Thank You, Senator Bond

On April 3, I took Senator Bond to task for not signing on as a cosponsor of Senator Webb's G.I. Bill legislation that was introduced in January 2007.

On April 7, Senator Bond signed on as a cosponsor, bringing the number of Senators sponsoring the legislation to 52, still eight short of being able to overcome obstructionism by republicans in the upper chamber.

Thank you, Senator, for doing the right thing. I may disagree with a lot of Kit Bond's political philosophy - I am a died-in-the-wool liberal in the Truman tradition, and he is a belt-and-suspenders business republican. But there are plenty of areas where I can find common ground with my republican senator - especially where military and veterans issues are concerned - and that's a start. Call me naive and dewey-eyed, but I believe in my heart of hearts that when the final score is settled, we pretty much want the same things - we both want what is best for our nation and our state; and those who step up and volunteer to serve are far and away more important than scoring a few political points.

Wanted: One War Czar

On the one hand, the White House is furiously searching for a savior. Someone – anyone – who can lead them out of the wilderness of Iraq.

Obviously General Sheehan was right. They don’t know where the hell they are going. So the MBA president is doing what every failing executive does – adding a layer to the metric. Ask the CEO of AirTouch how that worked out.

At the same time they are casting wildly about, they are insisting that the Congress can’t have any say, other than “yes” votes for blank check war funding resolutions, of course.

I call bullshit.

We don’t need a War Czar, but I’ll toss an idea out there that I could get behind.

Commission a joint House-Senate committee to over see the war and put Jim Webb in charge of it. They don’t know where they are going? We will show them the way.

Flailing Pitifully

I am saddened by the desperate demise of Senator McCain. It is depressing to watch a once-respected man turn into a caricature of himself as he desperately attempts to resuscitate the fervor for a failed war that should never have been launched.

His rantings have become increasingly unhinged, distanced from reality and strident in affect. When the house voted to attach conditions to the allocation of further war-funding, McCain edged further round the bend.

"I watched with regret as the House of Representatives voted to deny our troops the support necessary to carry out their new mission," McCain said. "Democratic leaders smiled and cheered as the last votes were counted. What were they celebrating? Defeat? Surrender? In Iraq, only our enemies were cheering."

Give. Me. A. Fucking. Break.

Just as America can’t win another countries civil war, they also can’t surrender. All an occupier can do is leave. Insisting otherwise is either stupid, stubborn, or stupidly stubborn.

Jim Webb was not in any more of a mood to trifle with the senile senator than I might have been. He wasted no time shooting back forcefully and vigorously.

I’m disappointed in John McCain. I’ve known him for many years. The day before we began the debate on the Iraq bills, he pulled me aside on the Senate floor and said, ‘Jim, we do not want the situation we had in the Vietnam War. We do not want one side impugning the patriotism of the other side,’ and John McCain has been doing this consistently since that time. I don’t believe that it is in anybody’s interest for members of the Senate to be impugning the other side’s patriotism, or by the way, to be hiding behind the troops as political justification for what we’re doing.

Admiral, I am disappointed too. And embarrassed. Every time I see him doddering about, using the tricks of Castro and Breshnev before him (like walking a short distance briskly, then immediately crumpling to rest when he thinks the cameras are off) to appear able and sound when he so obviously is not…I simply want to weep for a man I never agreed with, but at least respected.