Today is one those days that makes me hopeful for the future of our country. The Senate voted 51-46 to send the spending bill on to President Bush. He said he’ll veto it, but it sets up an important show down and demonstrates to the world that America is not a country of war mongers. There are Americans who care about what happens half a world away from them. To be sure this is not a perfect bill but this puts the ball in the court of George W. Bush.
I watched Bill Bennett on Wolf Blitzer’s show wring his hands about the Democrats and how they’re selling us out and down the river to terrorists. Bill was reciting all the Republican talking points. What’s most amazing about ‘Bellicose Bill’ is that just like the Vice President, Bill has no record of military service. Where was all that bellicosity 40 years ago when there were communists to be expelled from Indochina. The Republicans have become with few exceptions, “war starters” but not “war fighters.” They leave the fightin’ to someone else. They’re all for a war as long as they don’t have to sacrifice their own hide.
The do-nothing Democrats are down at South Carolina State University trying to look Presidential tonight. Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards and Barack Obama are the only candidates on that side of the aisle who will admit that the Iraq War was a terrible idea. Actually, Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who really seems to consistently care about ending the war and stopping the Constitution wrecking Republicans. I admire Dennis. He has remarkable ideas and he’s not afraid to talk about them. The media does everything they can to trivialize him, but he keeps plugging along. You gotta love a man who proposed a Department of Peace.