GOP unity splintering over the "surge." They are literally falling apart.

[WilliamPitt]

Bush and Cheney are throttling the life out of their party. I find this interesting for three reasons:

1. The situation described below is happening because these chicken-ass GOP congressfolk are suddenly finding themselves exposed, no longer safely swaddled in the coattails of the media-inflated popularity of their Maximum Leader, and they quite literally don't know what to do. You know that old line about "I'm not a member of an organized party, I'm a Democrat"? Well, it ain't a one-party axiom anymore.

2. This fight has a bunch to do with legitimate GOP concerns over Iraq, but has more to do with the GOP coalition's slow but steady entropy over the last few months. The immigration debate (which splits the party right down the money/movement line), the scandals, the aforementioned unpopularity of the boss and the resulting electoral spanking in November...this once-tight fall-in-line disciplined crew can't hold it together anymore. It's a neat little allegory about what happens when lovers of authoritarian rule have to deal with the collapse of authority, and, PS, 22 of the 34 Senators up for re-election in '08 are Republicans. Smell the fear.

3. There has been a lot of talk in progressive circles about the "toothless" nature of the Democrat's non-binding resolution on the "surge." I'd say that resolution has some very sharp teeth, given what it is causing. Politics has its own gravity, and we're seeing it happen. A non-binding resolution on Iraq that has no force of law whatsoever is causing the GOP to fly apart at the seams, and this resolution is only the beginning. Food for thought.

Feast.

For GOP, Discord In Dissent On Iraq
Senators With Doubts Over Bush Troop Plan Debate 5 Resolutions

By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; Page A01

Republican misgivings over President Bush's new war strategy are increasingly dividing the GOP as the Senate moves toward a showdown over the deployment of 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.

Republican strategy had envisioned a single resolution that would allow the party's senators to express doubts about the plan without stating their outright opposition. Instead, Republicans appear to be balkanizing, with at least five GOP drafts now in play and more Republicans stating their reservations.

"We're all looking for a plan that will work," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). "The current plan is not working, and 21,500 additional troops -- it's a snowball in July. It's not going to work."

Vice President Cheney and senior military officials attended a Republican policy lunch yesterday, which turned into a raucous debate about the various resolutions, according to a party leadership aide. Bush will meet with GOP senators on Friday as the White House continues to try to tamp down opposition.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013000456.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. Churchill's Law in action, it appears...

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu135259.html

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else. "

Sigh. I wish we were smarter.


EDIT: Changed subject to better reflect my thoughts.

[Greeby]

5. Funny how many Repukes line up to compare themselves to Churchill

I'm suprised Old Babyface hasn't risen from his holy grave to seek vengeance :evilgrin:

[Gasping4Truth]

7. He speaks from the grave

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

Sir Winston Churchill

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/27333.html

[bumblebee1]

16. Chruchill seeking vengeance?

We have to get Winston out of the perpetual spin cycle he's been in for the past six years.

[foo_bar]

8. brainyquote's take is one of many

First variant: trust or count on Americans,

Trust Americans to do the right thing...after they have tried everything else.

http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/7/17/215524/581

Second variant, exhausting possibilities/alternatives:

You can always trust the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities.

http://sonic.net/~ric/adventure/log/je2005b.htm

Winston Churchill once said that the thing he liked most about Americans is that "they always do the right thing in the end. They just like to exhaust all the alternatives first."

http://moscow.usembassy.gov/bilateral/statement.php?record_id=36

Then the meme mutates at internet speed:

Americans will exhaust all avenues and then do the right thing. (I believe Churchill said that.)

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/rss/2/bbs/news/387135

Winston Churchill once said something like:

"Americans always do the right thing. After they've exhausted every other possibility."

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/06/toyota_introduc.html

And so forth. I wouldn't put any stock in the State Department's version of events, given the way the quote evolved (only "do the right thing" remains consistent, as in the Spike Lee movie, but the expression would seem anachronistic in the 1930s/40s). But Churchill expresses a more universal sentiment in a less apocryphal quote:

“... man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.”

Quoted in: Irving Klotz, ‘Bending perception, a book review’ Nature, 1996, Vol. 379...

http://www.famousquotes.com/show.php?_id=1018904

[Hekate]

2. This does give me some hope, Will. I just hope to gods they can stop Bush from nuking Iran...

Sy Hersh's latest article is beyond chilling.
(http://media.www.tuftsdaily.com/media/storage/paper856/news/2007/01/30/News/Journalist.Sy.Hersh.Has.Harsh.Words.For.Bush-2685555.shtml?sourcedomain=www.tuftsdaily.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com)

Aside from that, the implosion of the Republican party couldn't happen to a a more deserving bunch of people. I hope the lot of them are scared spitless over (a) what they've allowed to be done to our civil liberties, (b) this needless Iraq war and occupation, and (c) the looming loss of 22 more Senate seats.

I watch some of the Republicans whine about reining in Bush's behavior and why he won't listen to anybody, and all I can say is what did they think was going to happen by letting that sociopath have whatever he wanted for 6 years? It may well be too late, unless they are willing to really work with the Democrats on this.

Hekate

[aquart]

3. I would like them to be terrified of going to jail.

I would like to believe that we will finally punish treason. They were so hot to punish a blow job. It's amazing how cool they are to real crimes.

I hate their poisonous anti-American guts. And, finally realizing my sister was right, I want to exhume the Dulles brothers, drive stakes thru their hearts and re-bury them in unhallowed ground, as well as removing their names from all places.

This foul wind has been blowing a long time.

[Hekate]

4. Jail would be nice

:evilgrin:

Hekate

[Alamom]

14. It is beyond chilling. I hope everyone reads it. Thank you. n/t

[lapfog_1]

6. I could really gloat about all this

and laugh my ass off at the repukes and their problems...

except for all the death and destruction.

[Hubert Flottz]

10. Think of how silly you'd feel if you'd voted for these criminals.

I wonder how the GOP voters manage to deal with the guilt they feel about now? The blood and wreckage of their country is on their hands. Many of the hard core GOP voters, see all the lying GOP congress critters, for the liars that they have been all along now, like we do.

The senators know that one thing Sir Winston probably should have said, really holds water, "Payback is a real ?itch!" The threat of fascism as Sir Winston once saw it, is as alive and well in Washington today, as it was in Berlin in 1939.

The GOP/PNAC cuckoo clock's pendulum had swung all the way back to the third Reich, but now it's slowly starting to swing back toward the twenty-first century. And not a split second too soon.

I'll just say ...OUCH ...That's Gotta' Hurt...But you ask for it, you know it all repubs.(experts on everything masters of nothing)

EDIT...the first "HUGH" clue about what a gang of thieves the GOP really is, came in December of 2000, when the Five Justasses stole Al Gore's Job and gave it to the idiot in chief! The GOP has stolen about everything in the country since then including most of our freedom and liberty. I think Sir Winston would be in shock like you and me!

[lapfog_1]

11. Gee I hope you are correct.

What I worry about is two things...

Will these evil bastards leave office in 2009?

Will the next President finally undo all that's been done? By that I mean these executive orders like the one issued today, the signing statements, the Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, etc, etc. Even if that President is a Democrat, who do you trust to undo things. We are so, so far down the road to a fascist state.

As for who voted for whom, I wonder how the good folks in Connecticut deal with Joementum. And they KNEW better by then. Not that every voting for a republican, especially dimbulb and darth, is ever really excusable.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. Bush is not a republican.

Bush is a radical fascist! I think the country can be repaired by we the people. Al Gore does too.

Edit...Karl Rove's money, put Joe Lieberman back in Washington...

[donheld]

9. Let'em shatter, let'em splatter, let'em scatter.

Throw'em to the 4 winds. :woohoo:

[NewJeffCT]

13. They've been written off many times before

I mean, conservatives/Republicans caused the Great Depression and openly supported Hitler & Mussolini in the 1930s... yet, they still managed to come back from that.

[DinahMoeHum]

15. Yeah, but will these 22 Senators vote to convict Bush if he's impeached?

Impeachment will not mean diddly-shit unless 67+ Senators vote to convict and remove Bush from office.

:evilfrown: