At Least Somebody’s Willing to Acknowledge That There Actually Is a Battle Going On

The Republicans going nuts over the stolen and leaked Democratic strategy memo strikes me as ridiculously hypoctritical. In the draft memo — which, notably, was not issued — the Dems on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence are urged to wait until next year to force an independent investigation into the White House’s involvement in Iraq intelligence failures — and willful distortions. The ostensible rationale being that an independent investigation will do more damage to Duh-bya in an election year, rather than this year, when Bush’s publicity machine would have more time to counter the negative publicity before voting time.

Hello! Is there anyone out there who still believes the Republicans won’t do everything in their power to cover up any shortcomings on behalf of little George and his cronies? They’re doing it at every opportunity — why should we believe that this “investigation” will be any different? We’ve already seen demonstrated reluctance on the part of the committee majority to look into the Bush regime’s alleged “secret intelligence pipeline,” but we’re supposed to just sit back and hope they change their mind?

I say no apologies. The supposed “bipartisanship” in the Intelligence Committee is gone? Tough. You started this battle, and now you act all surprised when the Democrats decide to fight back?

Deal with it, assholes. We’re gonna do everything we can to take your little poster boy down. And down hard.

Speaking of which...

Today’s the first day of voting as to whether Howard Dean should forgo public funding for the primary election portion of the campaign. And he’s readily pointed out the dilemma — he was one of the most outspoken proponents of public funding, going so far as to say that he’d be the first one to go after any Democratic candidate who opted out of the system.

But, of course, that was before little George — who is running unopposed in the fascist... I’m sorry, Republican primary — raised more than $200 million from big-money interests. To expect to compete against that — or even to put off competing against it for several months — with a $45 million spending cap is unrealistic. I think the Post’s got a worthwhile suggestion: Opt out of the system, but agree to abide by the cap during the primary portion. Once Dean becomes the Democratic candidate, then spend away. Competing with the right-wing disinformation campaign’s gonna be a tough enough battle as it is, but using those funds against the other Democratic candidates is a bit distasteful.

And I’m not even going to bother to comment on the whole “guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks” controversy. Frankly, when people start getting offended this easily, I think they need to get out more. Richard Cohen’s got a decent column on it if you want to read more.