Interesting Times

No, I won't quote the ancient Chinese proverb that has been used in every other graduation speech in the last decade, but we certainly do living in interesting times. This past week has been one of the most fascinating and indeed troubling weeks in politics in recent American history.

Certainly, much punditry was shared on the now-ex. Congressman Foley's instant messaging with Congressional pages. For Progressive Christians, there is a great deal of irony in a case of a leading Republican on child safety issues to be found engaging in gay, cyber-sex with minors. Republicans have claimed the mantel of morality focusing upon anti-gay and anti-abortion issues. We know that moral living and moral politics is much more inclusive and in fact that when it comes to issues of personal morality, those matters are indeed largely individual.

Unfortunately, the Republican spin machine came firing right out of the shoots. "Yeah, but a Democrat had sex with a page in 1983." "Clinton had sex with an intern." "The House leadership didn't respond because they were afraid of being accused of gay-bashing." Instead of taking responsibility (which I supposed Speaker Hastert finally did yesterday), there was a great deal of passing the buck, and somehow trying to blame Democrats. Countdown on MSNBC did a great job exposing the Republican talking points. See video above.

Amidst the Foley hoopla, Bob Woodward came out with a bombshell book claiming that President Bush is in a state of denial about the Iraq War. Now, this is no shocker to even the casual follower of the evening news. Bush makes proud, patriotic speeches about fighting terrorism and Iraq, and then we see another 50 people were killed including 2 US soldiers. This disconnect occurs on an almost daily basis. Most Americans aren't buying it and haven't bought it over the last year. Bush's job approval, his handling of the war rating, and other indicators demonstrate that the American people understand the gravity of the situation that we created for ourselves much more than Bush. Like the National Intelligence Estimate that Bush tried to hide, we know that Iraq has been heading towards civil war and has created a lot more terrorists in the Middle East. The war has been botched and most of want to get out.

Even with all of this madness in Washington DC, I'm not sure that the Democrats will win back the House or Senate. The Republican ground machine has been built up for the last 40 years into an effective electioneering machine. The Democrats do not have an equal institutional structure and are largely left hoping that the Republican faithful will stay home in November.

The interesting times have just begun.