In shocking medical news from America, Republican politicians have apparently started to re-grow spines, despite George Bush’s opposition to stem cell research. While experts are baffled as to the cause of the sudden skeletal regeneration, most point to the process beginning when it became obvious Democrats would retake Congress.
This week, we heard a nutty American general named Peter Pace say that homosexuality was immoral and akin to adultery. He’d barely had time to say “Whoops! Did I say that out loud?” when John Warner, a Republican Senator from Virginia, released a statement declaring ““I respectfully but strongly disagree with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral.” Pace, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is Bush’s top military commander.
Warner is one of a number of Republican members of Congress who back repeal of the notorious “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars lesbian and gay people from serving in the US military. Among the thousands of members of the US armed forces discharged for being gay or lesbian were more than 50 language specialists—speakers of Arabic and Farsi in particular, this despite the fact that the US military can’t find speakers of these languages.
We also saw the spectacle of Bush’s attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, tripping over his shoelaces repeatedly. First, he acknowledged illegal domestic spying took place, then it became clear that his department ordered the firing of US Attorneys for purely political reasons (mainly that they weren’t going after Democrats fast enough or hard enough). Gonzales allegedly misled Congress about it.
A conservative Republican Senator from New Hampshire, John Sununu, has called on Bush to fire Gonzales. Congress, meanwhile, is preparing to subpoena White House documents that could prove to be even more embarrassing (and possibly reveal blatantly illegal activity). My prediction is that Gonzales will be gone soon.
Sadly, some Republicans in Congress seem beyond the reach of this recent medical miracle. Senator John McCain continues to back Bush’s Iraq war, often more strongly than Bush. And Sam Redneck Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, has issued a statement strongly supporting Pace. Both are also Republican presidential candidates.
We must continue to support research to help these suffering Republicans re-grow their spines. And we should support efforts to help strengthen the spines of Democractic presidential candidates, who apparently suffer from weak spines, though they’re not yet entirely missing.
The miracles of modern medicine may yet cure these politicians. That, or the 2008 elections, perhaps.
4 comments:
I'm betting on the 2008 election. :)
Sadly, Archerr, I am too. Sometimes, miracles need a helping hand,
Here's a great piece on don't ask don't tell from Alan Simpson. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301507.html
The thing with both Warner and him is that they are conservative but the old definition of what a conservative was. Less government, more personal responsibility. So both of them supporting the repeal of DODT makes perfect sense.
Hell by the end of his life even Barry Goldwater thought gays should be able to serve in the military in the open.
As to the firings, I'm not sure they were entirely political. But what it does show is that fact the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Which really isn't a very efficient way to run a government.
In fact I think I'd rather the firing were for political reasons instead of by the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
Thanks for the article link.
I think the fact that traditional (as in Goldwater) conservatives are starting to assert themselves is another sign for hope.
As I said in an earlier post, they need to take back their party from the vicious thugs who’ve co-opted it. Being pro-gay is a conservative value, after all, because it's about freedom of the individual. That's something the christo-fascists controlling the Republicans will never accept, so Goldwater conservatives are the only hope for reason and rationality to return to the Republican party.
A few indictments of Bushies wouldn't hurt, either.
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