Today we saw what bipartisan cowardice looks like. As a Democrat, I am more troubled by what the democrats did than what the Republicans did, but both were cowardly.
The Democrats stood up today and in effect said, it's ok if you suck at your job (no hearings, broken promises about investigating Katrina, etc...), and its ok if you actively campaigned against us, and its ok if you questioned the integrity and patriotism of our candidate, the president-elect. You can keep your very important job where we will likely get stung, like the parable of the fox carrying the scorpion across the road. Go ahead, walk all over us. We will hope like Charlie Brown that you will actually hold the ball as we try to try to kick a field goal.
Today the Democrats infuriated their constituents. Gone are the fighting Democrats that won WWII. Replaced are the Demo-Eunics. God this is frustrating.
Now onto the Republicans. Today they could have voted to expel Sen. Stevens, convicted felon. Convicted of grave crimes that go right to the heart of the integrity of his office. His votes were bought and paid for. It was not that long ago that our elected representatives were stripped of their office if they were indicted of a crime. The Republicans lowered that bar. No, it doesn't matter that the criminal justice system is actively prosecuting one of our own. It is like that old joke..."he may be a criminal, but he's our criminal."
So today the Republicans had a no-brainer vote. No indicted representatives. This guy was convicted and is awaiting sentencing. No matter that it is terribly embarrasing that Alaska would even think of electing a convicted felon, but now the Republican Senate has the chance to do the right thing and expel him before he can potentially do more harm. Here was their chance to say to the country, no we are not a party of criminals waiting to be caught. Did they? Nope. They bailed too. They posponed their vote because Stevens might not get re-elected. Why send a message to the people that you can clean house of your corrupt members when you can just pretend it never happened. Cowards.
Cowardice all around.