McCain Wants to Send More Troops?

Sen. John McCain might try to pass it off as being a "maverick." His latest remedy for Iraq, though, shows that he also learned nothing from his Vietnam experience. He suffers from the same "Vietnam Syndrome" that Bush, Cheney, and Rummy have. We would have won in Vietnam if we hadn't hog-tied the military.

He wants to send in an overwhelming amount of additional US troops to solve the Iraq quagmire. That's what LBJ did in Vietnam and it didn't work. Dramatic escalation made things worse and casualties escalated exponentially. No one in the Pentagon even believes we have the manpower to do it.

I have never believed that McCain has the intellectual heft for the presidency. His troop escalation idea proves it. Courage and experience is not the same as wisdom. It proves that he's also not a very good politician since, like Bush, he is trying to ignore the midterm election results.

His idea is outdated by four years. It was right when Shinseki said it then. It is dead wrong now. Keep it up, Senator. I hope you get the Republican nomination and continue to call for more war rather than diplomacy. Then the Dems will stroll into the White House in '08 and finish off Bush's war realistically.

Random Thoughts

O.J. Simpson is a narcissistic psychopath.

Bill O'Reilly is merely a narcissist.

Rupert Murdoch is merely a greedy psychopath.

Ohio State 21-Michigan 7.

George Bush thinks we would have won the Vietnam War if we "hadn't given up," after 21 years. He needs to "stay in a history course" until he learns what really happened.

Whatever happened to WW III? General Gingrich should update us.

"Bipartisan Bush" starts off by divisively resubmitting John ("the Walrus") Bolton's nomination for UN ambassador and several court nominees previously rejected by the Senate.

Movies-Helen Mirren should win Best Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in "Queen." "Borat" is hilarious, but the character is not as interesting or as nuanced as Ali G. Casino Royale sounds interesting, returning James Bond to his original, more complex, character.

Quote of the day: When a friend learned that Bo Schembechler had coronary by-pass surgery he retorted, "That's impossible, Bo would never pass." R.I.P. to a great leader of young men.

Abizaid Needs to Go as Well

General John Abizaid testified before both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees yesterday. His testimony proved the old adage that "War is much too serious to be left to the generals"(Attributed to George Clemenceau and others).

In his testimony, the General stubbornly resisted any suggestions by Senators from both sides that a policy change in Iraq is needed. He is in as big a state of denial as George W.Bush, Cheney and Rummy.

Abizaid seems as in favor of "stay the course" as Rummy. His only concession: Put in a few more troops, accelerate training of the Iraqis, and everything will be hunky-dory. Maybe 20,000 for 4 to 6 months should take care of things.

Generals are necessary and vital participants when it comes to short-term battle tactics. When it comes to strategy, the longer-term outlook, their opinions will always be prejudiced toward combat and winning.

It is the nature of the warrior, and if the politicians don't stop him, he'll create more of a mess in Iraq. Most military men believe there is no mission they can't conclude successfully. That is why a skeptical civilian eye is needed to oversee and command the military.

Abizaid has also been co-opted and discredited by toadying to Rummy's wishes and should leave with him. Only yesterday did he acknowledge for the first time that General Shinseki was correct in his assessment that it would take 500,000 troops to occupy Iraq.

We need a fresh look at Iraq. We do not need "stay the course, but hurry it up" as a policy. Abizaid's credibility is as specious as Rummy's. He needs to go.

Mark Foley Scandal-The Midterm Election's Pivotal Point

Nancy Pelosi should be awarded a Medal of Freedom for inventing the phrase "culture of corruption." I think it drove thousands of evangelicals to the Democratic column as Republican scandal after scandal kept coming.

There is no doubt that Iraq was the issue for most voters in throwing the Republicans out of the House and Senate on Tuesday. However, "corruption" was high on the list of concerns for many voters.

The Republicans were just getting ready to "swiftboat" Pelosi when the Foley page scandal exploded. You can imagine the commercials attacking Pelosi that had to stay in the can. Pelosi's face in grainy black and white, gays parading half-dressed down Castro Street, with a claim that she would surrender Washington to Bin Laden.

Thanks to Foley's wandering eye and compulsive IM's to pages, rather than smear Pelosi, whom most Americans didn't even know, the Republicans had to divert valuable advertising time and money trying to keep their own candidates from being defeated.

The "culture of corruption." The Republicans were finally out-sloganeered by the Democrats. ("Stay the course" was already crumbling.) Mark Foley crystallized and defined the corruption issue like no other scandal could. To me, it was the decisive moment of the election.

Rove's New Minority

Many of the Republicans who lost on Tuesday (other than the corrupt ones who are going to jail soon) were moderates. Jim Leach of Iowa and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island pop to mind.

The moderates in the Republican party have been marginalized and ignored every bit as much as the Dems during Bush and Rove's tenure. This is exactly what Goldwater Republicans did to the venerable Nelson Rockefeller. He was booed by the radical right during the 1964 convention.

The result of such a political purge was to push many moderate Republicans into the Democratic Party in '64. I think "the Architect" is unintentionally producing the same effect. The Republicans will become more extreme and will lose the center.

Chafee is already thinking about changing parties. Marginalizing and ignoring smaller segments of his own party will boomerang on Rove. He may be in the midst of producing a "New Minority" instead of a new majority.

Rove should know better. The Democrats did severe damage to themselves by not allowing people like by Bob Casey's father speak at a convention because of his anti-abortion stance. There is nothing like losing power for 12 years to bring politicians to their senses. That is why the Dems backed Bob Casey despite his anti-abortion stance.

No party can produce a majority by establishing innumerable litmus tests a potential candidate must pass in order to get party backing. The Dems lost power trying to do it. Rove is doing it now. He's going to have a very small tent if he keeps it up.

Fun, Fun, Fun 'til Daddy Took the T-Bird Away

Fun, fun, fun was what Boy George, Cheney, Rummy, Rove and the neo-con-artists were having until George the Elder finally stepped in and had his men take control of his son. The midterms forced the old man's hand, though the Baker-Hamilton Commission was already a precursor of Rumsfeld's departure.

It was incredible to hear that in Bob Woodward's "State of Denial" that the Elder "did not want to interfere" in his son's ruination of our armed forces in Iraq and the Republican majority. To paraphrase: He wanted his son to have a chance to do it himself. What in God's name was that all about?

That is what you're supposed to do when a teenager is learning to drive or your kid is trying to win the soap box derby. It's not what you do when he is running the most powerful country in the world into the ground. Wait and see if he could do it himself? What a pitiable excuse for not taking action before this.

Now, with the appointment of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, Bush's father has essentially retaken control of the government of the country. Bush the younger and his cohorts Cheney, Rove, and Rumsfeld did not even want the Baker-Hamilton commission formed, let alone to issue a report on Iraq.

To the contrary, yesterday at his press conference, little George sounded like he could hardly wait for the Baker-Hamilton report to save him from further humiliation. There is hope now that, between Daddy and the Democrats, the US will salvage something out of Iraq and start rebuilding badly strained relations with allies.

One thing is for sure. Little George won't really be at the wheel anymore. Daddy took the keys away last weekend. Now Boy George will just be pretending to drive the T-Bird while sitting still in his driveway.

The Year of the Independent

Much print and many articles have focused on the "Get out the Vote" (GOTV) apparatus of the two parties. In a normal midterm election that would be a critical component for both parties.

However, I don't think this is a "normal" midterm election. Not with the war in Iraq, a foreign policy issue, playing the biggest role in this election. Normally, congressional elections are based upon economic well-being, not foreign policy. That makes this a very different election from other midterms.

All politics is local? That is still true, even with a "national issue" like Iraq dominating the election. How can it be both? Because when a local serviceman or woman dies in Iraq, and is returned home for burial, Iraq is a very local issue.

When an election like this is nationalized and a mandate about a President's foreign policy, GOTV is important. Trumping GOTV, though, in this type of race, is a voting bloc which has been ignored in the partisanship of the last decade.

That bloc is the Independent voters. A high election turnout for a midterm in the 40 percent range will not be a GOTV result. It will be the return of the Independent voter who has sat out the midterm and local elections in the past decade.

It will be refreshing to see them back, participating in the most important function we have as citizens, voting. It will also be refreshing, because, if the Democrats win at least the House both parties will get the nonpartisan messages that:

1. a dramatic course correction is needed for Iraq; and
2. voters want the parties to start governing by consensus and not by partisanship.

"Stay the Course" is Still Alive after All

I see that President Bush has reported by telephone to radio talk show big, fat, liar, Rush Limbaugh, that he wants Cheney and Rummy to stay with him for the next two years until he leaves office. Rush (the "Tokyo Rose" of the Bush administration) must have approved because he didn't mimic any of Bush's intellectual disabilities (other than his stupidity) on the tape I saw. No arm waving, circling his finger around his head, or rolling eyes.

Does anyone really think that we will be out of Iraq with Boy George retaining Rummy at Defense? Rummy, the very man, who like Bush, cannot admit that he put too few troops into Iraq initially, and continues to refuse to enhance the force, or to draw it down? Rummy, the very man even Republicans want to fire, if only to save their own cushy seats in Congress.

Asked today, Bush said "I don't know" if troops will still be in Iraq by the time he leaves office. Gimme a break. The only way he wouldn't know is if he had a plan top get us out of Iraq. We all know, however, that planning is something George and company don't like to do.

By going out of his way to call Limbaugh to tell him that he wanted the two biggest chickenhawks to stay was code for "I will stay the course, I just won't say it anymore," to the remaining right-wing nuts who remain his political base. Just yesterday, I opined that no politician would use the "stay the course" mantra again. George didn't say it directly, but most people knew what he meant.

He's obviously going to dump this mess on whomever succeeds him. Then he'll retreat to his new multimillion dollar presidential library and try to finish reading "My Pet Goat," without any further interruptions, like terrorists attacks or American and Iraqi death tolls in Iraq.

Bush before the Fall

As usual, Boy George has it backwards. "We'll stand down when the Iraqis stand up." Then when the al-Maliki government tells the U.S. military to take down checkpoints in Sadr City, the U.S. military objects.

That slogan he uses (and all he has are memorized slogans) has allowed the Iraqi government to avoid the hard decisions, do nothing, and rely on U.S. forces to do their job for them. Bush should be saying, "The Iraqis will only stand up when we stand down, so we're going to start to draw down our forces".

Speaking of memorization. John Kerry has created a nice little mess for Democrats in close races. This is what happens when you try to memorize your lines, rather than speaking your mind.

He muffed a joke about Bush that had been fed to him by one of his advisers, giving the right wing nuts new fodder for one last desperate attempt to sway voters.

Thankfully, good will unintentionally be the result of Kerry's blunder, because Bush is dumb enough to use it to continue to try to tell the American people how great the Iraq situation is. Keep talking, George. Pelosi needs you to deliver a comfortable majority in the House after Nov. 7.

Mid-Term Election Predictions

As of today, I think the Senate will split 50-50, with the Dems taking only one of the last three states rated tossups (Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia).

I think Sen Macaca of Virginia is going down. Not only has he shown he's not presidential material, he's shown he's a bully. People don't like bullies.

In the House, Bush is going to feel the public rage for having no plan after almost 4 years to get us out of Iraq. I think the Republicans will lose at least 30 seats, giving the Dems a 15 seat majority.

After six years of majorities in both houses, he is not sophisticated nor intelligent enough to know how to make deals with the Dems. That means gridlock, no change in Iraq, and another election about the war.

He is on the way to making the Republican Party a minority party again, thanks to his arrogance, stubborness, and concern for his historical legacy. It will be a long time before any politician uses the "stay the course" slogan again.