America Can't Afford An Untrustworthy Pres...With A Rubber-Stamp Congress

Friday :: Apr 7, 2006

America Can't Afford An Untrustworthy President Working With A Rubber-Stamp Congress

by Steve Soto

Yesterday’s disclosures by Patrick Fitzgerald, confirming what many of us have suspected for years about Bush’s culpability in using intelligence for political purposes, has crystallized the argument that Democrats can make to nationalize the November election against vulnerable GOP incumbents. After yesterday, the message is quite simple:

“America can’t afford an untrustworthy president and a rubber stamp Republican Congress.”

The best the GOP can do to defend Bush is to issue a release this morning making the widely swallowed assertion that Bush has the authority to declassify information as he sees fit, and that Fitzgerald hasn’t said Bush authorized the outing of Valerie Plame. Yet this lame defense ignores the http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/06/libby-bush-plame/">lies Bush has told about this and many other things, and overlooks the fact that this same administration is going after reporters for allegedly publishing leaked national security information.

The Post noted in its story this morning, as did the New York Times, ABC News, and the Los Angeles Times that Bush was now accused of participating in a leak of national security information, while he himself criticizes others for allegedly doing the same thing. The Post also notes this morning that the Administration has now admitted they may very well be wiretapping purely domestic calls by Americans inside the country without a court order, which is in violation of federal law. Both reinforce the theme that this president cannot be trusted, and America cannot afford a rubber stamp Congress enabling such a leader, especially when this Congress cannot discharge its basic duties due to infighting amongst themselves.

More importantly, the New York Times in its lead editorial connected the dots for the first time about the recent revelations that Bush and Cheney were advised early on that their claims about uranium from Africa and the aluminum tubes were suspect at best, and yet both continued to peddle these stories to sell the war and certify to Congress that the invasion was necessary. The Times is calling for Pat Roberts to get off his whitewashing ass and conclude the inquiry he promised over a year ago on how the Administration used intelligence to sell the war. Again, this marries the issues of a president who can’t be trusted with a rubber stamp Congress, and this theme can be hammered all spring to overcome any good economic news Bush will take credit for, even if job growth falls mainly in services and not in well-paying jobs.

Democrats have the issues and messages they need to nationalize this election, while still going after individual GOP representatives for their own ethical and legal transgressions tied to the Republican culture of corruption.

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