Steeling

Big moves these past 24 hours in D.C. Under the cloak of Nancy Pelosi's historic swearing in, the Bush Administration deploys a second fleet of carriers to right beside Iran, moves experienced diplomat John Negroponte just under Condi Rice at State (So she can become VP when Cheney steps down? Because even George finally gets that she's incompetent?) and a yes-man from the Navy into Negroponte's vacated Director of National Intelligence job. Get ready for the deadly Iran War Medicine Show.

This, as our army tries to recruit dead men to fill the under-staffed ranks.

How does the public feel about BushCheneyCo's handling of Iraq? Does the number "30" mean anything to you?

Meanwhile Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Lieberman (I-CA) talked up troop escalation (reinforcement?) in Iraq as a necessary step to war with Iran. Lieberman I get, that same old Likudnik crap that abetted getting us into Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld's war, but McCain is the less defensible case. He just isn't judgmentally fit to lead this country.

Here's hoping their POV gets consigned to the trash bin of history. It sure seems like a petering out minority opinion in post-Bush America. It's the, "blood on hands" policy option.

Almost as smart as executing Saddam Hussein and releasing it immediately on cellphone video.

Now Joe Biden tells the world he thinks even Dick Cheney has admitted to himself that they (and we the country) lost and just wants to make it President Edwards or Obama or Clark or Biden or Clinton or Vilsack's problem, make the images of the final airlift out of the Green Zone part of their historical record, not that of the villain who caused it all.

But the big steeling came today in a way one can only pray the Democratic leadership maintains through the opening next Wednesday night, when El President reveals his "plan" for dealing with his catastrophe, in the form of the letter addressed to George W. Bush from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). To quote:

Our troops and the American people have already sacrificed a great deal for the future of Iraq. After nearly four years of combat, tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, and over $300 billion dollars, it is time to bring the war to a close. We, therefore, strongly encourage you to reject any plans that call for our getting our troops any deeper into Iraq. We want to do everything we can to help Iraq succeed in the future but, like many of our senior military leaders, we do not believe that adding more U.S. combat troops contributes to success.

And even Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), who reportedly lost Speaker Pelosi's favor to chair the House Intelligence Committee by having backed the President on the Iraq War longer than she should have, is making amends to her fellow grandmother by relaying a clear public message:

The Bush Administration has claimed emergency spending is necessary because the costs of a protracted war on terror are not known. Nonsense. Both the Korean and the Vietnam Wars were almost entirely financed through the regular appropriations process - not emergency supplementals.

The White House will soon ask for over $100 billion in new emergency war spending, Adjusted for inflation, that is more than we spent in 1968, the most expensive year of the war in Vietnam. And the lion's share of that funding was done through the regular process.

There must be no more blank checks for this President, and I predict this will be the last "emergency" supplemental in the new Democrat-controlled Congress.

Has the time has come when the grandmothers will save America?

They raised the kids that had the kids -- is there any better training for it?

Will the Grandmother Party be the one with a backbone?