"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you”

Pericles




Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Had Enough? - A simple and brilliant idea

The Libby Liberation has ignited a firestorm among the liberal netroots community. For many, it's' the last straw. Will our elected Democrats understand the depths of the outrage? Other than Rep Conyers, who has scheduled hearings for July 11 and Rep Jesse Jackson, Jr's calls for impeachment, it looks like the leaderhip is going to give the Cheney/Bush Administration another pass.

But, for the many who have simply "Had Enough," Wes Clark, Jr has proposed a brilliantly simple protest campaign. He calls for all Americans who have "Had Enough" to gather every Sunday in their hometowns as a protest against the excesses of this administration.

The noise on the left is matched by a deafening silence among many GOP politicians, who appear to understand the precarious political position the president's snubbing of the judicial system - after all, this case was still under appeal - has put them in. The Las Vegas Journal Review quoted Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV) as distancing himself from the Libby decision,

"Though the president has the power to commute a sentence or pardon someone convicted of a crime, "doing so has the potential to tarnish a legacy," Porter said.
Bush decided Libby's penalty didn't fit his crime, but Porter said that decision is best left in the courts."

I'm not sure why the widely anticipated presidential commutation was the last straw for so many. Perhaps its the sheer audacity of this decision. Or, have we just simply had enough?

Can America survive eighteen more months of the Cheney/Bush interregnum? Will the constitution and federal government be restored? How much more damage can a President with an approval rating plummeting toward the "Mendoza line" really do in a year and a half?

As Elinor Clift said on the June 29th, 2007 "McLaughlin Report",

"I mean, he's still got, what, a year-and-a-half left in office. He can do a lot more damage, unfortunately. And the situation that he is presiding over so fitfully can also grow worse. And this is basically a requiem for his presidency."

What will this requeim look like? As the WaPo reported this week, in an article, A President Besieged and Isolated, Yet at Ease, "Bush has virtually given up on winning converts while in office and instead is counting on vindication after he is dead."

No longer constrained by public opinion, Bush unleashed for the next year and a half could have additional devastating consequences for America. Already, the Bush legacy will linger for many years, if not generations. It is this generation's resonsibility to confront this Cheney/Bush abuses.

America deserves nothing less on this, its 231st birthday.

Had enough?

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