DO NONE OF THESE POLITICAL HACKS GIVE A DAMN WHAT THE PEOPLE THINK ABOUT EXPANDING THE WAR IN IRAQ?

Amazing that political hacks like McCain, Lieberman and Bush have so little regard for the opinion of voters that they are congratulating themselves on escalating the war in Iraq regardless of what anyone everyone else thinks. Lieberman says they're valiant and selfless for doing the unpopular thing. He should be spat on-- clam in the face-- wherever he ventures out among people. Same for the other two slimeballs.

Today's USA TODAY quotes the latest Gallup poll showing that the vast majority of Americans do not support the McCain Escalation Doctrine that Bush will be presenting tomorrow. Unlike all the military and intelligence officers who Bush fired when they refused to lie and back up his harebrained scheme, they can't fire 61% of the American people. "Those surveyed oppose the idea of increased troop levels by 61%-36%. Approval of the job Bush is doing in Iraq has sunk to 26%, a record low." A Washington Post-ABC News Poll found only 17% of Americans in favor of the surge idea. Lieberman thinks he's a great man. Lieberman is unfit to hold public office.


Meanwhile Bush got 30 some odd Republican senators to come over to the White House so he could lobby them on the escalation plans. According to Mississippi right winger Thad Cochran there wasn't much enthusiasm even among the reactionaries Bush had managed to coral. "I think I was the only senator who acted like he would be supportive. I was surprised that no one said it but me."

Most of the Republicans, in the habit of years of rubber stamping every crappy plan Bush shoved their way, will wind up going along on escalation-- and I would be very surprised if Ben Nelson is  the only Democrat who goes along with Bush. But quite a number of Republicans are starting to dig in their heels and say no. "Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) said the president was asked during her meeting what would be different about his new plan, and he replied that Maliki has had a 'sea change' in attitude. But she said she came away unconvinced. 'I have deep skepticism about it-- about a surge addressing the root causes of the mistrust and hatred that sects have for each other,' Snowe said. 'That's what I expressed. The fact of the matter is that the American people don't support this war and the way it has evolved because they see the Iraqis fighting among themselves instead of for themselves.'

Even some of the worst rubber stamp hacks who have never shown one ounce of political courage-- worthless trash like Norm Coleman and Kit Bond-- have come out against it. Coleman, who's faces a tough re-election battle in blue-trending Minnesota told a local paper that he would "stand against" any efforts to surge more U.S. troops into Baghdad. "I think it would create more targets. I think we would put more life at risk." He's not expected to actually stand up to Bush if Cheney snarls at him. Kit Bond, who is begging for the job as head of the University of Missouri so he can escape from politics with some semblance of dignity, told the Columbia News Tribune yesterday that Bush's plan looks like another loser. "What good is that going to do? I have seen nothing so far that would push me to think a surge is a good idea."

So far the only politicians beyond Cochran who have gone so far as to say they will support Bush on escalating the war are two of the plan's architects, the bloodthirsty McCain and Lieberman duo, plus Lindsay Graham (R-SC), Wayne Allard (R-CO), John Cornyn (R-TX), Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY).


And while namby-pamby, conflicted-but-practiced imbeciles like Joe Biden, too tied to the status quo to lead anything as profound as saying NO to a tyrant, muddle the arguments as badly as clowns like freshman Democrat Nancy Boyda, leave it to Jack Murtha to cut right to the chase and lay the cards on the table. Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Murtha knows exactly how Congress can keep Bush and McCain from dragging the country deeper down the Iraqi shitter. Watch the video of Murtha explaining it to Chris Matthews. I get the feeling most Democrats are with Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Jack Murtha, et al in wanting to do whatever is possible to keep Bush from expanding the war. But then you see the reactionaries laying back in the reeds, pro-war Democrats like Steny Hoyer (MD), Ben Nelson (NE) and Adam Smith (WA), and you wonder how this will actually play out when push comes to shove.

Not that Bush reads it or cares what its editors think or say, but today's New York Times has some excellent advice for him. "If the voters sent one clear message to Mr. Bush last November, it was that it is time to start winding down America's involvement in this going-nowhere war. What they need is for the president to acknowledge how bad things have gotten in Iraq (not just that it is not going as well as he planned) and to be honest about how limited the remaining options truly are. The country wants to know how Mr. Bush plans to end its involvement in a way that preserves as much of the nation's remaining honor and influence as possible, limits the suffering of the Iraqi people and the harm to Iraq's neighbors, and gives Iraqi leaders a chance-- should they finally decide to take it-- to rescue their country from an even worse disaster once the Americans are gone. The reality that Mr. Bush needs to acknowledge when he speaks to the nation tomorrow night is that the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is feeding rather than restraining Iraq's brutal civil war. The Iraqi Army cannot be relied on to impose order even in Baghdad, while the Iraqi police forces-- dominated by sectarian militias-- are inciting the mayhem. Mr. Bush must acknowledge that there is no military solution for Iraq. Whatever plan he offers needs to start with a tough set of political benchmarks for national reconciliation that the Iraqi government is finally expected to meet. It needs to concentrate enough forces in Baghdad to bring some security to streets and neighborhoods, giving Iraq's leaders one last opportunity to try to bargain their way out of civil war."