Biden Time and Hagelian Discourse

Everyone should listen to the two senior Senators hack Bush to pieces on The Connection.

At one point Dick Gordon asked Biden "Why do you think the Administration lied?" "They lied to get support for the war." (Not an exact quote, but they both used the word "lie".) That's remarkable. If Bush doesn't dump at least some of the Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz camp he will be in big trouble in the coming months. The Senate is pretty chummy and lazy and corrupt as a collective entity, but boy, do you not want to piss them off and give the Rs and Ds reason to remember that they like each other more than the Prez.

Biden pretty much dug himself into a hole by saying he didn't buy the administration's WMD claims (claims made to trick the public), but voted for the war because Saddam was bad and could get the Bomb if sanctions were lifted. In other words, he was able to vote for the war because he let Bush trick Biden's constituents into making the war politically acceptable.

Bush has really managed to alienate the Senate. It was pretty clear from the piece that this $87 billion is the last pretty bauble the Senate will give to Bush if he doesn't fix Iraq and Afghanistan somehow.