If "The Decider" decides to ESCALATE the war in Iraq WITHOUT ANY INPUT from Congress - even his own party! - then we Americans DO NOT have a democracy

We generally "Agree" with a decade or so of Democratic idealism, that becoming a Democratic elected official and representative leader should NOT have to mean GOING TO WAR against the stubborn dictatorial impulses of a president who CONTROLS the ENTIRE corporate media.

HOWEVER, FIGHTING for the Civil Rights and Voting Rights bills was NOT "easy work," nor was FIGHTING to PROHIBIT the EXPANSION of slavery (as President Lincoln pledged to do) an easy path, NOR WAS SIGNING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE an easy task. In fact, many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence saw only PERSONAL RUIN for their brave and bold signatory acts; including one of the Representatives from Virginia who during the battle of Yorktown personally instructed General Washington to have the American artillery demolish HIS home, that the British were using as headquarters. (The home was never rebuilt, and that leader died never having recouped his wealth.)

So it is with Democrats in Congress this eve of the 110th Congress. Let's face it, the way you RISE in the Democratic Party today is BY BEING A GOOD FUNDRAISER. *RAISING FUNDS* today is SYNONYMOUS with being a political leader, because without (for example) Rahm Emmanuel's FIERCE drive to raise funds for Democratic congressional candidates in 2006, many of those candidates would NOT have been elected, and the Democrats would not be controlling the House this coming Tuesday.

BUT fundraising is NOT the be-all and end-all of POLITICAL LEADERSHIP.

As President Kennedy wrote (while a freshman senator, or even before his senate election win) in "PROFILES IN COURAGE," sometimes BEING A LEADER means doing the HARD or unpopular task.

What is amazing is that, with President Bush's popularity in the toilet, with volumes of his administration's lies, deceptions, and close ties with corrupt officials forever engraved in video and news files, and with the WHITE HOUSE's OWN WEBSITE posting the transcripts to Mr. Bush's "Osama bin Laden... I REALLY DON'T CARE ABOUT HIM THAT MUCH ANY MORE, HE DOESN"t CONCERN ME that much anymore..." on the 'net for the whole world to see, Mr. Bush STILL commands considerable influence and (choke) respect from the American press/media, much of the public, and most of the government.

It is about time that the DEMOCRATS _STOPPED_ taking DICTATION from the RUSH pill-popping gas-bag LIMBAUGH MICROPHONE (and his direct feed from CIA-agent-outer Karl Rove's desk), and started STANDING UP to the whore media, and CONFRONTING Mr. Bush on his DISMAL FAILURE to capture Osama bin Laden (much less wage an effective PEACE in Afghanistan), and the simple bottom line is, the longer we stay in Iraq, the MORE we help our Maliki government Shiite "ALLIES" KILL SUNNIS, the American death-squad model from Central America in the 1980s having been exported to Iraq just as surely as the "GUANTANAMO METHODS" were exported from the American prison on Guantanamo to Afghanistan and Abu Ghraib. (Note: Sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, and betings are THE START of the torture-abuse regime at American run prisons.)

=======================================

The Decider Lays Down The Law, Reid and Pelosi Should Lay It Right Back
Brent Budowsky
01.03.2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brent-budowsky/the-decider-lays-down-the_b_37710.html


Americans awoke today to read the President in the Wall Street Journal call for bipartisan cooperation and then threaten Democratic Leaders against what he called stalemate.

While the President was claiming to initiate a new period of bipartisan cooperation, and while Democratic Leaders were preparing to meet with the President to consult about Iraq, news media were widely reporting that the President


had made a firm and final decision to escalate the war, and send more troops.
Presumably when the Decider meets with the Congressional leaders to consult, he will inform them of his firm and final decisions taken before the meetings. Presumably if they do not agree with his firm and final decision to escalate the war, without consultations with Democratic or Republican leaders, he will then remind them of his warning against stalemate.

The Democratic Leaders should state clearly, unequivocally and immediately that in the American system of government, there are three coequal branches of government, the executive is one of them, the legislative branch is another.

In fact, Republican leaders such as Senator Lugar, are saying today that the President must consult with Congress, and not ignore the Congress as Senator Lugar correctly said, this past Sunday, that he has for six years,

The Democratic Leaders might remind the President that this past November America had what is called an election, America voted in that election to deescalate and not escalate the war, and Americans chose the Democratic Party to control both Houses of Congress.

Senator Lugar, in fact, tried to remind the President of this as well, on Sunday.

Democratic Leaders might remind the President that bipartisanship does not mean the President makes unilateral and preemptive decisions to escalate the war, and then open the New Year by threatening the Party the people elected, with charges of stalemate, if the Party upholds what the voters decided.

Democratic Leaders might remind the President that consultation means they sit down, before decisions are made, for intelligent discussions about policy options, not for the leaders of the Congress to be informed by the Decider what He has decided.

Before the election the President said he would consult with and respect the Baker Hamiltion group. After the election he gave Baker and Hamilton the back of his hand, and then said he would consult with military leaders whose advice he always claimed to follow and respect.

Then, he discovered what he knew before, that our Joint Chiefs of Staff and commanders oppose the troop surge, so after "consulting" with them, he disregarded and disrespected our military leaders as well.

At the beginning of this misbegotten war, the President disregarded and disrespected General Eric Shinseki. Today there are twenty General Shinsekis and he disregards and disrespects them all.

Then the President said he would "consult" with Democratic and Republican Leaders in the Congress, and now, before these so-called "consultations", the media is informed, that Congressional leaders will be informed, what the Decider has unilaterally decided.

In the hours before the new Congress is even sworn in, the President is engaging in a power play reminiscent of the one party state that the voters rejected last November. He falsely tells the nation in the Wall Street Journal that he favors bipartisan cooperation, while he secrely makes final decisions to escalate before the consultations even begin, then threatens the Democratic Congress with charges of stalemate if they do not take dictation, as he demands.

My advice is: Senate Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi should make it abundantly clear immediately:

* co-equal branches of government mean co-equal branches of government;

* consultation requires consulting, not treating Congress like subordinates to be informed of what decisions are dictated;

* bipartisan government means both parties collaborate before decisions are made,

* elections are elections and the American people have spoken;

* a lame duck President who has lost both houses of Congress and created a catastrophe in Iraq , is in no position to make threats.

* here in America, we believe in democracy, not Deciders.

The President has laid down the law.

The Majority Leader and Speaker should lay it down, right back.