Lion in Winter

Lord knows he is not without sin. Nor was he the most inspiring of his brood, in the shadow of two superstar brothers, which may have contributed to his avoidance of assassination. But big props to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) for standing up today and throwing down the gauntlet against this egomaniacal bloodletting to be that is El President George W. Bush's expected Iraq War escalation plan.

In his address Tuesday to the National Press Club, Teddy repeats multiple quotes that seem to be straight out of the Bush/McCain escalation justification, but are revealed one-by-one to be Vietnam War escalation justification quotes, including a classic by another Texan, President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Kennedy could not be clearer in his reasons to oppose the escalation, nor could he be clearer in identifying that, "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam."

You can read a terrific piece currently headlining at DailyKos that he posted directly to the blog reading community, "Escalation: It's Not Up To Him," regarding the speech and accompanying legislation he's introducing to force both Democratic and Repub Senators to take a stand.

You can sign Kennedy's online petition supporting his legislation here.

As Chris Bowers writes at MyDD.com in "Escalation As The New Social Security," when Dems stood together to block Bush/Cheney/Rove's attempt to gut Social Security like Repubs have wanted to do since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced it during our Great Depression, we not only won but for the first time we proved the darkest GOP forces were beatable. That victory, that line in the sand, bolstered our spirits and started us down the path that led to the Congressional turnover we're enjoying just this week.

Here's our next chance.

This is America. We have no kings. The Decider can stuff it.

Just. Say. No.