The trouble is not necessarily that Bush would nominate a partisan hack or incompetent boob for an important job (this was a false dilemma anyway, Goss is both). I would be shocked if he had done anything else. The shocking thing is that the Dems went along with it.
Only eighteen Dems in the Senate voted against his nomination, fearing retribution in the upcoming election if they had "politicized" the nomination. Set aside the fact, for a moment, that the Cons chose politics over national security (again) for a moment. Set aside the fact that the Senate is now holding sessions on what went wrong with our intelligence and how to fix this in the future (shaking their little fists and thumping their hearts, vowing to never let it happen again) at the same time that they have nominated an incompetent hack for the most important position in the CIA. Set aside the fact that this story only merited a brief mention on the news and only for about one day (with little to no context, of course).
My father was a long time Republican who is now completely disenchanted...actually, let's call it what it is...completely fucking pissed and thoroughly disgusted with the Republican party. He will be voting for Nader this year because the Dems are "just as bad". When things like this come up, I wouldn't even bother arguing with him. "Gee dad, it is true that both parties are completely fucking us here. Hey, but the Cons are taking an
active role in the buggery! At least the Dems are only being complicit in this in a
passive way. Vote Democrat! Yeah!"
The Cons never backed down from thing like Clinton's health care plan, despite the fact that most polls showed that most people wanted health care reform. They didn't huddle in the corner begging the Dems not to hurt them or meekly asking them if they would be allowed to participate in the victory celebration afterwards.
The Dems need to give the people a clear alternative. Otherwise, what is the fucking point?
Is our new CIA director Peter Goss an incompetent boob or partison hack? Check out Sam Rosenfeld's
article that explores this interesting question.
More on this later.
