Colbert on science and religion
October 15th, 2006
Archive for October 15th, 2006
Democratic Congress end the war? No way!
John Walsh carefully examines the positions of leading Democratic House challengers and concludes Election 2006: The Fix is Already In. The subtitle tells it all: How Rahm Emmanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress. According to Walsh, Emmanuel has creafully steered money to pro-war candidates ad agaist antiwar candidates. He provides two case studies. One is Emmanuel’s recruiting of pro-war Tammy Duckworth inIllinois’s 6th District, in order to deny the seat to antiwar Christine Cegelis, who nearly defeated Duckworth in the primary anyway.
Here is the other case Walsh presents:
But in one case, and sadly in only one of the 22 districts, which Emanuel selected for intervention, he did not prevail; but that is also instructive. The second case study is CA’s 11th CD Dem primary where Emanuel poured in money, much of it apparently coming from his own district in Illinois, to bankroll Steve Filson, essentially a political unknown, who opposed immediate withdrawal from Iraq. But in this primary battle the grass roots prevailed and the strongly antiwar candidate, Jerry McNirney, who supports the Murtha bill for immediate withdrawal, defeated Emanuel’s minion, Filson. It is noteworthy that McNirney, strongly antiwar, won, whereas Cegelis, weakly antiwar, lost. Now in the general election McNirney is pulling ahead of his pro-war Republican opponent by 48 to 46% in the most recent poll even though his opponent has outspent him by $1.6 million to $303,000! MicNirney has raised a total of only $452,000 to his opponent’s $2.5 million. Some cash from Rahm would ensure McNirney’s victory it would appear, but it is not forthcoming. It seems that Rahm Emanuel is stanching the influx of money in this very competitive race.
I haven’t independently examined his claims, but wouldn’t be surprised if Walsh is correct. Unfortunately, that means that voters who think a Democratic vote means a major change in the war policy are doomed to be sorely disapointed. But that went without saying. There is no way the Democrats are going to force and end to the war, allowing the Republicans to claim the Dems “lost Iraq.” The mainstream Democrats are only concerned that Bush is incompetently destroying Iraq. They would gladly support a competent occupation and destruction of that poor country. As in Viernam, a few hundred thousand more dead Iraqis won’t bother them.
October 15th, 2006