Pat Toomey, head of the fiscal conservative group, Club for Growth, said about Congress' spending binge and the voters this November, "If they don't show up in big enough numbers to return a Republican majority, it will be because Republicans in Congress let them down." Well, Congress has let them down, and voters should not return them to office on Nov. 7. The tax cuts you received will be paid back double by your children when they enter the work force. That is what national debt does — it transfers the tax and spending burden to the next generation.
War On Terrorism and Iraq: The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) clearly states the Iraq invasion has increased, not decreased, the terrorist threat in the world. This means one thing in light of our nation's porous borders -- we are less safe today under Republican management than we were before we invaded Iraq. As we step up troop deployments in Afghanistan because of a growing Taliban and al-Queda threat there, it is clear we are not making the progress on the War on Terror campaigning Republicans and Pres. Bush want voters to think we are.
In testimony before an oversight hearing last Monday, Major General John Batiste, a life-long Republican, testified that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is not competent and does not know how to win. He said he retired rather than accept a third star on his shoulder because he did not want to be responsible for the fiasco, which Rumsfeld was overseeing. And the President is depending upon Rumsfeld's incompetence to manage the war on terrorism and the Civil War in Iraq.
The hearing conducted by some Democrats and Walter Jones, a self-professed conservative Republican Representative of N. Carolina, heard testimony from Batiste, and two other military personnel who have served in this Iraq conflict, Major General Paul Eaton and Marine Colonel Thomas Hammes.
General Eaton said the administration fails to understand or develop the strategy and operational planning necessary, and our forces have been undermanned from the beginning. He said the U.S. Army alone is short 60,000 soldiers for the tasks they are expected to accomplish, resulting in the "whack a mole" approach, which means pulling out of one hot spot to deal with another. Our soldiers are doing the very best, but those at the top are mismanaging their numbers, tasks, and operations.
General Eaton, with two sons in the military, said failure to date is also partially due to Congress' absence of oversight responsibility and failure to call in the military command to inform them of how much more was actually needed in spending, manpower, strategy and tactics, and equipment and maintenance. He said the president and Rumsfeld are still trying to fight these wars on the cheap and it is costing our military in preventable lives and casualties. He concluded by saying our Army and Marines are in poor shape now for the current tasks and the worsening situation before them. He said one of the best moves possible is to remove Rumsfeld from the management of our forces.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
It is voter's responsibility and duty under our Constitution to vote out incumbents who are mismanaging the nation, voter's taxes, and citizen affairs
Pity you didn't post this before the primary when we could have had a chance to replace incumbents in both parties with worthy alternatives, rather than waiting until now when we have nothing but a choice between the incumbent and some mediocre party hack offered up against him.
Dave
2 - David R. Remer
Dave, I have been writing this in various ways since October of 2005 when I founded the PAC, VOID, Vote Out Incumbents Democracy. I only very recently became a writer for Blogcritics, but readers at my other sites have had the benefit of this advice for almost a year now. Better late than never, eh?
What you suggest is precisely what we advocate at VOID: That Republicans vote for challenger Republicans in the primaries, and Democrats vote for Democrat challengers in the primaries, and everyone else votes for any challenger they find most appealing.
In the end, with reelection rates dropping from the more than 90% average currently enjoyed, to the 60% or less range, politicians will respond to the voters as their first priority, and lobbyists, wealthy campaign donors, party power plays, and special interests will all take a back seat to solving more of the nation's problems than Congress creates.
3 - Joe
What a load of crud, you can't pin any label on republicans that democrats don't also proudly wear. That's where you're right on target, though, incumbancy comes too easy these days. These folks need to spend all their days fearing for their jobs, aching to do the voters bidding for fear of being run outta town.
4 - David R. Remer
Joe, its not a load of crud. Some problems you get with Democrats are different from those you get with Republicans. So, it's only half a load of crud. :-)
Seriously, either party in control will become corrupt, inept, and irresponsible if voters don't make reelection conditional on responsible results.
I left the Democratic Party many years ago because they had no sense of fiscal responsibility. After Reagan's lofty national debt levels, I couldn't go to the Republican Party either. So, as an Independent, I vote for whatever candidates offer the best record for solving problems, sticking to good governance principles like bi-partisanship, fiscal responsibility, and putting voters and the nation's concerns ahead of campaign financing, bribes from wealthy special interests and lobbyists, and who have a vision of American remaining strong in the world with far more friends and allies than enemies amongst the world's populations.
Regretfully, that narrows the selection down to just a few who come close. But, there is always the all important anti-incumbent vote which insures that my vote is never wasted or useless. It just awaits millions of other voters to awaken to the power of the anti-incumbent vote which our Constitution granted from the beginning.
5 - Realist
You speak for me as well, David R.! Carter's fiscal ineptitude is what separated me from the Democrats - and I've not been back since.
If the Democrats can demonstrate that they are not the classic Great Society spenders of the past, they might well get a hearing from fiscal conservatives - and maybe also their votes.
6 - Arch Conservative
If the Democrats can demonstrate that they are not the classic Great Society spenders of the past, they might well get a hearing from fiscal conservatives - and maybe also their votes."
Speaking as a fiscal and social conservative who is not all that happy with the current admin I can honestly tell you that as long as the Dems are the party of abortion on demand, higher taxes and more government, cowtowing to the UN and Europe, Clinton idolizing, anti-military, christian bashing and aclu loving I will NEVER vote for them.
Today's American left and democratic party has no redeeming value at all. Why do you think they couldn't muster a candidate to beat a president with sinking pollnumbers in the middle of a war that public opinion was against?
The "at least we're not the evil GOP " strategyu has worked wonders for the Dems in recent elections. I hope they keep it up.