Centerblue.org

Doesn’t John McCain have anything better to do than play stooge for Bush by trying to blame the Clinton administration for the North Korea nuclear fiasco?

North Korea has been on Bush’s watch for SIX YEARS. It was Bush who put North Korea (and Iran) on the defensive by branding it part of the Axis of Evil. It was Bush who committed our troops to the country that was the farthest removed from developing nuclear weapons, emboldening the other two to expedite their already existing programs.

What is it going to take for these Republicans to actually accept accountability for their miserable failures? From Foley to the economy to 9/11 to North Korea, these people are desperate to point the finger to someone, anyone, except themselves. They’re pathetic.

As if the entire Iraq adventure weren’t enough of a fiasco, word comes that North Korea has successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. This comes while the US is tied down militarily in Iraq and therefore unable to exert any kind of significant pressure.

So instead of focusing on North Korea that was known to be close to nuclear capability–a country with plenty of incentive to sell weapons to terrorists because of its impoverishment–the Bush administration chose to make up Iraqi WMD evidence, lie to the public, and take down a regime that posed no threat to the United States.

The test alters the balance of power in northeast Asia and touches off grave new concerns about the proliferation of refined nuclear material or devices to other rogue states or terrorist groups. North Korea, a secretive communist state which strictly limits all contact with the outside world, already generates tens of millions of dollars a year through its thriving underground sales of missiles and other sophisticated weaponry to nations including Iran and Syria.

Now we’re stuck with a nuclear North Korea, and it is highly unlikely they will ever give up their new weapon.

Feel safer yet?

Every so often it seems that events conspire to drive a majority party from power. The most recent example was 1994, when a litany of woes joined together to kick the Democrats out of Congress–the healthcare debate, gays in the military, a federal money-laundering investigation.

Now it’s 2006, and it’s happening again. Absolutely nothing is breaking the GOP’s way:

• The Iraq war has been cemented in people’s minds as an absolute disaster of Bush’s incompetence, with many inputs from Bob Woodward’s book to the National Intelligence Estimate to generals testifying before Congress all honing the same message.
• The American public gets that the Iraq war has nothing to do with terrorism, except to worsen it by virtue of our own actions there.
• In the wake of 13 US soldiers being killed in 3 days, on top of thousands already killed, Bush comes out saying that the Iraq violence against our soldiers and each other will be nothing but a “comma” in the history books.
• We have been subjected to an unseemly debate on torture in which even Colin Powell has weighed in to oppose the barbaric approach of the Bush administration, a debate that most Americans understand shocks the conscience and tarnishes our values.
• Democrats are embracing the national security debate instead of avoiding it as they did in 2002 and 2004.
• The Dubai ports deal made Republicans look weak on keeping the nation’s ports safe.
• The weakness of the US position in foreign affairs as a result of the Iraq war is painfully obvious in our complete inability to limit Iran’s nuclear weapons development or prevent North Korea from testing a nuclear bomb, forcing us to resort to idle saber-rattling.
• The immigration debate pitted Bush against conservatives in Congress.
• The national debt and trade deficits are reaching stratospheric levels.
• The absolute bungling of Hurricane Katrina.
• Terry Schiavo.
• Harriet Miers.
• Opposition to life-saving stem cell research.
• Charles Schumer and Rahm Emanuel have emerged as effective generals of the Democratic rank-and-file, energizing campaigns and keeping the party on message.
• While the Dow reaches record highs on the basis of record corporate profits, people are watching their homes and real estate investments deflate like a dead balloon, job cuts are on the rise, employment figures are lukewarm, gasoline prices are volatile, and uncertainty about the future is high.
• And, of course, now there is the Foley-gate scandal that makes hypocrites out of the so-called party of family values.

This litany of trouble has the Republicans ready to concede a third of the fifteen seats Democrats need to take control of the House. The Senate was being pronounced as within reach of the Democrats even before the Foley scandal exploded (though it’s still an uphill battle). Races that were leaning Republican are now essentially tied as Democrats tie in the GOP leadership’s handling of the Foley matter to its “culture of corruption” theme. Bush’s bully pulpit has been rendered useless against the din surrounding the Foley scandal as he ineffectually tries to bring the conversation back to national security.

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that recent events including the scandal have people less willing to see Republicans continue their control in Congress, by 41% to 18%. They favored Democratic control by 34% to 23%.

Even conservative commentators seem willing to throw in the towel and declare a Democratic victory. George Will says that the Dems should go into another line of work if they can’t win control of the House in November.

It’s too soon to count the GOP down and out, but time is ticking. Karl Rove has shown his masterful brilliance in energizing the conservative base and ensuring victory for the GOP–but his hands must be very full with this election.

Much of America and the rest of the world now wait for November with baited breath to see if we have the courage to break Republican hegemony, restore our place in the community of nations, and renounce the fascist agenda that has invaded Washington in recent years.

President Bush had plenty to say today at a news conference in Chicago.

Negotiations with North Korea: “[I will not] get caught in the trap of sitting alone with North Korea at the table.”

Well, at least he’s learning from the last disaster where he “sat alone” with Iraq.

2006 election: “You win elections by believing something”…You win elections by having a plan to protect the American people from terrorist attack. You win elections by having a philosophy that has actually produced results — economic growth, for example — or kind of changing the school systems for the better, or providing prescription drug coverage for elders.”

Let’s set the record straight, please. While it’s true that strong economic growth was officially recorded by economists for the last quarter, you sure wouldn’t know it if you ask the average person on the street. Sky-high gas prices, higher food prices, cost of housing through the roof, health care cost doubling in the last five years, industrial commodities sharply higher, the list goes on. Unfortunately none or almost none of these items factor into economists’ reading of the consumer price index of inflation. I guess the CPI applies to someone who lives in a cave, but it doesn’t apply to the rest of us. So maybe we had strong economic growth for business, but it certainly hasn’t trickled down to the rest of us. We’re also borrowing from tomorrow’s growth to fund today’s growth with the massive federal and trade deficits the nation is running.

Changing the school system for the better? No Child Left Behind is almost universally panned by teachers for mandating unnecessary federal intrusion at the local level (what happened to being a small-government Republican?) at the same time that only small amounts of federal money are forthcoming to fund the mandates. Schools are subjected to arbitrary standards that may be impossible to meet based on the location, majority ethnicities, and wealth of the school district in question; yet those districts who fail to meet those arbitrary standards are threatened with a cut off of funds when they are likely to need the funds most. NCLB is NOT an improvement to the educational system.

Prescription drugs for elders? Please don’t insult our senior citizens. The tangled maze of bureaucracy presented by the drug program has made it extremely unpopular, especially when you compare the effort involved with the relatively small return. Many seniors who need the help have turned away from the program in favor of state programs and/or just going without prescriptions they need (trust me on this one, my parents are in that group.) On top of all that, a conservative Mr. Bush mandated the federal program without setting aside a dime to pay for it.

Yep, Mr. Bush likes to pretend to be a Democrat in implementing “Great Society” programs, but pays for them like a Republican. Spend and Borrow.

As for making the nation safer: I don’t feel safer yet after three years of this master plan in Iraq to keep us safe from attack. And…this announcement about a New York terrorist plot stopped in its early stages was really just a coincidence with the President making his “case” about national security–right? (In fairness, kudos to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for stopping this plot, but the timing of the announcement seems a little fishy.) By the way, where’s the outrage for the Daily News reporting prematurely on an ongoing investigation?

Missile Defense vs. Korean Missiles: “”Yes, I think we had a reasonable chance of shooting it down. At least that’s what the military commanders told me.”

That sounds SO confident, Mr. Bush…especially when the entire world knows that we can’t shoot down anything worth a damn based on recent tests. It’s the perfect tone for this lame (duck) president and his GOP’s “plans.”