Cause And Effect 101 With Mark Shields

 

(Stolen from http://people.umass.edu/ccostell/dunce.jpg)

In his latest column “Who Lost Iraq?“, Mark Shields, the great dispenser of what passes for Beltway Media Liberalism in this day and age, states the following:

Still, the high political stakes of the continuing debate over funding the war in Iraq were starkly put by Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri: “If we pass legislation that loses the war, then the people who vote to pass the legislation that ends the war are going to own it. That failure will be their (read, Democrats’) failure.”

Remember Vietnam and the electoral price paid by Democrats who led the national effort — with increasing public support — to get U.S. troops out of that long war in Southeast Asia? Democrats, who have held the White House only 12 years since the tumultuous antiwar campaign of 1968, remember painfully that, following the fall of Saigon, tough-talking Republicans prospered at the polls by pointing fingers at antiwar Democrats for the “loss ” of Vietnam.

Ahem.

Democrats actually did well in 1974, the year they defunded the war: They picked up 49 seats in the House and three seats in the Senate. If that’s paying an electoral price, it’s one I’m sure they’d love to pay again in 2008. Granted, they had the fall of Nixon via Watergate to help them out, but it was their own decision to push the hearings and impeachment process that made this possible.

Ah, you say, but Saigon fell in 1975! Yeah, and guess what? The Democrats won the White House, picked up a seat in the House and kept the same number of seats overall in the Senate. The crummy economy under Ford and his pardon of Nixon were enough to convince most Americans to vote for Carter despite his many gaffes — or what the press reported as ‘gaffes’. If Republicans ever really “prospered at the polls” because of the Democrats’ moving to end the Vietnam War, there sure doesn’t seem to be much evidence of this, at least not in 1974 or 1976.

I Think I See the Problem

According to the Associated Press, Monica Goodling was terribly, terribly upset about all the fuss being made over the purge of the U.S. Attorneys.

“All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and this administration and this department,” Goodling said during a March 8 conversation, according to Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis.

It is noteworthy that she did not mention wanting to serve this country, the American people, the Constitution, the cause of law and justice… She wasn’t there to do what a government employee should be doing. She was there to serve George W. Bush.

And the government is infested with idol worshippers like her.

GOP 1, USA -1

I score the Goodling testimony (of which I heard the first half; Emptywheel and the Firepups have provided a full summary) as largely favorable to Bushco. I don’t fault the Democrats for this, because Goodling was clearly well-prepped for the hearing. Here is what the GOP accomplished:

• They remedied the seriously bad optics of having Goodling take the 5th (she confessed to possibly breaking civil service rules).
• They dispelled the image of Goodling as a dumb, easily-manipulated political hack with a fly-by-night degree. She appeared by dress and demeanor, though not by actions, appropriate to a senior position.
• Goodling came across as reasonably forthright except in the rare case (she said she had no conversation with Rove and had to be reminded that e-mail is included).
• They systematically blurred the lines between (a) normal logrolling with political appointees, (b) improper pressure on political appointees, and (c) politicized dealings with civil service appointees.
• No single deed has been identified as wrongful. Indeed, they have provided an alternative explanation for the firing of Carol Lam (Dianne Feinstein complained about her immigration prosecutions a year before the firing).
• They provided a scapegoat (McNulty).

But reality is not cooperating. The facts on the ground are that morale in DoJ is bad and will impact the functioning. With the election of a scapegoat, more e-mails are likely to surface. The US Attorneys’s belief that they were fired unjustly will outweigh any claims about what was in Monica Goodling’s heart.

In short, the Goodling testimony looks like a battle the Republicans are winning that will cost them the war.

Pug Bowling

Woof!

No pugs were hurt in the making of this video.