SOME DEMOCRATS TRAVEL TO THE GREED ZONE AND LOSE SIGHT OF THE BALL

If you believe Bush was fairly elected in 2000, you may also believe his puppet government in Iraq is also a democracy. But you'd be wrong. Today two haughty Inside-the-Beltway establishmentarians, one from each of the Insider political parties-- the terrible one and the less terrible one-- returned from Iraq demanding we exchange Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for a better model. The Democratic Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the ranking Republican on the committee, John Warner spent a few minutes in the Greed Zone, and came back warning that "in the view of politicians in Washington, and of the American people, 'time has run out' on attempts to forge a political consensus in Baghdad."

Does this mean that Levin and Warner have finally come to their senses and are demanding the impeachments of Cheney and Bush? Not on your life! "Mr. Levin said that in his view, the political stalemate in Iraq could be attributed to Mr. Maliki and other senior Iraqi officials who were unable to operate independently of religious and sectarian leaders. 'I’ve concluded that this is a government which cannot, is unable to, achieve a political settlement,' Mr. Levin said. 'It is too bound to its own sectarian roots, and it is too tied to forces in Iraq which do not yield themselves to compromise.'”
Levin, from Tel Aviv no less, called on the Iraqi Parliament to oust Maliki. His choice of venues alone was sure to shore up support for Maliki from the ridiculous government of the Greed Zone.

Warner stopped short of calling for Maliki's ouster but he agreed with Levin the Rove's talking points about Iraq make sense.

“While we believe that the ‘surge’ is having measurable results, and has provided a degree of ‘breathing space’ for Iraqi politicians to make the political compromises which are essential for a political solution in Iraq, we are not optimistic about the prospects for those compromises,” the joint statement said.

Tomorrow's Washington Post calls Levin's statement "the most forceful call for leadership change in Iraq from a U.S. elected official."

These congressional fact finding missions to the Greed Zone are colossal wastes of money and energy and of no value whatsoever. Yesterday's report by 7 military men stationed in Iraq in the NY Times is worth more than what every damn senator has had to say since the start of this catastrophe. "The tours, carefully conducted by the Defense Department, generally include visits to the Green Zone for consultations with U.S. and Iraqi officials, trips to forward operating bases and joint security stations involved in Petraeus's new counterinsurgency program, and heavily guarded tours of open markets, often in Anbar province, where a U.S. alliance with Sunni sheiks has calmed the region."

A few easily fooled imbeciles like Washington Congressman Brian Baird have been impressed and have switched to the Cheney Coalition. He now says he will not vote for any future withdrawal timelines. "We are making real and tangible progress on the ground, for one," Baird said, "and if we withdraw, it could have a potentially catastrophic effect on the region." He seems to have forgotten that Bush's unprovoked war of aggression and occupation of the country has already had not a potentially catastrophic effect, but an actual one-- on the region and beyond. The citizens of southern Washington should through him the hell out of office. "Last Friday, Baird told the Olympian, a newspaper in his district, that he now believes the United States should stay in the country as long as necessary to ensure stability."

Similar reactions have come from a Republican in Democratic clothes, Tim Mahoney (FL), which was totally predictable even as Rahm Emanuel was strong-arming a real Democratic candidate, Dave Lutrin, out of the way so he could out Republican closet case Mark Foley and insert newly minted "Democrat" Mahoney in his place, where he would help Emanuel and Hoyer get better parking spots and bigger offices-- while voting his heart for the GOP agenda. Less predictable was the response from Jerry McNerney (CA), an actual Democrat who seems to have drunk the Kool Aid in Baghdad. We're waiting for a clarification from him.

Will the Iraq Campaign have to start running ads like this one against Democrats? I think so.