April 20, 2005
George and the Teddy Bear
I've stayed away from posting anything political lately. Partly this is because I don't feel the need to vent because I'm actually working on a political campaign for a Green Party candidate for Indiana Secretary of State. I'm also planning on helping to reinvigorate the Monroe County Greens. So, this pointed, directed action is helping me to take news in stride because I'm doing things to promote civil liberties, peace, justice and environmentalism. Plus, let's face it the right-wing radicals are just digging their own graves and at this point, it's getting downright laughable.
But the Bolton news is just a complete shocker to me. I think that I'm not the only one who was blind-sided by Senator Voinovich's crisis of conscience. As far as I could understand it, thanks to Democracy Now!, it was going to be up to Sen. Lugar (R-IN) to keep postponing a vote so that more information about Bolton could come to light making it impossible for even the most ardent Bushie to support that man. Voinovich is a very savvy politician, so there must be a larger agenda here--perhaps the first sign that the moderates (they look like liberals) in the party are going to attempt a coup? Is it the shot heard round the Party?
Cursor.org points out that Voinovich is already under attack by the right-wing radical group "Move America Forward". I checked out their website and this picture on their homepage is what prompted this post.
I laughed so hard that I almost peed my pants. Seriously, do they think that dressing up a teddy bear in an American flag constitutes an honest visual representation of America? How on earth can anyone take this group seriously when they have that image on their website? Their money will buy them plenty of time on Ohio airwaves to get the message across that they're gunning for one of Ohio's favorite sons. Yeah, that's smart. Go into your enemy's territory and vilify him.
Chins up progressives. There's a lot more to laugh at now than just The Daily Show.
UPDATE: You can view the committee meeting on C-Span's website. Voinovich starts talking around 1:16. RealPlayer will allow you to go to that spot and watch from there instead of having to sit through and hour of very boring senator jargon. It's not quite as described elsewhere, but very interesting. I'm still trying to figure out what Lugar was up to when he was pushing for a vote that he had to have known would deadlock the committee and sink the nomination. It took Chuck Hagel (R-NE) to request a delay in voting in order for Lugar to agree. Either Lugar was trying to kill it outright while appearing to back the nominee by declaring many times that he was going to vote for him or he was trying to kill it because he knows or suspects that once investigations reveal the full extent of Bolton's misconduct he'll end up being prosecuted.
Posted by Elizabeth at April 20, 2005 03:29 PM