A Post In Which I Do Not Discuss the ISG At All

I suppose I should be talking about the Baker report. Everyone else I know is, after all, so if you want to hear about that feel free to go elsewhere . But, well, from what I can tell it doesn’t contain anything particularly new or exciting – Iraq is a mess and what we’re doing isn’t working. About the only person who doesn’t get that at this point is the only one who can actually do anything about matters. That’s the one who’s address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But, no, there was another piece of new today that’s actually got me depressed. That’s the successful nomination of Robert Gates to be the new secretary of defense. I, personally, think that’s important because he’s going to be the person running the war whether or not the Baker report’s recommendations are accepted. But as I said way back when I first heard that he had accepted the nomination it’s the timing of this that really bothers me. The papers and the literate ones will be buzzing about not the person actually in charge of the military now but the vague and non-binding opinions of ten people (many of whom have roughly zero idea about how to prosecute a war) hand picked by the Congress to deliver something that’s about as partisanly non-partisan as you can get. But, no it’s not even that this nomination and the release of that report were somehow managed to coincide. It’s that Mr. Gates was even up for nomination now at this point in time.

Oh, you’ll get no argument from me that Mr. Rumsfeld should have resigned. And I certainly am glad his time in office is over and hopeful for a brighter term ahead – in more ways than one. But, well, the President assured everyone for months that he was sticking by his secretary. Right up until after the election. When it became apparent that a tidal wave of change was about to crash into the government then he became suddenly expendable. Except, of course, that everyone in the White House had known for some time that Mr. Rumsfeld would be leaving. They just held that fact from the American public so that it didn’t influence the election results. I mean, if they’d let Mr. Rumsfeld leave when he wanted to they might have had to put Mr. Gates up for nomination before the election and given people a chance to say something about it. At about the only place the Republicans seem to listen to their voice – the ballot box.

Even after that election, though, the Republicans were trying to somehow shape and influence things by rushing forward with the nomination of Mr. Gates. All so that he could be confirmed by the Republican Congress before the change of the year and the changing of the guard. That way – with the Republicans in charge of the committees and the voting and everything else, they could ensure that even if there was an awful fight looming they could still get Mr. Gates through and into office.

I know I, for one, was hoping for a long fight over the nomination. It seemed to me to be the perfect time to ask some perfectly pointed questions of the President’s chosen representative. What with the holidays and all coming up would there be a better time to remind people that there are some Americans very far from home and even further from safety at this very moment? And that the man being raked over the coals was going to be the one to ensure, for perhaps the first time, that they were taken care of. Anything, really, to keep sticking it to the administration and to build on the successes of the election. And that’s something I think the Democratic Party really needs to do – not just for themselves but, really, for the health of our great nation. Because it was the Gates nomination that reminded me of something:

These people think we’re sheep.

The Republicans, I mean, because I dearly want to give the Democratic Party the benefit of the doubt. At the moment anyway. But the nomination of Mr. Gates was the signal that the President and his administration and supporters and the whole apparatus they have to protect them and ensure their continued success just really didn’t get it. And don’t get it to this day if their reaction to the Baker report is to be believed. But the people spoke in the last election. And with many voices they all said together that they were tired of the way things have been going. That many people, the President not least among them, need to change their ways. That we might be under danger from a source that we never expected and if that’s true it might just be time to reevaluate our actions and reconsider our positions. It’s not too late, in so many words, that we can’t still salvage things before we crash into the rocks. All of us.

I know it woke me up. And I’d hoped it would wake up the Democratic Party too. Out of the stupor they’ve been in for the past few years and back to being an actually effective political machine of their own. Not a pale imitation of the Republican Party they’ll never be but something new and better. A political party that was going to fight. Just as hard as they did to get elected. Fight to preserve their ideas and beliefs. Fight to drag us all along with them into a solution to our problems. And, of course, to fight the many battles ahead with every ounce of their strength because, really, they captured the Congress with such a slim margin when just about everything that could go right for them – and wrong for the rest of us – did, in fact, tumble their way. I’m not sure if we, as a country, want to go through what it took to get us to this point again. But that’s what I think is going to happen if the Democratic Party doesn’t start fighting right now – the next election’s not going to be nearly as in their favor as the last. They grabbed some power and now they need to leverage that power into more and more if they want to keep it. And, well, I thought that chastened by the election results the Republicans and conservatives among us would realize that it could be possible to reach out to one another and work together because that radical a step to take is just how bad our problems are.

The Gates nomination put an end to that little fantasy real quick. Because, really, it was the sign from the President to his supporters that it was business as usual. They lost the election but they were gearing up to continue the fight evermore. Not lay down and take it. That’s because they actually understand how this game is played. So, that nomination was a warning klaxon. A red warning light as a call to arms. It was a reminder to the Democratic Party and their supporters that they’d taken the first step into a brave new world but there were plenty of steps yet to be taken. And if they wanted to make that journey they’d have to kick and claw every inch of the way.

That’s what’s really upsetting me at the moment. Not only was Mr. Gates nomination successful it passed the senate by a vote of 95-2 (after unanimously passing the Senate Armed Services Committee, of course). I’m not sure who those two brave people were who stood up for their beliefs and, indeed, for their very role in the government but I know that they deserve my respect. If nothing more. And everyone else deserves if not my withering scorn then the same dejected feeling that always overtakes me when I consider politics at all. I’m just tired. Tired of the whole stupid mess. If no one else is going to fight with everything they have then why should I bother?