Guys, Congress is really hurting right now:
Congress “has been left out in the cold on this one,” said Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), a longtime opponent of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. “There has been no consultation at all.”
“We read about it in the newspapers and then we ask questions about it,” said Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH). “I think that’s concerning to the Congress and I think it’s concerning to the American people, and I believe rightly so.”
Betty, remember that binging and purging is not a constructive way to deal with your problems. And Walter, please don’t cut — it won’t take the pain away. We’re not friends on Facebook, but if we were, I’d write something supportive on your walls. And if I had your cell numbers, I have a really sweet Hello Kitty animation that I could text you.
Unfortunately, since we’re not FFFs, I’ll just have to stick to this blog post to tell you that, even though I disagree with our intervention in Libya, I can see why Obama, Clinton and Gates made you their whining bitches. You are absolutely the most useless bunch of piss-pants scared, do nothing chickenshits who have ever occupied the United States Capitol, and you deserve a single-digit approval rating and another wave election.
General Stuck
Some of them are going to get more emo. Looks like Obama and Gates are serious and true to word on letting others to continue doing the dirty work in Libya
And it gives President McCain a worry wort sad
Arclite
Too funny. It’s been this way for a decade tho.
joe from Lowell
This is the kind of thing Congressmen say when they don’t want to stick their necks out and come out for or against something.
Superluminar
Well, talking of emo, all this has turned ED Kain into a firebagger, complete with glibertarian alliance. Rand Paul/ Russ Finegold 2012!
joe from Lowell
General Stuck,
Damn this ever-expanding, FITD war!
estamm
The Congress from the Bush years gave all presidents from Bush forward the green light to do whatever the hell they wanted militarily, whenever they wanted to do it. If they don’t like what Obama did, then they have only themselves to blame.
Maude
Oh, poor Senator John McCain,
He didn’t get a chance to crash a plane.
Superluminar
@JfL
mark my words, there’ll be 100000+ boots on the ground by the end of the week! Also too, this is all being done because Obama loves BP, apparently…
Superluminar
@estamm
to be fair, the congress from the Bush years=/=congress now, although some (many?) members are the same.
WereBear
I do think this pushing forward of dysfunctional shills has undermined the public perceptions of what grownups ARE. And what they DO.
The GOP, unable to tell the truth, keeps undermining it instead. But then we are all lost at sea, living in one of those absurdist plays.
Did a rhinoceros just go by?
cat48
Mistermix,
You’re very clever today! You got a chuckle out of me in the morning and that takes a lot!
Why don’t the Emo’s VOTE? They’ve been back a week now so they’ve had a lot of time to express themselves thru their vote.
joe from Lowell
@estamm:
Presidential actions like, say, bombing Libya go back a hell of a lot farther than George W. Bush’s term.
Oddly enough, of all of the different ways in which George W. Bush expanded claims of presidential Commander-in-Chief powers, starting wars on the President’s own authority was not among them. All of the wars he started were done with Congressional AUMFs – which makes sense, because they all involved large numbers of Boots Onna Ground(TM) for long periods.
agrippa
Mistermix:
Your description is correct. Those people have been all of that for , at least, the last ten years.
Mark Twain called Congress a unique criminal class – and he was correct.
General Stuck
If we get a good jobs report in about 15 minutes, I would say this TGIF is off to a good start.
OzoneR
@Superluminar:
Isn’t E.D. a libertarian anyway?
joe from Lowell
@General Stuck: Sox at Rangers, 2PM!
LosGatosCA
FFF? These guys are my FFFF, or even my BFFFF!
I mean I really, really, really care about these reflections of the gutless public they represent in the most gutless way possible. The (H)Roman Hruska paradise has been reached, mediocrity is overrepresented in America, and it’s feeling pretty mediocre, in a casually uninformed and pleasantly ignorant sort of way. Long live American
exceptionalismhand wringing and faux concern.Just Some Fuckhead
I endorse this post.
Ash Can
So we have some Republicans crying about Obama getting involved in Libya, and other Republicans crying about him getting un-involved. Awesome. At this point, I don’t give a flying shit what comes out of any Republican’s mouth. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. Mark Kirk could knock on my front door this morning, tell me that he noticed smoke coming from the back of my house and that I ought to vacate the premises, and I’d slam the door in his face and wonder why, five minutes later, my ass was on fire.
And apparently “no consultation at all” was the subject heading of Frank Luntz’s e-mail to all the Republican legislators on Libya talking points.
Swellsman
Actually, Jones is my Congressman. Impossible to unseat him (he inherited the seat from his daddy, Jones I) and he is probably best known as the clown who brought “Freedom Fries” to the Capital. (Yes, it wasn’t his idea . . . . a local restauranteur came up with it and Jones ran with it.)
Still . . . I have to give Jones credit. He represents an area stack to the brim with military personnel, and he was one of the first GOPers to turn against the war in Iraq. He does, at least, have the sense to see what this blind militarism does to the people left back at home, and he does say something about it.
Of course, he can do so because he is in a safe seat (there is no way my fellow constituents would ever elect a Democrat) but he isn’t too bad a guy (“Freedom Fries” notwithstanding.0
General Stuck
216,000 new jobs and UR at 8.8 percent. Not bad
kdaug
@Ash Can:
Ah, always was a bit curious as to the etymology of your handle.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ash Can:
Although there are, as you point out, dangers to this approach, I think that, 99 times out of 100, it is the correct way to go.
4tehlulz
So THAT explains the congressional commemoration of linkin park.
joe from Lowell
@General Stuck:
Woo-hoo! Pickin’ up steam!
4tehlulz
@joe from Lowell: You know what would really help the economy? Shutting down the government and imploding the world economy.
Then everyone will have a job, as everyone has a role in our new Mad Max libertarian paradise.
Superluminar
@OzoneR
I don’t think he knows what he is. He’s sadly becoming a younger version of Sully, tossed this way and that by the tides of his emotions. I should probably stop reading.
joe from Lowell
@4tehlulz: You know what’s funny? (Besides monkeys, I mean.)
If there’s a coup that overthrows Muammar Gadhaffi in the next few days, the Republicans won’t shut down the government. They’ll be too afraid to take on Obama.
There really shouldn’t be any connection, but there is.
General Stuck
@joe from Lowell:
This ought to be the critical mass for wingnut heads to go boom for the weekend. Maybe even make John Boehner cry a little.
4tehlulz
@joe from Lowell: Republicans with survival instincts like Boener and McConnell might.
Teabaggers will think this shows that Obama really is the Antichrist and will go Samson Option on him.
Omnes Omnibus
@joe from Lowell:
Dogs who think they are people.
ppcli
@Swellsman: OK, granted: unlike all of the other Republicans who are claiming that they were opposed to Bush all along, Jones really was an early critic of the Iraq adventure. Credit for that. But even so, the “freedom fries”/”freedom toast”, crusade made Congress an international laughing stock. Not just stupid, but a petulant slap at an ally. A person who does something like that has forfeited any right to complain if he isn’t taken seriously. Actions have consequences, Jones. You moran.
joe from Lowell
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cats with misspelled speech bubbles.
God help me, that still cracks me up.
Omnes Omnibus
@ppcli: One of the other problems is that Republicans are so reflexively anti-anything that Democrats do that I can’t be arsed to figure out if, this one time, one of them is making a principled and/or sensible objection. They are the party that cried wolf. They have zero credibility in my eyes right now, and, I have to say, it will probably take them the rest of my lifetime to rebuild any (assuming they turn on a dime right now today).
RosiesDad
@General Stuck:
How long until the Teatards take credit?
Ash Can
I should think that, if Walter Jones was opposed to the Iraq clusterfuck from the outset, his reaction to France’s objections would have been “Listen to the French! They’re right!” rather than “FREEDUM FRIEZ!”
WereBear
The whole “Freedom Fries” thing started as a joke.
Though, dang it, I’m not sure. Such is our post-irony paradise.
lol
@RosiesDad:
In just two months, Republicans have ended the uncertainty for business that’s pervaded Obama’s entire administration and allowed them to proceed with hiring once again.
lol
@WereBear:
Freedom Fries *became* a joke. That dipshit Republican who proposed it at the time was quite serious.
cleek
Congress is never popular (except for a nonsensical spike after 9/11). it can’t be popular, by design: nobody ever gets what they want out of it because there are too many people with too many competing interests, and the procedural aspects make it look absurd.
Maude
@lol:
Geo Bush created this economic surge. Not Obama. I bet we do indeed hear that at some point.
catpal
“Representative of North Carolina Walter B. Jones made a stand. Jones told the press that he hoped his effort to rename French fries, “Freedom Fries,” in the House cafeterias”
he wasn’t really joking at the time he said that. Jones thought that “freedom fries” would make people appreciate the freedoms provided by the military service people.
Jones voted against Health Care, voted recently to Defund Planned Parenthood, I don’t think Jones has a conscience or cares about anyone but himself and his federal pension.
cleek
@RosiesDad:
the GOP started taking credit for all good things the day after election day, 2010.
General Stuck
More Friday good news
I bet some WI wingnuts are sweating bb’s about now. Reap/Sow/Whirlwind, or shit out of luck.
Earl
I endorse this endorsement.
Ash Can
OT, in the Department of Credit Where Credit Is Due: I’m no fan of Rand Paul, but according to TPM he cracked on Newt Gingrich and Fox “News” but good at the Congressional Correspondents Dinner a couple of nights ago.
gnomedad
@Ash Can:
Enhanced. Republicanin’ is hard work. Pass the popcorn.
Suffern ACE
@cleek: True, it never wins the most popular poll. It’s cumbersome and homely on its best days. But now it couldn’t score a date even if its parents secretly paid someone to take it out for the weekend. I’ve not seen it poll so low before.
Ash Can
And I can’t decide whether this other little gem from TPM is on topic or not, since Louie Gohmert is way more than emo, really; he’s flat-out flipped his shit.
RosiesDad
@Ash Can: We need some Bachmann Gohmert Overdrive.
kth
Walter Jones, R-NC, for the Iraq War before he was against it, and was one of the co-sponsors of the measure to rename French Fries “freedom fries” in the House cafeteria. We’re all surprised I’m sure.
Journalist really must have just fallen off the turnip truck to take Jones self-description (probably) at face value.
AAA Bonds
That’s great, except cutting Congress out of the decision to go to war is a bad thing. And you’re not in favor of this war.
So this post comes across as plain weird, as it takes Congress to task for complaining about something that you fully admit they have the right and obligation to complain about.
If you were to show the courage of your convictions, you would be explicit: Congress has failed in its duty because it has failed to STOP Obama, Clinton, and Gates from going to war.
A successful Congress would have stopped the White House, because the White House did the wrong thing. Plain and simple.
Instead, you try to square the circle, Balloon-Juice-style, puffing up Great Men Theories in defense of individuals who you oppose, and I assume for good reasons that go beyond some sort of basketball-tourney rivalry.
You are only trolling yourself.
AAA Bonds
I’d also like to take this opportunity to roll my eyes at everyone, ever, who thinks Obama can score a win by bombing and bailing. What a demented understanding of responsibility. What moral cowardice behind that conclusion. I’d almost prefer whatever reasoning Obama himself used – almost.
Most likely, we lost as soon as we started playing this game. Just like Iraq, just like Afghanistan, leaving Libya in the hands of others is an admission of this, not a victory. It’s also the wise thing to do, but the White House is no longer cleaning up someone else’s mess. They own this one, and so do we.
General Stuck
@AAA Bonds:
It’s one thing to be skeptical, and quite another to show your ass in comments after being proven wrong. With folks like you, it is always about personal ego and ideology, and many loads of contemptible bullshit deposited on these pages. What a boorish comment you made.
Joe Buck
Yes, Congress sucks, but nevertheless Obama’s actions are plainly unconstitutional. Even the power-grabbing George Bush got Congress to pass authorizations for his foreign wars (though he designed them to be so open-ended that he could do anything afterwards). The Constitution has multiple provisions to attempt to prevent the president from doing something like this, and the Federalist Papers explain in great detail why the Founders did not give the President the power to wage war on his own.