UK Independent: Carnage on Capitol Hill: Iraq fatally wounds Republicans

[seafan]

Carnage on Capitol Hill: Iraq fatally wounds Republicans

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 05 November 2006

In this stunningly beautiful American autumn of 2006, there is the whiff of fin de régime in the air - or rather of the end of two regimes. On Tuesday the United States votes in the most closely fought, and closely followed, mid-term elections in memory. Not only could they signify the end of Republican dominance on Capitol Hill which, apart from a hiatus in the Senate in 2001 and 2002, has lasted without interruption since Newt Gingrich and his shock troops over-ran both House and Senate in 1994, forcing Bill Clinton to protest forlornly that the Presidency was "still relevant". The other probable casualty is the era of George W Bush.

No, the name of the 44th President does not appear on any ballot this week, and even when the results are in, he will still be spending another 26 months and 12 days in the White House. Yet at these mid-terms, the 80 million or so Americans expected to vote will be doing far more than electing a new House of Representatives and re-assigning a third of the 100 seats in the Senate. They will be conducting a referendum on a presidency that is a subject of keen debate among historians over whether it is merely one of the worst, or the very worst, in the country's history.

snip

This was always going to be a noxious political year for Republicans. There is the general feeling that they have been around too long, that they have been irredeemably corrupted by power. They have been buffeted by lobbying and sex scandals. They are victims of the abysmal standing of a Congress they control but of which just 25 per cent of Americans approve. But the biggest cross they bear is their own President and his disastrous war in Iraq. This time around, not only has Mr Bush no coat-tails. He barely has a coat. Defeat, to borrow another presidential metaphor, would leave him not so much a lame duck as a dead duck.

Less than 48 hours before the vote, every sign is that his party is heading for precisely that.

snip

The oldest rule of elections is that oppositions don't win them, governments lose them. And with its scandals, with its failure to tackle the real problems facing the country, above all with its calamitous adventure in Iraq, the Bush administration and its complaisant stooges in the majority on Capitol Hill have between them done enough to lose half a dozen elections.

[AlamoDemoc]

1. KICK! excellent read

[The Wielding Truth]

2. Republicans = Total Corruption

"the Bush administration and its complaisant stooges in the majority on Capitol Hill have between them done enough to lose half a dozen elections."

[Peace Patriot]

3. "...have between them done enough to lose half a dozen elections."

Oh, sweet music to my ears! Thank you, Rupert Cornwell!

And in truth they HAVE lost election after election. Covered up. Smothered over. Hidden behind the great screaming silence of our war profiteering corporate news monopolies, and the timidities, corruptions and collusions of some of our own party leaders.

Well, at least THIS TIME it's KNOWN. If they're saying it in England, it's known all over. And if the Bushites steal it this time, they will be naked before the world.

I don't think it's going to be grand theft. Too much to lose, as to their election theft capability for future purposes. Perhaps a smaller, craftier theft--designing a Dem majority in the House that can't do much--something we will be plagued with until we can restore transparent vote counting. (Most are beholden now to Diebold/ES&S--the good, the bad and the ugly--that's just the situation, until we change it.) But still, it's the POLLS that are the joy--however things are fiddled by the voting machines and other vote suppression in the final "count." The polls showing this great American awakening. Another great positive: a huge voter revolt in the form of Absentee Ballot voting, something we can work with to achieve verifiable vote counting in the future, for the '08 primaries and general election and beyond.

Crisp autumn in the air. Change in the air. Hope. Rebirth of our democracy. So much to repair, but we are a good, and smart, and progressive people, and we will repair it.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Well, having read the whole thing, I'm not so enamoured with Mr. Cornwell.

He buys into the crap that Bush and Bushites WON the 2000, 2002 and 2004 elections. Rubbish. It's been a scam all along of plummeting numbers and "miraculous" comebacks, engineered by the Supreme Court, Diebold/ES&S, illegal vote suppression with impunity (Bushites in charge), dirty tricks, and dirtier money.

I have a lot more respect for Georgians than to believe that they bought the crap about Max Cleland loving Osama bin Laden, and a lot more respect for Ohioans than that they voted for Kenneth Blackwell, or George Bush, or against election reform initiatives in 2005. And I have a lot more respect for my fellow Americans than to believe that they voted for unjust war, torture, a $10 trillion deficit and more tax cuts for the rich in 2004.

Others may believe this of us. I don't. Obviously Mr. Cornwell hasn't bothered to investigate the facts about our election system. He thinks Bushite election fraud is just a spooky feeling.