in Iraq is just a diversion from the fact that he keeps awkwardly trying to get Murtha to pee-fight him.
Btw, Dick is a grower, not a shower.
I'm not worried about premature withdrawal in Iraq. I'm worried about premature ejaculation in Iran.
Too bad Cheney doesn't own a sawed-off boomstick to carry. That way, if he again goes hunting while drunk, maybe he'll pick up the shotgun the wrong way, and....
Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney.
[Deleted. Quit posting in ALLCAPS]
Paul in LA @ 94:
Paul, grow up. If you're half as worldly and practical as you pretend to be, you'd know that shrinking violets don't get far in life, so why would we want them governing our country?
The purpose of our legislators is not to pass legislation for the sake of legislation. Their purpose is to personally uphold the individual principles they were elected to uphold. They're our VOICE, and if they don't SPEAK then they're not doing their job. Let them get shouted down by an obnoxious minority if they must, it's far better than the current passive-aggressive governing strategy.
I feel that the idea of a political party is contrary to the revolutionary system of government we established. That being said, the entire purpose of a party is to act as a cohesive unit. If you've got a bunch of people defecting against the party's principles, it's pretty much useless as a designation. The ideals of the party ARE the party, not the D or the R before the name. This is why the Dems get smashed even when they've got superior forces, they're infested with... nay, LED BY self serving asshats. As captains, they're allowed a measure of eccentricity, but the crew needs to believe they've got a course plotted. Thanks to a leadership meltdown, both parties are facing a mutiny.
The Dems have turned into a "one day they'll be sorry they didn't listen" party, instead of being the powerful, progressive party they're supposed to be. Raise the spectre of 2000 all you want, but your electorate GAVE YOU that election, you just chose not to TAKE it. The same could be said for 2004. If you're elected in 2008, will you accept the results of the election and actually require your candidate to take office?
sharkcellar @ 22:
HA! I'd like to add..Sphincter!
And here I thought that chainey felt Hillary was too masculine.
At least Democrats don't all have Bell-Palsey facial paralysis, and have to be rushed to the hospital to get their hearts rejumped everytime they kiss their wives.
Son of Liberty @ 109 "The purpose of our legislators is not to pass legislation for the sake of legislation. Their purpose is to personally uphold the individual principles they were elected to uphold."
The primary purpose of ANY legislature is to strike ANY kind of balance with politics, which is to say, with POWER.
You kid yourself that American gov't has EVER operated free from the political system. All decisions are political decisions. There are no transcendent figures in it.
If you can't win the vote and you know it--because of the near-total corruption of one of the parties--you are a fool to put it to the test. The only hope, if public anger (and especially Republican anger) doesn't force resignation or impeachment AND conviction, is for fairer elections to replace the corrupt portions of the government. That process is ongoing.
POLITICS is government, not just morality. What is happening in America as it heals from this coup, is that the party that foisted it is going out of power like a crashing plane. The politics of allowing that to happen without false confrontations, confrontations that CANNOT be won, is the winning strategy Speaker Pelosi chose -- and I as a long observer of American politics believe that she is going to get huge credit for her clarity on that point from posterity.
To my mind, you HAVE TO support the most Progressive Speaker in U.S. history. But instead, you would confront a would-be dictator in weakness, so his minions could laugh at you, lose the comity of the House, and split it asunder. And then what?
I prefer social and governmental change without riots and martial law, if I have to pick.
ysbaddaden @ 112:
These have been teeth-grinding times. I don't blame her for the illness, but for the propaganda she uses to feed her Jones against Democrats.
Tell us what's important Mr. Vice President. Men should use force to get what they want. No compromise - that's for sissies. Might is right. Funny talk from a man who never lifted his finger to serve in our nation's military. You can use that big gun of yours, Mr. Vice President, to kill harmless creatures for amusement. But you were afraid to take up arms and face an enemy that would shoot back. Interesting that a real United States war hero, John McCain, stated he doesn't own a gun.
I bet my stick is bigger than your stick.
Son of Liberty @ 109 "I feel that the idea of a political party is contrary to the revolutionary system of government we established."
That has been true for 200 years. The Founders hated parties, but they were themselves CLEARLY in parties, and in fact nearly in two parties. Their desire to be without parties wasn't even true of themselves, nor could it be. Two party divisions are obvious in the early republic and in the Civil War, and during the Cold War. That is how the USA is.
"That being said, the entire purpose of a party is to act as a cohesive unit. If you've got a bunch of people defecting against the party's principles, it's pretty much useless as a designation."
That is an unnuanced understanding of the sectional nature of the country. For a very long time, the southern Yellow Dogs were racist segregationalists quite in opposition to the Northern Democrats which in that context is the 'Democratic' part of the Democratic party, as Governor Dean so correctly said.
The Blue Dogs are accepted by the leadership in order to control the agenda. That isn't enough power to push through whatever. Controlling the agenda as intensely as the Speaker has is WHY more than twenty big hitters on the R side are retiring from the House.
It's worth the unhappy illusion of a controlling majority in order to actually drive out the corrupt by controlling the agenda.
That's not the same thing as having the majority power to remove without enough votes in the Senate.
"The ideals of the party ARE the party, not the D or the R before the name."
No, that's not true. The "Plank" is a statement of the politics of the party leadership at the moment. They are almost never true, and rarely made true.
Whoa... Cheney saying "big stick" must have given Chris Matthews the vapors
people who are old shouldn't talk about how badass they are. I mean, I'm just saying...
Before we can take any of this administration comments on the war in Iraq seriously we should find out what personal financial losses they may experience if the United States "alters course".
It's been proven for many many years if you don't have them you talk about it. Now we all know Dick doesn't have it. Maybe that's why his wife is so much like a man. I wonder if Dick and Lynn covered up who they really are like Larry Craig did. Yes in the old days people got married even had children to cover up their real sexuality. It's still done today in other cases. Look at Chief Justice Roberts who suddenly got married, got kids and then got the big job. In reality Justice Roberts is on vacation with another woman has a medical problem, the woman hides in the house, and the so called wife does a no show don't care.
No question about Alito and he wears his gayness well. He should be proud as he didn't learn how to loose the body language and the mannerisms. To bad these guys can't be the qualified Clarence Thomas and just be Black, crazy and see dead people.
Big stick, my ass.
I can assure you, the pink, pudgy coward known as cheney (pronounced chee-nee) has a life-long experience of nothing but a twig popping out of his clothing orifices.
It's always cowards who can't get those big sticks out of their thoughts.
They are all a huge embarassment to the entire country. And none of them has any balls let alone sticks; big or otherwise.
Ah but how dare the big DICK accuse the democrats of not standing up to their speaker after 6 years of republican single minded ruling.
They all make me sick. Greedy, spineless self serving assholes running our country. Its so depressing.
What a pile of bullocks.. This coming from a man who takes catnaps in meetings and needs a bug zapper to keep his ticker from signing off... This might be funny, this comparing 'big sticks' shit, if Cheney wasn't so obviously a clear and present danger to the nation and world in general... I merely echo the many when I say 'go fuck yourself' Stick... err I mean Dick...JD
This fat tub of horse shit hasn't even see his stick in probably 25 years. He's the spitting image if gluttony, a walking fatal heart attack that should of happened years ago. Now I don't want to sound insensitive to people who struggle with weight, but this man has obviously ate one Prime Rib too many. His useless fatbody that couldn't jog 25 feet if his life depended on it isn't the only thing thats getting bigger, the wallets of him and his buddies have grown 100 times over since the war began. I'd say he should be tried for war crimes, but he'll probably drop dead before he even gets to the jail cell.
Jake@126 says..."probably drop dead before he even gets to the jailcell"... Ya know Jake... I could live with that.... Good rant guy..JD
This author explains--indirectly--why Cheney is calling certain Dems wimps.
Read this article and learn how to fight back.
AlterNet: MediaCulture: Thom Hartmann: How Liberals Can Speak
Without Boring Everyone to Tears
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/69710/?page=2
This is a must read for all liberal journalists all Democratic and Democratic leaning supports and all Democratic leaning bloggers.
"SCHIP" according to Thom Hartmann, "sounds like something you want to avoid stepping in as you're walking through a cow pasture." Referring to a program to provide healthcare coverage to children nationwide with the hollow acronym SCHIP is just one of many failures of imagination on the part of the Democratic Party. Chart the difference between "SCHIP" and "The Clear Skies Act" and you'll get some sense of the dissonance that has progressives throughout the country scratching their heads in bewilderment.
>>>>>>>>
TH: If I say words or I engage in behavior hoping to get a particular response, and I get a very different response, then common sense would suggest that the message that the person received from me was not the message I thought I sent. This is one of the problems of trying to nuance a message. It's the problem that John Kerry had in trying to give intellectual responses to emotional arguments that were being put forward by the Republicans and by the Swift Boaters about his character.
OR: You refer to politics as a series of stories -- each issue with its own story. Historically, who is a good storyteller?
TH: Brilliant storytellers in American history include Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
Cheney showed is manliness by getting five deferments in the Vietnam Era and shooting small birds with clipped wings.
He is fraud, pure and simple.
The Republicans understand that men are unmanned by the very presence of women in unaccustomed roles, such as, say, Speaker of the House or presidential candidate.
Every time Hillary Clinton appears on the podium with the male Democratic candidates, they are emasculated by having to debate with her. The Republicans are free to go mano a mano because there are no women to interfere with their macho posturing.
Men are so screwed up!
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