[Peace-discuss] Conference

[John W.]

At 05:58 PM 7/18/2007, Bob Illyes wrote:

>Unlike Carl, who spoke at length against Democrats after the
>conference, I do not think that Durban in insincere and wants
>to say he is for pullout but really wants to stay.

Unlike Carl, I actually felt a measure of gratitude toward Durbin for 
trying to fight the good fight.  The telephone discussion was almost 
entirely pragmatic.  It was about the nitty-gritty of partisan politics - 
counting the votes and how to swing a few more Republican votes in the 
direction of withdrawal from Iraq - rather than a more generalized 
theoretical discussion of the Rise and Fall of the American Empire.  And he 
was speaking only of the Senate; the House of Representatives is a separate 
issue.

That, unfortunately, is how things actually work in our unwieldy republic.


>That said, I think Durbin should be being a lot tougher on Bush.
>This is a Constitutional crisis, he knows it, and he needs to say
>so loudly and frequently. He rejected impeachment as impractical
>due to time constraints, but I agree with Nichols that open efforts
>should be underway.

His answer to that is that a number of Congressional oversight hearings are 
currently underway, where there were none before the Democrats took control 
of Congress.


>He also said when asked about Iran by Barbara that he didn't believe
>that we would invade Iraq.

                       ^^^^

I assume you mean Iran here.


>I don't either. There was no time for a
>follow up-question, but I'm pretty sure that Bush will start bombing
>Iran presently, as Buchanan suggests, and I would like to have heard
>Durbin's opinion on that.

He gave his opinion...that we don't have the resources, and that Congress 
would oppose it.  What he failed to mention specifically (though he alluded 
to it in another context) is that Bush is so out of touch with reality that 
he's likely to go ahead with it anyway without "counting the cost" (as the 
Bible puts it), and so out of control that he's likely to engage us in yet 
another war without consulting Congress.

Like Jan Kruse and some others, I was disappointed.  However, my 
disappointment lies not with Dick Durbin but with the gap between my vision 
of what American COULD be and what it has actually BEEN for most of its 
history.  My disappointment lies, ultimately, with human ignorance and 
self-absorption.

John