Business as Usual - part II

Friday, November 10, 2006 10:11 AM

Just can't wait to see what changes those wonderful "liberal" Democrats have in mind to correct and humanize Bush's disastrous  policies in the Middle East, now that they control Capital Hill and have some direct responsibility. Take Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Hillary Clinton, for example. Democrats who voted to authorized the war in Iraq, but who turned on Bush the moment the dishonest enterprise blew up in their collective faces.

This is one reason Bush keeps smiling and making a joke out of everything. Besides being a comedian, Bush knows that the Democrats have been in bed with him from the start, and so they can't impeach him, and that the circus in Washington is all a ridiculous game not to be taken seriously.

Of course, the Democrats can't credibly criticize Bush's policy with respect to Israel: no American Administration could be more slavish to Tel Aviv than Cheney & Bush and their star-studded, Likud foreign policy team. The Democrats can't debase themselves more than the White House has already done on this issue, as much as they would like to. It just ain't possible. So the Dems have been relegated to bashing the Bush fiasco next door in Iraq. That's safe and easy to do. Go with the flow.

All of which is ironic, because (a) the Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress authorized Bush to launch the war in Iraq, and (b) it is a war which, in retrospect, was obviously undertaken on behalf of the "Israel Lobby" and at the insistence of Ariel Sharon, to advance Tel Aviv's perceived strategic interests, which interests the Democrats support to the max, just like Cheney and Bush. Democrats like Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer, for example. They are "liberals" please understand, not "neocons". What is the difference? You ask. It all depends on whom you are trying to fool. They are one in the same when it comes to the Middle East.

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Rahm Emanuel and Charles Schumer:
From the N.Y. Jewish Daily newspaper,
The Forward..."America's top 50 Jews"...

No one raised an eyebrow when the Democratic Party decided, in its bid to recapture Congress this year, to name a pair of boychiks from the old neighborhood to mastermind the campaign: Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Northside Chicago, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Senator Chuck Schumer of Brooklyn, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Both are aggressive campaigners who managed to breathe some much-needed moxie into the party while avoiding the gaffes that sank fellow party leaders like Howard Dean and John Kerry. Schumer, 55, entered the Senate in 1998, after 18 years in the House, representing the most heavily Jewish district in Brooklyn. In the House he was known as a superhawk on Israel and an archliberal on everything else. In the Senate he's considered Public Enemy No. 1 by the gun lobby, and he's led Democratic opposition to conservative Bush judicial nominations.

As for Emanuel, 46, he is a son of an Israeli émigré who entered national politics as one of the whiz kids of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential war room. He served in the Clinton White House as political director and domestic policy chief - Bubba's Karl Rove - before winning a House seat in 2002, the first person of Israeli origin ever elected to Congress. This summer he led a group of Democrats in boycotting a congressional speech by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who had just lambasted Israel's war against Hezbollah.

For the November contest, both Schumer and Emanuel made a point - despite their own unabashed liberalism - of recruiting moderate and conservative Democrats who could win in Red states. Both then proceeded to raise unprecedented sums of money. It's been said that just as the Jews maintained the Sabbath, so the Sabbath maintained the Jews. Apparently, the same thing goes for the Democratic Party.