For Dick Lugar, Party Trumps Principle

This is why I put a 24-hour-hold on reporting anything that comes close to looking encouraging if it comes from a party apparatchik Republican. They always backpedal and retract and spin and explain what they really meant to say – probably after a visit from Karl’s boyz, but that’s just speculation…

Yesterday evening, Think Progress posted the following:

In a major speech on the Senate floor, Lugar said that “victory” in Iraq as defined by President Bush is now “almost impossible.” The current course of the war “has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond,” he said.

Lugar warned that “persisting indefinitely” with Bush’s escalation strategy “will delay policy adjustments that have a better chance of protecting our vital interests over the long term.” He specifically rejected claims that withdrawing U.S. forces will increase instability. Downsizing the U.S. military presence in Iraq would “strengthen our position in the Middle East, and reduce the prospect of terrorism, regional war, and other calamities,” Lugar said.

And today, MSNBC tells us that I was smart to hold off on praising him, because he intends to take the sniveling cowards way out, and has no intention of backing up his bold rhetoric.

Lugar won't switch vote
However, [Lugar spokesman Andy] Fisher said the speech does not mean Lugar would switch his vote on the war or embrace Democratic measures setting a deadline for troop withdrawals.

In January, Lugar voted against a resolution opposing the troop buildup, contending that the nonbinding measure would have no practical effect. In spring, he voted against a Democratic bill that would have triggered troop withdrawals by Oct. 1 with the goal of completing the pull out in six months.

Next month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to force votes on several anti-war proposals as amendments to a 2008 defense policy bill. Members will decide whether to cut off money for combat, demand troop withdrawals start in four months, restrict the length of combat tours and rescind Congress' 2002 authorization of Iraqi invasion.

Expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass controversial legislation, the proposals are intended to increase pressure on Bush and play up to voters frustrated with the war.

…the proposals are intended to increase pressure on Bush and play up to voters frustrated with the war. Fisher says that like it’s a bad thing! In reality it is the only thing. Change ain’t gonna happen until this president is forced to deal with the reality that is “dealing with” ~30 Americans a week – and the only way he is going to be forced into facing facts is if members of his own party insist that he do so.

Dick Lugar should hang his head in shame. And he should also attend the funeral of every Indianan who falls and explain to the grieving family members why he puts party and politics above the lives of their loved ones.

[Crossposted at WTWC & OOIBC]

Has Cheney met his match?

Could very well be.

Get your refreshments before the fight starts – it’s gonna be better than anything the Sweet Science has had to offer since Frazier-Ali. It’s Emanuel-Cheney, and this time the “go fuck yourself” will likely be directed at rather than issued from Big Time.

For six years, Cheney bent the 109^th, 108^th and 107^th congresses over the lectern and had his way with them. When Cheney officially severed ties with reality and declared that he is not a member of the executive branch last week, the Democratic congress responded. Specifically, Rahm Emanuel responded. Hoo boy - did he ever respond! Don't call this Democrat spineless, thank you very much.

When Cheney went off the rails last week, Emanuel got that look in his eye my dog used to get when she saw a rabbit in the garden.

First he issued the chart, which was promptly posted by Josh Marshall, yours truly and every left-of-center blogger in between:

Then he commenced with flayin’ the fat man, and shows no signs of letting up. Remember, this is a guy who once mailed a pollster a dead fish, and who is a pro at Chicago-style kick-‘em-in-the-nuts and leave ‘em writhing on the floor bloodsport politics.

Cheney only thinks he knows how to be a motherfucker. Rahm Emanuel knows the fine art of sliding a shiv between the ribs of an opponent with a smile.

On Wednesday, he is introducing an amendment to strike the funding for the vice-presidents operating budget from the executive branch appropriations bill.

Emanuel's proposed amendment would withhold the $4.4 million for Cheney's office until the vice president admits he's in the executive branch or the Government Accountability Office determines which branch Cheney serves in.

The goal is not to cut off the money, but to force a recognition that Cheney is in the executive branch and subject to the order on secrecy.

``The vice president has a choice to make,'' Emanuel said. ``If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch. However, if he demands executive-branch funding, he cannot ignore executive branch rules.''

The showdown is coming tomorrow. Will Cheney snap and lose it? Rahm is a verbal streetfighter – will he push Big Time's buttons to the point of meltdown? An authoritarian control freak is pretty easy to get a disproportionate response from. He is already pissed off over having his authority challenged in the first damned place.

Emanuel knows his enemy, and frankly, I await the goading with bated breath. (C’mon Dick – I'm rootin' for ya - don’t disappoint – take the bait – you know you want to – open that fetid maw and let fly!!!) After all what does he have to lose? A couple of points off his Agnew-esque approval rating?

I have been waiting for a political fistfight since Webb didn’t deck aWol at tht reception last winter. I have long hoped that former boxer Harry Reid would just sucker-punch Mitch McConnell live on C-Span – and that is still a favorite fantasy – but I will settle for a rhetorical set-to between Emanuel and Cheney, at least for now. When it comes down to a bare-knuckled political brawl, always take the street-smart Jew from Chicago who knows from hurling invective most colorfully over the pudgy prick with the heart condition.