As noted yesterday, the Democrats who scurried away like frightened mice from Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinic during the 2004 presidential campaign, rose up at last to bite like a dog who has been kicked around for too long. They are demanding answers to their (and the public’s) questions about the manipulated, misleading and misanthropic war in Iraq. The president dangled the twin bait of Alito and bird flu before them but they did not bite. The Republican leadership tried to dismiss the closing down of the US senate as tantrum by a frustrated opposition bereft of new ideas. Senator Frist harrumphed about being stabbed in the back and cried crocodile tears for the lack of collegiality of his Democratic counterpart, Senator Harry Reid. That is a bit rich coming from someone who traveled to South Dakota in 2004 to shamelessly campaign against Tom Daschle, the previous minority leader of the senate.
President Bush is heading to Argentina tomorrow to attend the Summit of the Americas with our Latin American neighbors among whom he is not wildly popular. Street protests, one of them led by soccer star Diego Maradona, are expected to be lively and widespread. Not acknowledging our own poor standing with our neighbors, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who is better liked in that region, is being termed the "fly in the ointment". The flamboyant Chavez, whatever his shortcomings, has a more appropriate moniker for George Bush whom he calls "Mr. Danger."
More news of this administration’s abuse of power and flouting of international laws are reported here and here by our own mainstream journalists. In advance of his trip to Latin America, Bush gave an interview to an Argentinian reporter during which he was asked to reveal the contents of his pockets. Ever obliging with easy and frivolous questions, Bush turned his pockets inside out to show that the only thing he carries on his person is a handkerchief. If only his hands and his conscience were as clean as his pockets !
Accidental Blogger 