Unfortunately we are under the gun of a corrupt and dysfunctional administration for the next 20 months barring an impeachment trial which does not look likely and would only serve to give us an even more scary scenario with a certifiably crazy Cheney.
So I have an out-of-the box proposal that may offer a reasonable outcome. The Democrats should go to our boy-prez and ask him to name 5 or 6 key issues that he wants to accomplish in his remaining term. They have to be reasonable so for instance attacking Iran could not be one.
The catch is that these proposals will have a Feb 09 expiration date. So if one of them is extending the tax cuts then give it to him with that deadline. He will probably have several that further seek to enrich the wealthy and special interests including further damage to the environment. That is the price we pay. On the upside we then ask that boy-prez spend much more time in Crawford. No traveling abroad.
The beauty of this idea is that we sideline the failed prez for the rest of his term. We would have to get one more concession I think that includes a demand that any further use of U.S. troops must be first approved by Congress. You just know these guys are looking for a way to attack Iran.
On the other hand the Dems could spend their time unraveling and investigating the serious threats to our civil liberties and abuse of power. We need to shed the light of day on all of these attacks on our democracy so we can see how close we came to fascism and how easily the levers can be pulled. This is more important than anything else we can do now.
Also the Dems could lay out a platform of serious measures to move this country forward. We might be able to get bi-partisan leaders both in Congress and out that could travel to our allies and others to start the process of entering into the international community once again.
We can all think of things like repeal of the bankruptcy legislation, instigating a progressive tax system, national health insurance, repeal of corporate subsidies, action on anti-trust, etc etc. but for now we spend the time effectively planning for a new Democratic administration and communicating our plans to the country.
I know, he might not go for this idea, but his corporate and wealthy friends might give him a nudge. They get another 22 months of hand outs. From a foreign policy perspective it is dangerous to side-line a sitting president but I think they will understand and speaking with one voice on foreign policy use to be a given. The lure of his Crawford ranch might just do it. At this point the more he pretends to have support and power the more ridiculous he becomes. What comes after being a caricurture of a president gone mad?