Thursday, November 16, 2006

Wake Me Up When It's All Over


One of the frustrating things about actually winning an election is the fact that your candidate doesn't immediately take office. We see the petty annoyances in the US Senate, where President Bush is trying to ram through all the last-minute judicial appointments and a new Secretary of Defense before there's a Democratic Majority he has to deal with. Luckily, procedural maneuvers can block most of those last-minute appointments. You see it in the last twenty four hours of an administration, when the latest political crooks get pardoned by Governors and Presidents alike. Most of all, though, we see it in the form of a crude nightmare this state has been forced to endure for the past four years: Mitt Romney. He's a testament to the notion 'you get what you pay for,' as his work ethic just about matches his paycheck (which is, to say, 'on the house').

Sixteen years of Republican administrations are about to end. I'm finally about to wake up. Is it January 3rd yet?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you suppose he'll actually be there, or will they set up a large screen and cable in feed from SC?

Anonymous said...

Ram through judicial appointments? Some of these potential judges have been waiting for years to be confirmed by the Senate. There is no ramming through on that track.

Romney has guts and the rest of the country can see it. It is too bad he decided to leave Mass.

Anonymous said...

buddy, he never was here. pay attention!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, we should have known when he turned down his paycheck that he thought that meant he didn't have to do any work.

Good point, buddy, refusing to do your job and running around the country talking down the state that elected you doesn't make you an irresponsible jerk, it proves you've got guts. I wonder how many business/residents he personally scared off with his antics.

It's only courageous if he intends to stay here and deal with the consequences of the disaster of his administration. Guess what? He doesn't.

Anonymous said...

It's especially too bad he didn't tell us he had decided to leave Mass before we elected him to a 4 year term he's still allegedly serving.

Laurel, no way. He wouldn't be contaminated by us, he'll dangle out from a helicopter that's been declared an honorary pary of SC so they can pull him right back in and get the hell out fast.

Ryan said...

Buddy, yes he's ramming through appointments. They've been people who were *not* going to pass. Now, Bush is re-nominating them. Same thing goes with the Secretary of Defense: the day after Democrats win back the Senate, Bush nominates a new Secretary of Defense. Gee, I wonder why he'd do that? Perhaps it's because he wants his Secretary of Defense to have the benefit of a Republican majority during the appointment process?

It's funny to think of Mitt Romney as being courageous. A courageous person runs for reelection, even if the odds are stacked against him. A courageous person... you know... does his job every day, and worries about future ambitions on another day. A courageous person would care a little bit more about his home state instead of Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. A courageous person sticks up for his home state; he would never publically trash it. A courageous person runs on his real thoughts, not makes up as they go along (for example, a courageous person would have run as pro-life in Massachusetts, not have his Lt. Governor say there's no difference between him and Shannon O'Brien on choice).

Mitt Romney has a lot of good qualities - courage is not one of them. He's somewhat charming, intelligent and very ambitious. Sadly, he doesn't have an once of courage.

Anonymous said...

Ryan, there is a big difference between courage, ambition, and political stupidity.

Mitt could never win as a pro-lifer in MA, so he said he was ambivilent on the issue. Okay, so not gutsy, but politically smart. Now that he is on the national scene he can be more comfortable in his own skin while he chases his ambitions.

The gutsy thing is that he is acting on the budget while he still can. Most governors play the part in their lame duck days and do nothing. At least he has the guts to make his parting shots. What does he have to lose?

Secretary of Defense is a job you don't leave open for any reason, let alone to wait for a new congress. Crap, we have to have that spot filled instantly.

For the judges waiting, some 5 years for a vote, the Senate should get off it's ass and confirm or deny instead of playing the stupid passive resistance game. It's a waste of everyone's time in a backed up court system.

As for Mitt running, why does every successful MA politician think they have to run for president?

Ryan said...

Donald Rumsfeld didn't just decide to step down, exactly when he resigned was carefully orchestrated. My point stands: Bush waited to see whether or not Democrats took control before he actually put Rumsfeld out of his misery. Now, the Senate is still Republican-controlled, which makes it that more likely Bush will get his wish (whether it's a deserving candidate or not). While it's important to have a Secretary of Defense, it's more important we don't have another Rumsfeld. The Senate must take a look at the candidate's record to see if he's worthy.

It isn't "gutsy" for Mitt to act on the budget "while he still can." What Mitt Romney did was take parting shots at things like AIDS, gay organizations and others to bolster his bonafides among the fringe-right of this country. If he wanted to help solve budget inconsistencies, that's one thing, but his cuts weren't about that as the majority of them will be swiftly defeated once again. Cut more gazibos, less health organizations.

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