I am amazed by Pelosi's and Reid's willingness to allow the Bush Administration to continue to commit crimes on the theory that it will just make the Democrats look better in '08. The two seem to be satisfied with their political calculus leading to the next elections, but I'm not so sure.
I am concerned that by their calculations, by their reluctance to take the actions that they got elected to do, their disregard for the dismantling of this nation will come back and bite them in the ass, as the people that gave them all those Congressional seats, the Naderites, the Greenpeacers, the Fringe Left, will throw up their arms and say, "We gave them their chance, and they can't even act according to the fucking MAJORITY of public sentiment. So we'll just take our 3-5% of the vote elsewhere. And you'll lose a lot of elections because of the loss of that margin."
The Lefty Fringe behind the 2006 Dem wave will leave if Reid/Pelosi don't start doing the job they were elected for.
And you know what? It's hard to blame them.
Do you know what the Dem leadership's calculations look like? Here, I'll give you a picture: imagine you're a lovesick male, and the girl you like is being slapped around by her current boyfriend. Instead of coming to her aid, you let her get slapped and punched some more -- you think it'll make you more attractive by comparison, because you're not the one hitting her -- you think she'll come to you, after the other guy purples her eye for the last time, while you watch.
Grab this clue and hang on tight: the girl won't come to you. She knows what you're doing, and the slaps she's getting now may as well be coming from your hands. That's what can happen to the Dems in '08.
Yeah, the Dems will likely keep their 40% base; but the 3-5% Fringe Left that brought in the House majority and Senate parity are reeeaaal close to beating feet. What's left, the moderate Republicans? The independents? Are Reid and Pelosi so dense that they actually think they can attract the lefty version of a Reagan Democrat? In numbers that will prevent them from losing seats in '08?? For what the Fringe Left sees as passive abuse, the Moderate Right will see as either cowardice or impotence. Probably the former.
No. The Dems were elected last November to do a job, and I'm not just talking passing high-minded legislation they know will be vetoed; I'm not just talking taking our sweet-ass time bloviating threats and investigations we know fucking well are empty; I'm talking putting the term just back into justice.
Scooter's commutation was aimed directly at Pelosi and Reid: there is no crime, there is no sentence, there is no subpoena, there is no investigation that you can bring to bear on the administration that will not be swept aside, sandbagged until 2009, or summarily ignored.
There really is only one option left.