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Edited on Sat Feb-14-09 10:23 AM by DFW
He said he would reach out to anyone willing to unclench their fists.
It was a very generalized statement, and considering the actions of the Cheneybush
regime, he probably needed to generalize, seeing as how our enemies, foreign and
domestic, had a field day under Cheneybush.
But look at our enemies, domestic. Not one Republican House member voted with him
on the stimulus package, even AFTER it had been watered down to an extent deemed
almost (or worse) unacceptable to the Democratic majority, just to placate Republican
concerns. Only three Republican Senators did the same, and then only after many key
clauses in the packages were changed or eliminated--to please THREE Senators, and the
rest of the Republican Senators didn't even want to know. Boehner, who has not smiled
in public since early 1996, angrily dumped the text on the floor of the House. Of course,
he does everything angrily, so I guess that is no great departure from the norm for him.
Our enemies, foreign, have no reason to suddenly bestow credibility upon us after eight
years of Cheneybush. If it is to be regained, it must be earned, and this will not happen
overnight. In the meantime, kaboom, kaboom, kaboom, look at all the body parts flying.
Theirs, ours, you can't tell the players without a scorecard.
The time to act decisively is NOW, and, at least on the domestic front, it is time to
call the bluff of those clenched fists. Barack Obama was elected to the presidency with
the clearest mandate and the biggest congressional majority at his back since Bill Clinton
was elected in 1992. I say, it is time to stop pretending that continuing to placate a vocal
minority, supported by even less of the country than their numbers in Congress indicate, is a
noble path to tread. They were extended the hand of cooperation. It was theirs to shake or to
bite off. They chose the biting option. Mad dogs get penned up and quarantined. The electorate
has already done that to the Republicans in Congress. It is up to the Obama administration
to recognize that and act accordingly.
So far they have held out hope that some cooperation would be forthcoming, for no other reason
than the fact that Obama expressed a willingness to offer it. He DID offer it. That offer has
been refused. Categorically and in no uncertain terms. Don't tell me that I see something they
cannot. Therefore, it must be that their judgment says that the time has not yet come to call a
clenched fist a clenched fist.
I disagree. That fist remains clenched.
Act accordingly.
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