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Jewish World Review April 27, 2005 / 18 Nisan, 5765 Memo to Republicans: Is anybody in the House? By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The only thing harder to find in the U.S. Senate these days than a Democrat
with a conscience is a Republican with a spine.
Democrats may have been waxed at the polls last November, but they're
running rings around Republicans in the public relations battles so far this
year. Consider:
Democrats benefit enormously from having most of the major media in the tank
for them. But though media bias is more egregious than ever, it's not
exactly a new phenomenon. You'd think Republicans would be prepared for it
by now.
Only ordinary incompetence is required to lose the high ground on any one of
these issues, but extraordinary incompetence is required to lag so far
behind on all of them.
Take the Bolton nomination. The credibility of the United Nations has
fallen below that of the current Canadian government. There is the Oil for
Food scandal, which has just gotten bigger in the wake of the resignation of
two investigators from the Volcker commission in protest of Volcker's See No
Evil approach to Secretary General Kofi Annan's role in it. There are the
sex scandals involving UN peacekeepers, and the unwillingness of senior UN
officials to do anything about them. There was the lame UN response to the
tsunami in Asia last December, and the UN's continuing failure to do
anything about the genocide in Darfur.
President Bush, through the blunt spoken Bolton, wants to give the UN a dose
of tough love. Democrats want a UN ambassador who will suck up to Kofi and
the French, which is not what a large majority of Americans would prefer.
Yet Republicans have permitted the debate to focus on whether or not Bolton
was mean to subordinates, charges which would be irrelevant if true, and
which appear not to be true.
If Bolton is defeated, Bush will receive a black eye, and bureaucrats at
State and elsewhere will be encouraged to resist administration policy.
This will be almost entirely a self-inflicted wound. The principal blame
would fall on the shoulders of "Clueless George" Voinovich, who hadn't
bothered to show up at any of the hearings. But there is still blame
aplenty for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind), chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, who did nothing to keep Clueless George up to speed, and next to
nothing to defend Bolton from spurious charges.
Blame falls also on the White House. You'd think the president's men would
be counting votes and keeping Clueless George and the others in the loop.
Columnist Robert Novak says Bush's congressional liaison operation is the
worst he's seen in his (long) lifetime. The evidence suggests Novak is
right.
The filibuster is an extra-constitutional obstructionist tactic that has
been used mostly to block civil rights legislation. Many of the Democrats
defending it now tried to end it a decade ago. Yet dithering by Senate
Majority Waffler Bill Frist (R-Tenn) has permitted Democrats to get the
upper hand in the pr battle.
Credit for the Republican victory last fall goes to Republican voters, not
Republican officeholders. If Republican "leaders" want to maintain their
allegiance, they'd better start showing some leadership, pronto.
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© 2005, Jack Kelly |
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