The Republicans are Running Scared, According to Their Own Website

According to its website, the Grand Old Party is running scared.

On its front page, where there is a link to DONATE to the cause, there is a flashing message beneath the word DONATE:

232 GOP House members
15 GOP Senators
22 GOP Governors
Thousands of Local GOP Officials
Could All Be Lost in 2006 Without Your Support

That's pretty dramatic. "All could be lost?" I don't think they really mean they could lose every seat. What they mean is that they could lose their monopoly on power. That's what scares them.

Given Bush's historically low ratings, given that Republican candidates are running from him likes rats from a sinking ship, given his numerous foreign and domestic failures and the indictments of his pals (with the valid fear of more to come), it is, indeed, actually possible for progressives to envision taking back at least one chamber of the Congress.

Also on the website's main page is an attack video against Democratic critics of George Bush's war, with Hillary Clinton's face prominently displayed.

The video takes footage of Albright, Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, and Sandy Berger in 1998 talking about the threat of Iraq and Saddan Hussein. It then follows with footage from 2002 and 2003 with Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Evan Bayh either talking about Iraq having WMD or supporting President Bush in his actions against Iraq because of the WMD.

The video concludes with Bush's recent speech on November 11 in which he tells his audience that he had bi-partisan support from Congress, criticizing Democrats for trying to rewrite history by claiming that they did not see the same intelligence the President saw. His message is that it was the Congress that sent our troops to war and Congress should stick by them now. He also claims (falsely) that a Congressional committee found that there was no evidence of political pressure on the intelligence community and implies the Democrats should be ashamed for saying otherwise.

Here's the new Republican strategy on Iraq in a nutshell --

The Democrats share equal responsibility and accountability for the invasion because they supported it, based on the same intelligence everyone else saw and they voted to send our troops into Iraq. Not only did President Bill Clinton in 1998 believe Iraq had WMD, but Hillary Clinton did, too, in 2002 and 2003. To attack Bush now is unpatriotic and hypocritical. So, shut up.

The Rebulicans want to use the Democrats support of the invasion as a way to avoid discussing how wrong the war was, how wrong the intelligence was, how wrong the war was fought, and how bad things are now. Whether the Democrats saw the same intelligence or not, whether they supported the invasion or not, does not make the Bush invasion right, nor does it justify our continued presence there.

Below the video is a clickable link entitled Iraq Facts which consists primarily of military boasting:

-- At The Iraqi Army Basic Training Academy In Taji, Iraq, All Instruction Is Now In Arabic And Courses Are Taught By Iraqi Noncommissioned Officers (Wow, 2 1/2 years after the invasion we finally have courses taught in Arabic!)

-- The Counter-Insurgency Center For Excellence Provides Coalition Forces And Iraqi Security Forces "With The Latest And Best Practices For Conducting Counter-Insurgency (COIN) Operations In Iraq." (Did Rush Limbaugh name this place? The Counter-Insurgency Center for Excellence?)

-- 1,000 Iraqi Army Soldiers Are Participating In Operation Steel Curtain, An Offensive "Intended To Rid The [Syrian] Border Area Of Havens For Foreign Insurgents, Particularly Members Of Al Qaeda In Iraq." (1000? That's it? The Iraqis can't muster more than a 1000 men to defend their borders?)

-- The U.S. Military And Iraqi Forces Killed About 50 Terrorists During A Broad Offensive This Week In Western Iraq. (Shades of Vietnam, body counts are back)

Finally, under a link entitled Safety and Security, this is the sentence that summarizes their priorities for the nation's safety and security:

President Bush is committed to keeping the nation strong and secure through strengthening our military, deploying a missile defense system, strengthening the NATO alliance and supporting military families and veterans.

It never occurs to these Republicans that having the largest deficit in history, cutting education and job training, attacking worker's rights, destroying our reputation around the world, undermining our civil rights at home, appointing political hacks to important governmental positions requiring actual experience, increasing our dependence on the oil and gas industry, ignoring our poor, our underfed, and our ill, failing American survivors of natural disasters, turning our government over to corporate officials and religious fundamentalists, undermining our voting systems, attacking consumer protections, rewriting science, and packing our judiciary with religious and political ideologues endangers America's safety and security more than any terrorist threat ever will.

Under the Republicans, we can have the largest, best equipped military in the world with the only missile defense system in the world, with the best paid military in the world, and the best cared for veterans in the world. Without taking care of the things that really count in keeping America safe and secure, Americans' lives will be miserable, insecure and unsafe.