Why Lose Iraq Now?
“The thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars that have gone to stabilizing Iraq,” is in danger of being compromised, according to Marisa Sullivan, deputy director of the Institute for the Study of War, writing in The Hill.
Charles Krauthammer On Lamduckery
Life as a politician does not end when the politician decides to throw in the towel. Sen. Chris Dodd has months to go before he rests; so, for that matter does retiring Gov. Jodi Rell. Dodd and Rell are both lame ducks. But should anyone suppose lame ducks are dead ducks, Charles Krauthammer offers a warning. The prospect of re-election is a restraint. Remove the restraint, and you have left but two internal restraints: honor and shame.
When the lame duck congress returns after the upcoming elections, Krauthammer writes, “The only thing holding the Democrats back would be shame, a Washington commodity in chronically short supply. To pass in a lame-duck session major legislation so unpopular that Democrats had no chance of passing it in regular session -- after major Democratic losses signifying a withdrawal of the mandate implicitly granted in 2008 -- would be an egregious violation of elementary democratic norms.
“Perhaps shame will constrain the Democrats. But that is not to be counted on. It didn't stop them from pushing through a health-care reform the public didn't want by means of "reconciliation" maneuvers and without a single Republican vote in either chamber -- something unprecedented in American history for a reform of such scope and magnitude.”
“The thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars that have gone to stabilizing Iraq,” is in danger of being compromised, according to Marisa Sullivan, deputy director of the Institute for the Study of War, writing in The Hill.
Charles Krauthammer On Lamduckery
Life as a politician does not end when the politician decides to throw in the towel. Sen. Chris Dodd has months to go before he rests; so, for that matter does retiring Gov. Jodi Rell. Dodd and Rell are both lame ducks. But should anyone suppose lame ducks are dead ducks, Charles Krauthammer offers a warning. The prospect of re-election is a restraint. Remove the restraint, and you have left but two internal restraints: honor and shame.
When the lame duck congress returns after the upcoming elections, Krauthammer writes, “The only thing holding the Democrats back would be shame, a Washington commodity in chronically short supply. To pass in a lame-duck session major legislation so unpopular that Democrats had no chance of passing it in regular session -- after major Democratic losses signifying a withdrawal of the mandate implicitly granted in 2008 -- would be an egregious violation of elementary democratic norms.
“Perhaps shame will constrain the Democrats. But that is not to be counted on. It didn't stop them from pushing through a health-care reform the public didn't want by means of "reconciliation" maneuvers and without a single Republican vote in either chamber -- something unprecedented in American history for a reform of such scope and magnitude.”
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