White House Drubbin' a'comin'

Well, fellow citizens, lots of folks voted for a good two years of killing trees, lining lawyers' pockets, and essentially opening us up to some good, old-fashioned terrorist attacks - but hey, what's the cost of the lives of a few thousand Americans here or there and a few tall buildings coming down? We want to punish the "evil" President Bush and we, by golly, don't care how many American lives or Iraqi lives are lost while we're doing it. So, bring on the guillotine. Plenty of front row seats available. That's the "new tone" being set in Washington D.C. with the approach of the new Congress in January 2007. Should be fun and "impeachment" is not on the table. Ho, ho, ho! Come on, Nancy. You really think you can control Charlie Rangel? Like the grasshoppers on a feeding frenzy, the Democrats will not be able to help themselves and they do have their extremists to pay back. For we little ants out here in the netherlands, best be saving those pennies now 'cause you'll need them to pay those increased taxes, increased wages and the cost of hiring, etc. Here's the article and just a few snippets from it: Congress vis-a-vis the White House, an editorial, November 19, 2006.

Some Republicans and their conservative allies are searching for solace from the midterm elections. In an exercise of complete self-delusion, they are finding it in the fact that Republican losses this year were not much different from the postwar trend for midterm elections during the sixth year of a two-term presidency.

Well, let's leave the self-delusions with the folks who are in the throes of visiting their shrinks and see what is right around the corner for we fellow Americans - aside from the swelling of our 300,000,000 by about 20,000,000 PDQ, not including the several 5,000,000 or so new babes who will have been born to the new 20,000,000 or so new American citizens. The editorial has great stats for the recent elections going back to Truman's days in terms of seats won or lost in mid-term or off-year elections. But let's take a look at what happened when Republicans lost the Senate in 1986....

Nine days following the 1986 elections, President Reagan acknowledged selling arms to Iran. Less than two weeks later, Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from the Iranian arms sales were secretly diverted to the Contra rebels fighting the Nicaraguan government. With Democrats in total control of Congress, the wrenching Iran-Contra investigation smothered the White House for the rest of Mr. Reagan's presidency.

Now what's on our horizon? Here's what we have: [colors provided in the spirit of our up-coming Christmas Season, not winter solstice, not happy holidays, not seasons greetings, no by God, CHRISTMAS!]

Rep. Ike Skelton, incoming House Armed Services Committee chairman. John Murtha, as chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee to wield his opposition to the Iraq war. Dennis Kucinich, arguably the most anti-Iraq-war member of Congress, could become chairman next year with the power to issue subpoenas.

Most fearsome of all for the safety of Americans at home and abroad, not to mention "getting corruption out of Washington" (a laughable concept indeed) may well be the naming of:

Rep. Alcee Hastings as the chairman of the intelligence Committee. That would mean the Bush administration's most senior intelligence officials would be statutorily obligated to divulge the nation's most sensitive intelligence secrets, including policies involving wiretaps, to a man (Mr. Hastings) whom Mrs. Pelosi (and 412 other House members) voted to impeach for, among other things, leaking information from a wiretap he was overseeing as a federal judge.

We can only hope the President and his men will take the lesser of two evils and refuse to brief that most corrupt of individuals. Let the courts hold the White House in contempt. Better that than risk American lives and the lives of our operatives working undercover on our behalf. We're hosed for the next two years anyway, what's a few contempt citations among friends. Better than the murders of our operatives and our citizens at home. Still, I don't see terrorists attacks here since the islamists will get what they want from our "new" congress. Why use perfectly good explosives when you can just nudge and whisper sweet threats into willing ears? Hey, if I'm wrong, I'll say so.

Now, during the final two years of the Bush administration, the most liberal members of both congressional chambers will be in charge. In the House, Rep. Barney Frank will chair Financial Services; Rep. Henry Waxman, the legendary investigator, will head Government Reform; Rep. Charlie Rangel will chair Ways and Means; Rep. John Conyers, who ran for re-election on an impeach-the-president platform, will chair Judiciary; Rep. Louise Slaughter will lead Rules; Rep. David Obey will wield the gavel at Appropriations; Rep. Bennie Thompson will be in charge of Homeland Security. While Rep. John Dingell, the universally feared investigator who will once again chair Energy and Commerce, is not as liberal as the others, the 80-year-old lawmaker has spent the last 12 years in the minority pining for the subpoena power that he ruthlessly exercised for years.

What a relief? "Rep. John Dingell is not as liberal as the others." Whew! That's good news.

In the Senate, Barbara Boxer, arguably the most liberal senator, will replace Sen. James Inhofe, one of the chamber's biggest conservatives, as chairman of Environment and Public Works. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who buried many judicial nominees in committee during 2001 and 2002, will no doubt do the same once again at Judiciary. Sen. Carl Levin, a big opponent of the Iraq war, takes over Armed Services. Sen. Joe Biden will be running for president as chairman of Foreign Relations, and Sen. Ted Kennedy will rule over Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The partisan, antiwar agenda is obvious.

The American people have voted; that is over and done; they have put into power the people they wanted. It is often said that America gets the government it wants. Let's pray we don't get the government we "deserve" based upon what looks to be in the offing in the new year. Will Santa say we've been naughty or intellectually challenged in our votes this November? Will 2007 be a bright new year or will our Christmas stockings be filled with switches?