On Being a Democrat

As President Bush is wont to say...it's hard work. He has no idea what is hard work. Being a Democrat is hard work! Especially over the last year when Democrats have controlled both Houses of Congress.

You would never know it though. When G.W. tells the Democrat leaders of Congress to sit...they sit. It can be a bit frustrating, at least for me. Take the "economic stimulus package" for example. Do it G.W.'s way or else. So who gets the tax rebates that supposedly will stimulate the economy. Certainly not the people who need it the most. They won't get much of a tax rebate because they don't pay much in taxes and Bush sees that as a tax cut. How about people that are out of job and whose unemployment benefits have run out. Screw them! They certainly neither deserve help nor would they spend any rebate they might get. Besides, some undeserving person might be helped. At least that is the view in Bushworld.



But I blame the Democratic leaders for this poor economic stimulus package more than I blame G.W. or the Republicans. Sure, Republicans would filibuster a Bill not supported by G.W. And, G.W. would veto a Bill that contained some of the things that Democrats wanted. I also understand that if an economic stimulus bill was filibustered or vetoed...Democrats would likely be blamed for not moving quickly enough to stimulate the ailing economy. But let's at least try to play some hardball here.

How about telecom immunity? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd the only person speaking out against telecom immunity? He threatens to filibuster and is then threatened by Harry Reid that it will have to be a real stand on the floor and read the phone book type filibuster. Here's an idea. How about letting an investigative body determine whether telecoms deserve immunity or not? Also, I'd like to know where the Democratic Presidential candidates stand on this issue? Why hasn't anyone asked them?

And, what about the so-called "phase II" report from the Senate Intelligence Committee? This is the report on whether or not pre-war intelligence was misused or not. It's understandable that Republicans didn't want such a report released when they were in charge of the committee. Sen. Pat Roberts (with the input of Dick Cheney) has managed to delay this report for over 3 years. Sen. Rockefeller has been slow to act on this report because he didn't want to cause any hard feelings among Republican committee members. What a nice guy he is.

Yes, it's hard being a Democrat, but what are the choices? A third party? That would be great if we could ever get a viable third party off the ground.