Sunday, February 05, 2006
Friedman and Sunday Morning
Although it’s been written about before, it deserves repeating on my blog. Within 24 hours of promising to cut U.S. oil imports by 75% in his State of the Union Address, the Bush Administration backpedals following a call from Saudi Arabia.
Pathetic. This is the administration you elected, moderates. Congratulations. As if offering to increases funding to a government development body by 22% wasn’t a modest enough promise, Bush’s other goal is “just an example,” in other words, he lied again.
Tom Friedman, pseudo-columnist for the New York Times, made a big deal a few days ago of saying he hoped the president would outline an Apollo Program for energy independence in his address, proof that hope springs eternal in the minds of the moderates. Of course, Mr. Friedman was disappointed, according to Friday’s column. But Mr. Friedman would never consider lambasting the president for his failure, because such backbone and probity is beyond him. It’s counterproductive, in his mind. Yes, strong criticism is counterproductive. *Sigh* BitterHarvest has no words.
In Friedman’s words “I am not going to sit around for the next three years just trashing these guys and praying that some Democrat gets elected and does all the right things.”
Friedman concedes the fact that democrats will not gain control of the House in November. While I wouldn’t bet against him, Friedman gives up the fight before it has even begun. If congress does change its character in November Mr. Friedman will look exceptionally stupid, and as the scandals around this presidency continue to grow only a fool would not even try to make a case.
Freidman seems to understand that congress can take action (really?!?) by mentioning the more ambitious Vehicle and Fuel Choices for Americans Act, but he retreats from advocating anything else. Friedman suffers from the same disease that made conservatives hate the Clintons: his politics are steered by what he think is probable, not what he thinks would be the best solution.
Friedman laughably asserts in the end of his column that “if he fails to carry through with this energy initiative, I’ll be the first to rip him for it.”
I beg to differ, Mr. Friedman. Your performance to date suggests that you will be the last to rip the president for anything, as you assert yourself in the beginning of your article. To reference your article, “Pigs will fly” before Tom Friedman becomes a staunch critic of the administration.
Friedman asserts, “I prefer to give him a new reputation to live up to.” Friedman is smarter than this, but he has always lacked the courage of his convictions. As Driftglass once wrote, “I can’t figure out if Friedman is just a plain, vanilla idiot or a willing shill for the neocons.”
Across the way Krugman writes a far better column, thankfully.
This morning I saw Senator Jeff Sessions on Face the Nation spouting the administration’s talking points on warrantless wiretapping. This guy is on the Judiciary Committee, for God’s sake! This is one of the guys who’s going to be evaluating its legality!
This is why I say the Republican Party in Washington is a disease. I try to keep an open mind until I actually here one of them say something exactly like Sessions, but every one of them continually proves he is utterly co-opted by the Right Wing Machine.
I bet I could randomly select a republican senator, do a ten minute google search, and come up with enough dirt on him to fill a briefcase. Sessions voted to confirm William Pryor and Janice R. Brown and convict Clinton on both articles of impeachment. He was one of only nineteen senators who voted against the amendment to S1042 that would require the president to report or progress in Iraq every few months.
Sessions is a radical of the right, but the sad thing is he’s as common as rain.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 4:06 PM 
