The Good Kind of Shrill

I, like many liberals, am pretty disappointed in the latest appropriations bill. Which is, as I see it, everything the president wanted with only a milksop towards benchmarks in a measure that Mr. Bush can and will wave away with a flick of his imperious hand.

I understand the Congress has to deal with a willful and disrespectful executive with a bunker mentality, unlikely to change its mind or offer a compromise any time soon. I understand that this war can't be halted on a dime and it takes a long time to right the ship of state after it's been so expertly driven into the shore by the Bush Administration – their only expertise seems to be in ruining thing, after all. And I understand that the legislative battles have to be waged slowly so I've been content to wait and let the pressure mount. But, frankly, by this point I expected more results. This war, this president, this course, is deeply unpopular so I don't understand why there's such timidity on the part of the Democratic leadership. Beyond that they're still listening to all the wrong people.

But, really, it's been hard to put my outrage into words. Thankfully, on tonight's Countdown, Mr. Olberman saved me the trouble. His commentaries have been, well, special in the past but, hot damn, he was breathing fire while his eyes went all swirly tonight. “Shameful and bi-partisan betrayal”, indeed. We cannot afford, by any unit of measure that matters, to wait until another September for yet another showdown on this. It's time. Now. To end this. And if it takes sending another message to our supposed leaders, well, then, it's time to make our voices heard once again.