The Moose dissects the recent Congressional quackery.
If the lame duck Congress is a preview of what we should expect next year, then the donkey is going to be handed a golden opportunity. The elephant has been struck with a severe case of hubris. Just examine three congressional developments in the past couple of weeks.
First, the DeLay Republicans reversed their own reform rule that prohibited indicted Members from serving in the leadership. One can only wonder that if Delay is eventually indicted and convicted in the Texas redistricting scandal, will the G.O.P. allow him to stay on as the House's Chief Bug Man?
Next, the Hubris Republicans slipped the Nixon Provision into a spending bill to allow modern day "plumbers" to snoop into your tax records. Of course, no Republican took credit for the Nixon Provision proving that the G.O.P is the faith based party since they truly believe in the notion of the immaculate conception!
Finally, the Turf Republicans stopped the intelligence bill holding fast to the critical national security principle that even a terrorist threat should never threaten a Committee Chairman's budget authority.
And add to all this the spendthrift ways of the Tax Cut and Spend Republicans who were freewheeling in the appropriations bills with the taxpayers hard-earned dollars. And all of this from the conservative party!
The lame duck Congress made the Moose recall the good old days in the early nineties when he ran with the elephant. Then, the Democrats were arrogantly in charge of Congress. Insurgent pachyderms exploited every over-reach by the donkey to build our rebellion that proved successful in '94.
If the G.O.P. continues its arrogant ways next year, and there is no reason to suspect they won't, then the donkey will be presented with some opportunities to stage an insurgent rebellion. Moosketeers, polish your antlers! As Joe Conason astutely observed,
So much for the vaunted Republican respect for law and order, and so much for the Republican "revolution" that began 10 years ago. Under Mr. DeLay's leadership, the new majority party now personifies the bloated arrogance that once shamed Democrats when they gazed upon their own party's Congressional leadership. The question that now confronts the Democratic leaders is whether they possess the zeal and the integrity to fight for reform - as their adversaries once did.
The Moose bellows, "Bully!".
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