I don't think it is all Republicans, but the rapid escalation of Administrative power is all Bush, yes.
And as somebody used to say (who posted on SI), the Democrats go along with it because they hope to use the same extra power when they hold the Administration. Can't argue with that, based on history.
Exposing Plame was self-serving and placed all Americans at greater risk of dirty bombs and nuclear detonation. But it was politics, and it was 100% GOP. That is what I call evil.
Lying to get us into a war in Iraq was and is evil.
Guantanamo Bay is evil.
Block the ability of states to protect consumers from predatory lending is all Bush. Spitzer was shot down because of his prominent editorial.
Being out-of-touch is not evil to me, just incredibly incompetent. Being bought off via threats or monetary favors (e.g. voting for something that is just plain wrong so long as my pet earmark gets slipped in there) is self-serving AND incompetent (as a leader) but that's still not evil, to me.
I don't overlook any of that. But it's probably hard to tell of late how I feel about that -- to me, these past 7+ years have been THE most egregiously self-serving, incompetent, and evil years in the history of the Office of the President. Nothing compares, not even close.
And for all the idiot things Clinton did, they did not create that mess. I do leave it (87%) on the laps of this Administration.
And here's why: They've has 7+ years to right the ship, and we are seeing the product of their creativity RIGHT NOW.
If it had been YOU in the White House, do you think we'd be in this mess? I don't. If I were there, no. If you understood the problem in the aftermath of the Naz bubble popping, you'd have had plenty of time to right the ship. But what was done instead? You know the story... it took years of dedicated work to push this ship over the edge of the world in such an incredibly devastating manner.
The Democrats actually could not have impeached him, only made things harder for their constituents. Kind of a rock/hard place argument. The thing the GOP machine figured out with Newt is that they simply needed to lock-step vote and they could have their will imposed on the rest. McCain, somewhere between 90-95% same as Bush (and for *that* low level rubber stamping, he claims to be a 'maverick'). It's a game plan that has oddly been followed even though it hollowed out the core of Congress's power. I'll never understand why they let that positive feedback loop get started.
p.s. if the Democrats allow this bailout to go through w/o taxpayer equity of 100% of what they put in (or whatever is equivalent) then I will revise that 87% to 50%
p.p.s. I've told my wife for months not to expect much actual change if Obama gets in there. I really do not expect much to be different. |
