SURGES MAKE FOR STRANGE BEDFELLOWS... OR NOT SO STRANGE

It's probably not too big a stretch of anyone's imagination to figure out that extremist wingnut Virgil Goode is all gung-ho on escalating the war and sending more and more troops into Iraq and Iran and anywhere else Cheney tells Bush to send them. A former reactionary Democrat, ole Virgil is a current reactionary Republican, just like Joe Lieberman. But Virg, rubber stamp though he's always been, doesn't embrace all of Bush's agenda. Oh, no; there's that part in there about rebuilding Iraq's economy. If Virg has his druthers there'll be no rebuilding nothing-- at least not with our tax dollars. Until now Bush has been giving virtually every dime of the rebuilding money to the American corporations who have been willing to kick so much of it back to the Republican political machine. And until now you never heard a peep out of Virgil Goode. Billions and billions of wasted American tax dollars funneled into Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Custer Battles, Qualcomm, Loral, Bechtel, Titan, BearingPoint, CACI, BKSH, and Blackwell... not to mention Virgil's own little scandalous bribers-- Mitchell Wade's MZM (a much-fattened defense contractor which was handing out lots of money to lots of Republican congressmen, especially Virgil Goode and Randy "Duke" Cunningham).

Anyway, now that someone in the regime figured out that if they don't get some jobs to Iraqis the rebellion will never end, there's some moaning and groaning from the far right. So Bush suggested sending 21,500 troops and another billion or so dollars to rebuild the place. (Remember what Colin Powell said-- "You break it; it's yours.") Virgil doesn't see it that way. Not exactly a big booster of Muslims to begin with, he threatens to fight Bush on the money "until a like amount is appropriated for rebuilding the economy of [my] District, which saw its anchor industries disappear because" of so-called free trade treaties. I can't believe Bush didn't nominate this clown to the UN job after the last xenophobe got booted out-- to universal cheers.


Meanwhile, across the aisle, more or less, one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, John Barrow, has a long and disgraceful record of buckling under to Bush more than any other Democrat in a district that Kerry actually won. Confused and conflicted as always, Barrow doesn't think escalation is the right thing to do (duh!) BUT, incompetent and irresolute clod that he is, he'll still vote to approve Bush's "surge" nonsense because it would be "irresponsible and dangerous" to oppose it. Hopefully Democrats in GA-12 will make it dangerous for Barrow to keep voting like a rubber stamp Republican.