August 29, 2010 03:03 AM UTC

Republicans Want Your Vote To Finish The Job

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• by: harrydoby

Republicans had an amazing run from 2001 to 2008.  A decade bookended by 9/11 and the start of the Great Recession.  In between, they nearly managed to top even those incredible achievements.  

Where to begin?

The party that took power with the best wishes of an activist conservative court 10 years ago and promptly set about proving Reagan’s Axiom “The government IS the problem” wants to get back behind the steering wheel and take America for another ride.

The dissenters opined: “Counting every legally cast vote cannot constitute irreparable harm… Preventing the recount from being completed will inevitably cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the election.”[10] The four dissenting justices argued that stopping the recount was an “unwise” violation of “three venerable rules of judicial restraint”, namely respecting the opinions of state supreme courts, cautiously exercising jurisdiction when “another branch of the Federal Government” has a large measure of responsibility to resolve the issue, and avoiding making peremptory conclusions on federal constitutional law prior to a full presentation on the issue.

For anyone with a short memory, let me provide a quick refresher:

Which president took a 30 day vacation just before 9/11?

Throughout that summer, we now well know, Tenet, Richard Clarke, and several other officials were running around with their “hair on fire,” warning that al-Qaida was about to unleash a monumental attack. On Aug. 6, Bush was given the now-famous President’s Daily Brief (by one of Tenet’s underlings), warning that this attack might take place “inside the United States.”

Which party spurned a shaken Iranian government offer in 2003 to negotiate peace in the Middle East and halt their nuclear program?

It was a proposal from Iran for a broad dialogue with the United States, and the fax suggested everything was on the table — including full cooperation on nuclear programs, acceptance of Israel and the termination of Iranian support for Palestinian militant groups.

Which party bungled the pursuit of bin Laden in Afghanistan in order to pursue phantom WMD in Iraq?

Al-Qaeda fighters were still holding out in the mountains of Tora Bora, however, while an anti-Taliban tribal militia steadily pushed bin Laden back across the difficult terrain, backed by UK Special Forces and withering air strikes by the U.S.

Facing defeat, the al-Qaeda forces agreed to a truce to give them time to surrender their weapons. In retrospect, however, many believe that the truce was a ruse to allow important al-Qaeda figures, including Osama bin Laden, to escape.

On December 12, the fighting flared again, probably initiated by a rear guard buying time for the main force’s escape through the White Mountains into the tribal areas of Pakistan. Again, tribal forces backed by British and U.S. special operations troops and air support pressed ahead against fortified al-Qaeda positions in caves and bunkers scattered throughout the mountainous region.

By December 17, the last cave complex had been taken and their defenders overrun. A search of the area by U.S. and UK forces continued into January, but no sign of bin Laden or the al-Qaeda leadership emerged. It is almost unanimously believed that they had already slipped away into the tribal areas of Pakistan to the south and east.

Which party doubled the national debt from $5.7 trillion to $11.9 trillion in 8 years, primarily through tax cuts for the wealthy and two unfunded wars?

But the government is taking no chances. Buried deep in the hundred pages of bailout legislation is a provision that would raise the statutory ceiling on the national debt to $11.315 trillion. It’ll be the 7th time the debt limit has been raised during this administration. In fact it was just two months ago, on July 30, that President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, which contained a provision raising the debt ceiling to $10.615 trillion.

Which party decided the best way to kill a federal department would be to put an unqualified, incompetent marionette in charge, even if it cost lives and billions of dollars were lost?

And let’s not forget the politicization of the Justice Department (not to mention science).

Not long ago, President Bush asked a federal agency for evidence to support a course of action that many believe he had already chosen to take on a matter of grave national importance that had divided the country. When the government experts didn’t provide the information the president was looking for, the White House sent them back to hunt for more. The agency returned with additional raw and highly qualified information, which the president ran with, announcing his historic decision on national television. Yet the evidence soon turned out to be illusory, and the entire policy was called into question.

And finally, as a parting gift, which party gave us the Great Recession of 2008? (do you really need any more links proving that one?)

If that wasn’t enough, one of the most popular “leaders” of this party is Sarah Palin, an anti-intellectual,  self-promoting narcissist who is considered Presidential timber by the GOP.

Actual GOP officeholders don’t appear to have much more to offer either.  Cut taxes for the wealthy, increase defense spending, and disown the emergency bailout of the economy in late 2008 as “unnecessary” or face defeat to opportunistic crackpots from the Tea Party wing.

So, I really need to hear why we should give Republicans a second chance to finish the job they started in 2000, through incompetence and malfeasance, of destroying America.