How Great Thou Art. I don't have time to say much about the election, and not all results are known even yet. Besides, every pundit on the planet has something to say, so you have enuf to read today. Suffice it to say that I am delited to have been wrong about neither house of Congress going Democratic, tho the margin of victory is too slim to permit a legislative program to sail thru or to override a Presidential veto.
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The moral of last nite's story is that despite everything the two parties have done to deprive people of choice, by gerrymandering pretty much every state to put Congressional (and other) seats safely into one party's pocket or the other, the people of the United States, in their majesty, rose up last nite to demand change.
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Democrats must make national legislation to abolish gerrymandering one of their very topmost priorities. Since even with gerrymandering the people can, if unhappy enuf, force change, let the major parties accept that having the people set the agenda really is best, and abolish party preference as a criterion for where the lines between legislative districts are set. We should have a "square deal" in redistricting, compact districts drawn as close to square as possible, starting in one corner of a state and proceeding to the opposite corner; and let the chips — and lines — fall where they may.
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Flip-Flopper. Last week our brave Commander-in-Chief said he would keep Donald Rumsfeld as his Secretary of Defense thru the end of the President's term, i.e., January 2009. Today he announced he had accepted Rumsfeld's resignation — after he met with his intended replacement over the weekend! Shocking. How can a man who made such a big deal in the last Presidential campaign about his opponent being a "flip-flopper" show such lack of stick-to-it-iveness? I'm so disappointed.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 2,839 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 3:18 PM