WSJ: Why not put the Dems back in charge?

[Modem Butterfly]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110007283

This isn't about a slow response anymore. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is on the ground, troops have restored order, and the water in New Orleans has long since begun to recede. President Bush and Republicans in Congress are now taking a hit not for when but rather how they have responded. And unless they change course, Republicans will pay a steep price in next year's midterm elections....

...Katrina is swamping every goal conservatives have, from limiting government to cutting taxes to reforming entitlement programs. Katrina spending has already imperiled plans to repeal the death tax, and Congress is already $60 billion into a spending binge. Handing out $2,000 debit cards was just the beginning. The conservative Congress has brought back the welfare state.

This isn't all Katrina's fault. Republicans have been kidding themselves for years that they are still the stewards of fiscal conservatism and limited government. The Medicare prescription drug plan is just one example. Run down the list of the some 80 federal entitlements--including Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, Pell Grants and so much more....

What we're seeing in the wake of Katrina is that despite all the winks and assurances to the contrary as they passed the energy and transportation bills, Republicans in Congress don't know how to control spending and are at a loss as to why they even should. That's one way to govern. But if Republicans no longer believe in smaller government, why not put the Democrats back in charge?...

[lectrobyte]

1. If the WSJ is turning on them, then stick a fork in, they're done.

[garybeck]

21. no, they still own the voting machines.

it doesn't matter who says what about them.

[NNadir]

2. Because we pay for what we do...

An element of the WSJ religion is obeisance to the God of Tax Cuts.

Not one of these retards seems to realize that taxes are what one pays to live in a civilized world.

[converted_democrat]

3. Damn.....Good find, thanks for posting this!!

It made my day!!!

[Modem Butterfly]

4. I aim to please!

I really got a kick out of this one, too.

[noahmijo]

5. Good except for this tidbit

None of this is say that Katrina has hurt all Republicans and helped all Democrats. Louisiana's Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans's Mayor Ray Nagin--both of whom have D's after their names--have clearly failed as crisis leaders. We can expect voters to give them the boot next time out.

BULLSHIT I refuse to give them an inch and I will not play this "well're you're wrong and I'm wrong and we can just agree to disagree"

No that is CRAP what more could've Blanco and Nagin done? we've all seen the emergency provisions reported dated on the 28th, Blanco had requested federal assistance since the 26th despite what Christopher Hitchens says, and Nagin spearheaded the evacuation of 80% of the people of NO...a number far above the FEMA estimate.

So you know what FUCK anybody that says "well sure Bush is bad BUT you see the mayor and the governor could've-NO SHUT UP YOU DUNNO WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.

[htuttle]

6. Doesn't Nagin have an 'R' after his name?

I thought he switched to the Republican party?

[mod mom]

11. He donated to bu$h/cheney '04. Remember his claim that the

CIA was after him after his outburst? I wonder if they blackmailed him with something to buy his silence and get him to march in step w the pResident.

[Modem Butterfly]

13. More likely he changed to Dem so he could win

Or did he change to Dino?

[tblue37]

22. No--

He WAS a Republican--a bit business Republican. He switched to Dem in order to run for mayor in NOLA, where it is not possible to be elected as a Republican.

[madame defarge]

7. And I have a HUGE problem with...

these two paragraphs about Condi running for office. Another neo-con is NOT what we need, regardless of her sex & race...

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may actually mark the storm as the turning point that gives her a shot at elective office. She has the good fortune of being from the wrong place at what's now the right time--Alabama, a state hit hard by the hurricane. Staring down critics who claim the president didn't rush to help Katrina victims because they were predominately poor and black has raised her national profile and fleshed out some of her views on race, poverty and education.

Ms. Rice has gone domestic and surely is now on the short list to be any credible Republican presidential candidate's running mate. But why not Condi for president? She hasn't held elective office before, but if the nation comes under attack again, it's clear she has the backbone to do something about it.

[crispini]

8. Yes. When the going gets tough,

the tough go shoe-shopping. :eyes:

[peekaloo]

10. Good Gawd!

"Bin Laden determined to strike within the U.S."

The same woman who was shoe shopping and attending Broadway shows while fellow Americans were dying/suffering?

Did Karen Hughes ghostwrite these paragraphs?

[July]

12. Wow, one photo op in pristine white shirt and pants,

and Condi's a presidential candidate.

I guess I missed those "fleshed out" views on race, poverty, and education. All I heard was, "My husband would never be racist."

They aren't really saying that going to Alabama is proof of her backbone, are they?

[Terran]

15. They're fooling themselves about Condi.

The repugs will never EVER choose an African-American woman as a VP candidate (much less as a presidential candidate). They know that a large percentage of their base is racist, it's as simple as that. They'll never do it, no matter how good it might look on paper.

[Z_I_Peevey]

16. Sounds like a trial balloon to me

in whatever sick backroom game the power brokers are playing. "We'll get rid of Dubya, how's about Condi, et al, still in power as a tradeoff?"

No muss, no fuss, Idiot Boy gets sent someplace where he can snort himself into oblivion and things stay exactly the same.

[onenote]

19. to wear some of those shoes, Condi has to have "backbone"

[electropop]

26. "if the nation comes under attack again, it's clear she has the backbone "

:wtf:

Isn't this the same Condi who deliberately ignored explicit warnings that 9/11 was coming?

[mod mom]

9. I wondered when the fiscal conservatives would scream "uncle". Neocons

have been disastrous for not only for our country, but the entire world.

What good is it being so rich in a third world country (this is what the neos have done to this country!):
*Our infrastructure is collapsing,
*our borders are not secure, we are definitely not safer,
*the huge deficit has eroded our financial position,
*they have caused the hatred of Americans and the west,
*they have destroyed generations of diplomatic efforts,
*they have gotten us into an UNWINNABLE IMMORAL WAR based on lies,
*their actions have caused us to loose the confidence of the world in seeing us as a super power,

ALL the bU$H administration has accomplished is making a few of bu$h's CRONIES FILTHY RICH!

[leveymg]

14. In a losing season, fire the coach.

But, that won't save them.

They don't realize the game itself has changed, for a number of reasons that extend beyond party politics:

* The educated public no longer gets its primary information from centralized sources, such as The WSJ.

* Traditional authority has lost credibility.

* The largest institutions -- such as the federal government -- are falling apart, and there is no viable alternative.

* Elites are no longer really in control- when "leaders' speak, they are talking to themselves, and beginning to notice the hollow echo of empty bleachers.

* The U.S. military has been shown to be a Paper Tiger that can't deal effectively with an insurgency in a medium-sized Arab country or to a flood in a smallish American city.

* World markets are calling the shots, and Wall Street is no longer the primary center of capital and strategy.

* The debt balloon is about to explode.

* Disequilibrium, randomization and centrifugal forces are ripping up the old order.

* There is no real plan to manage chaos.

So, the WSJ is saying, perhaps quite realistically (as they did in the 1930s), cut your losses and let the other side deal with the consequences of the failures of capitalism.

[Modem Butterfly]

17. And that makes me wonder if we want the reigns of control right now

[leveymg]

18. Better us than them.

It's kind of like the DNC - it's infinitely better now with a connection to the grassroots than it was before under the "leadership" of the DLC

Unfortunately, most of the party's elected officials are carry overs from the old order. They clearly don't have a clue.

In order to lead, we need a new set of leaders. Stat. We're losing this patient.

[Modem Butterfly]

20. As unpalatable as it may be, someone's got to do it I guess

[glitch]

28. Democrats did save them before. I truly wonder if Democrats will save them

again, or even if they'll get the chance.

I do think we need to adopt a less vulnerable model, one that cannot be captured by the elite and trashed every generation.

[Toots]

23. Congress has brought back the welfare state

Heaven help us that we may care for the "welfare" of our nation and our people. Conservatives make no bones about not caring.....

[Imagevision]

24. Bush wants to postpone medicare drug plan 2 pay for Katrina

taking the 60 billion he promised for drug prescription plan to be used at a yet to mentioned date, however he will continue tax breaks for the wealthiest 1% --- I hope he just allows gas to go to $7.00 per gallon and just bring the country to its knees. then everything stops!!! especially him!

[Marr]

25. Notice how the WSJ suddenly has a problem with spending when

the proposed spending is on the US population, rather than the defense, oil, or rebuilding industries? They never had a problem with the big Halliburton giveaways, but the idea of spending similar amounts of money on our own people has them jumping ship. They're disgusting.

Besides, it's not like Bush is going to follow through on any of those creepy Blue Man in New Orleans promises he made anyway.

[intheflow]

27. Yes. I don't see corporate welfare on

their list of entitlement programs. :mad:

[rateyes]

29. With Al Gore's "reinventing government" initiative...

the government became smaller than it had been in decades. The fact of the matter is, Bush hasn't seen a spending bill he hasn't signed. NOT ONE DAMNED VETO of the biggest bunch of pork Bullshit for his Republican cronies...

Democrats ARE the party of fiscal responsibility...that 5 trillion dollar surplus we HAD, before * and his cronies turned it 10 trillion in the other direction...putting us 5 trillion in the, yeah you guessed the color, red, could have paid for the rebuilding of NOLA and Alabama and Missisippi with money to spare..

Now, to pay for it we have to BORROW MONEY from China, the country that said if we intervene if they attack Taiwan, they would unleash nuclear weapons on us.

WAKE UP, AMERICA! And, smell the sludge in the streets--brought to you by the Republican party!

Vote for fiscal responsibility---Vote Democrat!

[SlipperySlope]

30. Republicans have been kidding themselves for years...

"Republicans have been kidding themselves for years that they are still the stewards of fiscal conservatism and limited government."

"Republicans in Congress don't know how to control spending and are at a loss as to why they even should."

Oh man, that's gotta hurt, but they sure do have a point. These bozos are spending like drunken sailors on a three-day pass.

[Nothing Without Hope]

31. The ignorance and callousness of this are sickening. "It's not about a

slow response any more"??!!??

There are STILL people without food or water or a place to live, there are STILL bodies lying rotting in New Orleans itself:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4832252
FEMA is STILL preventing people from getting medical treatment and all the rest.

And excuse me, WSJ author-idiot - it's not just New Orleans that was affected. FEMA has not even BEGUN to help many communities across the south.

This sorry excuse for an article is beneath contempt. It's ignoring the horrible reality and petulantly saying, "our Repubs are not getting the job done, and we're so ticked off we might even consider turning to the Dems." As if. It's a complaint to the Repubs to get the GOP trough-feeding back in order pronto. No sign of humanity or actual knowledge of what is happening.

By the way, I've suspected for some time that many Rethugs would like to have a GOP-enabling/collaboraing "Dem" for the next POTUS. Just one term to take the heat off to show they're no better.