The Discerning Texan

Labels: Al Qaeda, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, War Successes

Labels: Appeasement, Cartoons, Iran, Tony Blair, UK

Labels: Free Markets, Illegal Immigration, US Politics

Labels: CAIR, Fred Thompson, Islam, Islamic Fascism, PC, US Politics

Labels: Barack Obama, Democrat, Racial Politics

Labels: Racial Politics, US Politics

Labels: Justice Department, Obstruction of Justice, Sandy Berger

Labels: Appeasement, Democrat Sabotage, Nancy Pelosi, Syria

It’s completely outrageous for any nation to go out and arrest the servicemen of another nation in waters that don’t belong to them.” So spoke Admiral Sir Alan West, former First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, concerning the present Anglo-Iranian crisis over captured British soldiers. But if the attack was “outrageous,” it was apparently not quite outrageous enough for anything to have been done about it yet.

Sir Alan elaborated on British rules of engagement by stressing they are “very much de-escalatory, because we don’t want wars starting ... Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to be captured and taken away.”

One might suggest, not necessarily “sinking everything in sight,” but at least shooting back at a few of the people trying to kidnap Britain’s uniformed soldiers. But the view, apparently, is that stepping back and allowing some chaps to be “captured and taken away” is to be preferred to “roaring into action and sinking everything in sight.” The latter is more or less what Nelson did at the battle of the Nile, when he nearly destroyed the Napoleonic fleet.

Labels: Appeasement, Iran, Islamic Fascism, Middle East, UK

Labels: Cartoons, Democrat Sabotage, Islamic Fascism

Labels: Nutroots, The Left

Although no one doubts our forces will prevail over Saddam Hussein’s, key regional leaders confirm what the Foreign Relations Committee emphasized in its Iraq hearings last summer: The most challenging phase will likely be the day after — or, more accurately, the decade after — Saddam Hussein.

Once he is gone, expectations are high that coalition forces will remain in large numbers to stabilize Iraq and support a civilian administration. That presence will be necessary for several years, given the vacuum there, which a divided Iraqi opposition will have trouble filling and which some new Iraqi military strongman must not fill. Various experts have testified that as many as 75,000 troops may be necessary, at a cost of up to $ 20 billion a year. That does not include the cost of the war itself, or the effort to rebuild Iraq.

Americans are largely unprepared for such an undertaking. President Bush must make clear to the American people the scale of the commitment.

Every U.S. Senator believes he or she should be president. Just listen to them talk, and watch the way they walk; it’s obvious. They’re rarely called to account, but every now and then they write something, and it goes into the record, and then someone googles it out. So take a look at this very statesmanlike op-ed that Biden and Hagel wrote four and a half years ago. Notice they had no clue what would happen after the overthrow of Saddam. Notice that they bought into the Saudi view of life, namely that nothing of merit can be accomplished until there is some deal with Israel and the Palestinians. And notice they knew, long ago, that this would be slow,and we’d have to remain for quite a while. Ten years anyway.

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Hypocrisy, Iraq, Revisionist History, White Flag Republicans

Labels: Cartoons, Government Bureaucrats, Islamic Fascism, PC, Terrorism

• Dennis Kucinich wants another House investigation into 9/11--this time they would cover the "serious" topics, like whether Bush blew up the WTC and Pentagon. Kucinich quoted as saying "questions still remain..."

• John Murtha wants to draft your children.

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Nutroots

Labels: Corruption, Democrat, Diane Feinstein

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Middle East, Syria

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, War strategy

Labels: Afghanistan, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, Islamic Fascism, War strategy

Labels: America War Support, Appeasement, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq

Labels: Iran, Middle East, UK, War strategy

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Middle East, UK, US Politics, War strategy

Labels: Homegrown Jihad, Islamic Fascism, Terrorism

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, Joseph Lieberman, US Politics

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Iran, Islamic Fascism, UK

Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Justice Department, US Politics

Labels: Military Technology, The Internet, War strategy

Labels: Media Bias, Nutroots, The Left

Tony Snow....I hope you die from this cancer, no I hope you suffer terribly and then die like a dog from this cancer. Dont keep Satan waiting.

Liver cancer is universally fatal, and quickly. Let the party begin people, let us dance on our roofs in joy at the end of a neocon mouth piece. This will be a big party, the only one bigger at this time would be for the utter and complete distruction of israel via Iranian nuclear tipped missles. Oh what a beautiful day that would be, mushroom clouds over toilet aviv, oh joy! Stick that in your pipe wolfie, pearlie, libbie, and feithie - I dance a jig in celebration.

At root, I believe all this hatred comes from leftists' own self-loathing, their own sense of guilt and inadequacy--which they want to impart to the rest of us, so we will be angry and fell guilty too.

Witness this whole Global Warming Hysteria. A guilt complex of the highest order--and why? Because we have it good and because third world countries who have been trying archaic Socialist models are failing miserably. So what does the Church of the Sacred Global Warming Myth want to do?--they want to take AWAY the third world's sole means for electricity (oil and coal), thus ensuring the poorest countries will stay in squalor and poverty and AIDS and all the other things we didn't have the money to pay for because we were too damn busy writing a check for the 0.7 inches that the sea levels might rise in 100 years. Meanwhile famine and disease are killing millions today in societies which have not modernized and don't even have running water or electricity. Under the COTSCWM, these people would be written off for a flawed computer model--and they would be thus condemned to remain in poverty and NEVER compete with the rest of the planet. This is not "stewardship" of the earth, this is insanity.

So I wrap up this "eruption" with the following advice. Don't believe me: instead revisit and read those links above, and ponder deeply this fact: the people being quoted in these links--these ugly, vicious, hateful MoveOn nutjobs are the driving force behind the hypocrites who are jerking us all around in Congress right now. The lunatic fringe helped to elect these traitors to office last November--because many of you didn't see it coming or didn't care. Well you've got what you asked for now. Take a good hard look. And learn from your mistake--before it is too late for the rest of us.

UPDATE: I wrote the original draft of this late last night when I was soooo angry that I was unfortunately somewhat incoherent, so I apologize to any readers who were unlucky enough to have tried to slogged through my rant before I at least cleaned it up a little. But thanks for trying!

Labels: Bush Derangement Syndrome, Nutroots, The Left

Labels: Cartoons, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Fred Thompson, Religion, Republican, US Politics

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Justice Department, Libby

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, US Politics, War strategy

Labels: Iran, Islamic Fascism, UK, War strategy

Labels: Bush Derangement Syndrome, Media Bias, Nutroots

HH: ... Now let’s get to the first major issue of the day, which is Iran. Mr. Speaker, if the United Kingdom feels obliged to use force, if diplomacy fails to get their people back, will you applaud?

NG: I think there are two very simple steps that should be taken. The first is to use a covert operation, or a special forces operation to knock out the only gasoline producing refinery in Iran. There’s only one. And the second is to simply intercede by Naval force, and block any tankers from bringing gasoline to Iran…

HH: Would you do, would you urge them…

NG: And say to the Iranians, you know, you can keep the sailors as long as you want, but in about 30 days, everybody in your country will be walking.

HH: So how long would you give them, to give them that ultimatum, the Iranians?

NG: I would literally do that. I would say to them, I would right now say to them privately, within the next week, your refinery will no longer work. And within the following week, there will be no tankers arriving. Now if you would like to avoid being humiliated publicly, we recommend you calmly and quietly give them back now. But frankly, if you’d prefer to show the planet that you’re tiny and we’re not, we’re prepared to simply cut off your economy, and allow you to go back to walking and using oxen to pull carts, because you will have no gasoline left.

HH: I agree with that 100%. Would your recommendation to the United States President be the same if Iran seized our forces?

NG: Absolutely. I mean, the reason I say that, it is the least violent, least direct thing you can do. It uses our greatest strength…you know, the mismatch in Naval power is absolute. And so you don’t have to send troops into Iran. Everybody on the left is waiting for conservatives to say things that allow them to run amok and parade in San Francisco, and claim that we’re warmongers. I want to avoid war by intelligently using our power to eliminate the option of sustaining an economy, so that the Iranian dictatorship will be shown to be the hollow dictatorship it is, so the people of Iran decide they’d like to have a decent government with real electricity and real gasoline, so they overthrow it. And I want to do that without risking a single American life, or being engaged in a single direct confrontation. And Naval power lets you do that.

Faster, please.

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Islamic Fascism, War strategy

• The 1864 (Democrat) Copperheads; however they were ultimately unsuccessful in usurping Lincoln's power--but only because Grant succeeded on the ground before they could pull the plug. (Gen. Petraeus, are you listening?)
  

• The 1974 desertion of a Vietnam War that we were (finally) winning beginning with our thrashing of the the NVA in 1968-69--which drove the NVA to the Paris Peace table so they could meet up with John Kerry.
  

If the war in Iraq is such an unnecessary and futile expenditure of blood and treasure as Pelosi et al. have been saying, why not put an end to it?

But to do that would mean taking responsibility for the consequences—and those consequences would be disastrous and lasting. They would probably still be lasting when the 2008 elections come around.

The Democrats cannot risk that. They have taken over Congress by a very clever and very disciplined strategy of constantly criticizing the Republicans, without taking the risk of presenting an alternative for whose results they can be held responsible.

There is no sign that they want to change that politically winning strategy now. Their non-binding resolutions against the war are a perfect expression of that strategy.

These resolutions put them on record as being against the war without taking the responsibility for ending it.

Labels: Appeasement, Iran, Islamic Fascism, UK

Labels: Bill Whittle, Blogging, The Greatest Country on Earth

Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Cartoons, Executive Privalege, Justice Department

Labels: Nutroots, PC

Nancy Pelosi spent $28 billion last week to round up 218 votes (the exact minimum to get a majority in the 435-member House). That worked out to $130 million or so per vote.

Labels: Iraq, Nancy Pelosi

People love a good conspiracy theory, which may be one of the reasons that actor Charlie Sheen is going to narrate a documentary about how the World Trade Towers were brought down by the U.S. government. About the same time, Rosie O’Donnell added her credibility to the project.

It was an interesting coincidence that their announcements hit the news just as the military released Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s confession regarding his role in planning the 9/11 attacks — and a lot more. Of course, we didn’t really need his confession, because his career has been so well documented.

But sure enough, the terrorist’s admissions instantly drew sneers, and not just from the tin-foil hat crowd. Well-placed people acted like Mohammed’s smug confessions meant nothing.

A lot of people have at least a little in common with Sheen and O’Donnell. They just don’t like to think about how much our enemies actually hate us. It’s easier to escape down a rabbit hole to a land where our own government is tricking us into thinking the world is a dangerous place.

This would be the same government that can’t even keep our most secret surveillance programs out of the newspapers.

Labels: Bush Derangement Syndrome, Fred Thompson, Nutroots

The motion passed 304 to 121

Another UPDATE:
Bryan Preston reads my mind about the 102 who voted against, "closer than it ought to be." So, who voted against the bill?

A reader e-mails this link to the roll call: All 121 NOES are Democrats. Guess how CAIR's guy in Congress Kieth Ellison voted? [That's called a rhetorical question, for those of you in Rio Linda]

Other nay votes? The usual suspects
Waters
Kucinich
Sanchez
Harman
Jackson
Jackson-Lee
Kennedy
Nadler
Conyers
Rangel....etc.

Shuster says in a press release, "This is a big victory for all Americans. No American should ever be sued because they tried to stop a terrorist act. No American should be forced to second guess a decision to alert authorities that could save the lives of others. Unfortunately, the recent lawsuit filed by the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) seeks to do just that."

Labels: Homegrown Jihad, Islamic Fascism, PC

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, US Politics, White Flag Republicans

Labels: Tony Snow

Labels: Appeasement, Cartoons, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq

Labels: Iran, Islamic Fascism, UK, War strategy

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, John McCain

Labels: Hearts and Minds, Media Bias, The Left

Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Justice Department, US Politics

A woman who lost her husband in the 2004 Madrid train bombings displayed an infamous cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad on her T-shirt in front of 29, mostly Muslim, suspects on trial for the attacks on Monday.

The woman's white T-shirt showed Mohammad wearing a bomb as a turban -- one of a series published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which unleashed violent protests by some Muslims last year....

The woman sat in the front row of the court wearing the T-shirt for around half-an-hour before getting up, walking up to the glass cage containing the defendants and finally walking out of the court, judicial sources said.

Labels: Europe, Islamic Fascism, PC

Labels: America War Support, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, War strategy

Labels: Iran, Middle East, Military, War strategy

Labels: Bush Derangement Syndrome, Congress, Democrat Sabotage, Media Bias, Media War, US Politics

...

If you had to draw one of those organizational charts of the world's problems, Pakistan would be at the center of them. We speak of the northwestern tribal lands as some of the most remote places on Earth. But, in fact, when they wanted to, the Saudis had no problem getting to them, spreading a ton of walking-around money, and utterly transforming those villages. From the North-West Frontier Province, the Saudi money and Wahhabist ideology seeped through the country, into the mosques of the cities, radicalizing a generation of young Muslim men. From there it moved on to new outposts of the jihad, to Indonesia, Thailand and beyond. The flight routes from Pakistan to the United Kingdom are now the most important ideological conduit for radical Islam. The London bombers last summer were British subjects of Pakistani origin. Last week, two more were arrested in connection with the Tube bombings at Manchester Airport as they prepared to board a plane to Karachi.

Meanwhile, flying back from Karachi and Islamabad to Heathrow and Manchester are cousins, lots and lots of them. In his detailed study of the Mirpur district in Pakistan, Roger Ballard estimates that at least half and maybe up to two-thirds of those living in Britain of Mirpuri descent marry first cousins. This is a critical tool of reverse-assimilation: instead of being diluted over the generations, tribal identity is reinforced; in effect, Pakistani tribal lands are now being established in parts of northern England.

...

Pakistan exports the fruit of its radical madrassahs in ideology and personnel to Britain and beyond. The mother country, like an elderly spinster, doesn't like to think ill of those nice young men in Manchester and Leeds and Oldham. We're all inclined to be deferential to multiculturalism these days: When imams get tossed off a flight in Minneapolis, it's easiest to tut-tut and demand sensitivity training for the cabin crew. The Quebec government, which mandates verifiable picture ID in order to vote, has just waived the requirement for Muslims: show up at the polls in a burqa or niqab and no one will be so insensitive as to insist on checking whether your face matches that on the driver's license.

And so it goes – creeping sharia, day by day, further insulating communities already prone to self-segregation, but nothing too big or startling to ruffle the scene. In Britain, the authorities can tell you (roughly) the number of jihadist cells and the support they command in the Muslim community. But doing anything about it is far more problematic. Wouldn't be cricket, old boy.

Labels: Islamic Fascism, Mark Steyn, Pakistan, UK

Labels: Iran, Iraq, UK, War strategy

Labels: Bush Derangement Syndrome, Democrat Sabotage, Economics, Iraq, Islamic Fascism, US Politics

Labels: "Consensus" Science, Al Gore, Global Warming Hysteria

Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Justice Department, US Politics

Labels: Iraq, Media War, Military

Labels: Iraq, Military, Travesty of Justice, US Politics

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Islamic Fascism, Republican, US Politics

Labels: Iran, Islamic Fascism, Middle East, UK

Labels: Al Gore, Democrat Sabotage, Global Warming Hysteria, Intelligence War against Bush Admin, Iraq

Labels: America War Support, Appeasement, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Islamic Fascism, Middle East, Military, UK, War strategy

... It’s not about stopping the war. It’s not about bringing our troops home. The whole purpose of this bill is to score political points against the President, to weaken him, to embarrass him – all the while handing the enemies of the United States a victory on the field of battle they’ve neither earned nor deserve.

At the expense of principle and common sense, the Democratic left has allowed their hatred of the President to trump all. And the problem for the Democrats with this entire process is that they are now committed to a course of action (and setting a disturbing precedent that may very well come back to haunt them some day) that ignores military reality in favor of political expediency. ...

...

For once, I agree with many of the netroots on this issue; give us an up or down vote on funding the Iraq War, not this sneaking around and playing political games with the lives of our troops. If, as Democrats have been saying for months, the American people elected them to end this war, let’s end it already. What in God’s name are they scared of? If, as they claim, the people are behind them, what is there to worry about politically? George Bush is beyond lame duck status. He’s a gone goose. The President is an irrelevancy, a non-factor. Republicans are sick of defending him. The base has abandoned him. Bush could claim from here to the next election that Democrats “lost” the war if they cut off funding but no one would listen or believe him. So why the hesitation?

The fact is, the left in Congress are cowards – unprincipled, abject cowards. They talk a good game but when push comes to shove – when history calls and asks them to stand up for their principles – they run and hide under their beds like five year olds scared of the thunder.

And the hell of it is, they are going to point to passage of this bill as a “victory.” It’s a triumph of hate over principle – hardly a victory unless you consider it more important to stick a shiv into the President’s gut to satisfy your own personal animus.

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Hearts and Minds, Iraq, War strategy

Labels: Democrat Sabotage, Justice Department, Unbridled Partisanship, US Attorneys, US Politics

Labels: al-Sadr, Intelligence, Iran, Iraq, War Successes

Labels: Homegrown Jihad, Islam, Islamic Fascism

Labels: Homegrown Jihad, Islam, Islamic Fascism, Judicial

Labels: Hearts and Minds, Iraq, Media Bias, Media War, War strategy

Labels: "Consensus" Science, Al Gore, Fred Thompson, Global Warming Hysteria

Labels: America War Support, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, War strategy

Labels: Afghanistan, Media Bias, Media War, NY Times

Labels: "Consensus" Science, Al Gore, Global Warming Hysteria, The Left

Labels: Hearts and Minds, Nutroots, The Left, Thought Police, US Politics

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Republican, US Politics

Labels: Counterterrorism, Homeland Security, Islamic Fascism

What then of those problems that don’t even catch the jet set’s eye? It was about three years ago that I began following events in southern Thailand – the old Sultanate of Pattani, to us Mad Dogs and Englishmen. It was the numbers at first: Muslim “insurgents” were murdering over a hundred people a month, which seemed rather on the high side. Then I started looking for the bloody details behind the statistics: the two Laotian-immigrant farm workers beheaded for …well, for what? The Thai government isn’t occupying Palestine or invading Iraq or stationing troops in Saudi Arabia. And for a while I took to citing the country’s southern provinces as a bit of list filler to demonstrate the splendidly ecumenical nature of the jihad: Muslims vs Jews in the West Bank, Muslims vs Christians in Nigeria, Muslims vs Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs Buddhists in Thailand.

Aside from bringing up the rear in my planetary generalizations, what’s going on? The International Herald Tribune, in a brief story on the daily barrage of bombings and beheadings, decided it made no sense:

The insurgency is all the more difficult to combat because it does not show its face. Unlike similar movements around the world, this one has not set out its demands or published a manifesto. It is a collection of violent groups without an identifiable central leadership.

You don’t say. Now why would that be? When the Herald Tribune refers to “similar movements around the world”, it seems to be harking back to the good old days of 1960s nationalist movements. Your old-school insurgent got into the insurgency game against the state because he wanted to be the state: the object was to have your flag fluttering from the palace and swear yourself in as President-for-Life. A generation or so back, there were such groups running around Pattani promoting a more or less conventional Malay-Muslim secessionist movement. But, as in other parts of the globe, the disaffected have become co-opted into something bigger. Who wants to settle for being Minister of Transport when you can be part of a new caliphate that overthrows the entire global order?

To modify the Palestinian peace-process cliches, these “collections of violent groups” are in favor of a no-state solution. In Thailand, they target the lowest officials of the kingdom – schoolteachers, policemen and municipal functionaries. The object is to emphasize that not only can these people not protect you but that associating with them is likely to endanger you, too. If the state reacts with a bloody crackdown on Muslims, that’s good news for the insurgents. If the state instead dithers uncertainly, that works, too. The Buddhist villages in the south are emptying out, week by week, remorselessly.

Labels: Asia, Islamic Fascism, Mark Steyn, Thailand

Labels: "Consensus" Science, Al Gore, Global Warming Hysteria

Labels: Democrat, Israel, Nutroots, US Politics

Labels: America War Support, Democrat Sabotage, Pork

Labels: Congress, Democrat Sabotage

House Democratic leaders are offering billions in federal funds for lawmakers' pet projects large and small to secure enough votes this week to pass an Iraq funding bill that would end the war next year.

So far, the projects -- which range from the reconstruction of New Orleans levees to the building of peanut storehouses in Georgia -- have had little impact on the tally. For a funding bill that establishes tough new readiness standards for deploying combat forces and sets an Aug. 31, 2008, deadline to bring the troops home, votes do not come cheap.

But at least a few Republicans and conservative Democrats who otherwise would vote "no" remain undecided, as they ponder whether they can leave on the table billions of dollars for constituents by opposing the $124 billion war funding bill due for a vote on Thursday.

"She hates the games the Democrats are playing," said Guy Short, chief of staff to Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), a staunch conservative who remains undecided, thanks to billions of dollars in the bill for drought relief and agriculture assistance. "But Representative Musgrave was just down in southeastern Colorado, talking to ranchers and farmers, and they desperately need this assistance."

Democratic leaders say the domestic spending in the bill reflects the pent-up demand from lawmakers who last year could not win funding for programs that had bipartisan support such as disaster assistance.

But in a formal veto statement last night, the White House denounced what it called "excessive and extraneous non-emergency spending." With unusually caustic and combative language, the statement dismissed provisions of the bill as "unconscionable," and said it "would place freedom and democracy in Iraq at grave risk" and "embolden our enemies."

Labels: America War Support, Congress, Democrat Sabotage

Labels: American Culture, Nutroots

Something tells me that Putin's motivation comes from something other than a collections-agency status on the bill. He sank a lot of Russia's international influence into kowtowing to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Putin's Great Game aspirations of late seem more important than an unpaid bill or two. He bought real influence in Teheran, or so he thought, with the Bushehr plant.

Some calculations have changed in Moscow. Putin had been almost the only substantive foreign support for Ahmadinejad, besides China, which needs Iranian oil. Some other pressure point must have been hit by the West. Perhaps someone mentioned Russia's G-8 status, or maybe other commercial issues got worked in Putin's favor. What is obvious is that Ahmadinejad placed all his eggs in the Russian nuclear basket, and for the moment he has come up empty.

Its apparent cancellation puts Ahmadinejad in a tough spot. He sold the nuclear-power plant as a major victory against Western opposition, especially the Great Satan itself, the US. He even put a nuclear symbol on the latest currency note to brag about Iran's ascension to the top tier of nations -- at least in the category of offensive weaponry. Now Russia and Putin have pulled the rug out from underneath him, and the entire Iranian nation will witness the pratfall.

Labels: Iran, Islamic Fascism, Middle East, Nuclear, Russia

Labels: Bush Administration, Justice Department, US Attorneys, US Politics

... It's hard to imagine a stupider response to the fired-attorneys non-scandal than to sack Gonzales, sack McNulty -- and then to nominate a new AG and DAG who would be "movement conservatives."

Let's engage in a little Politics 101, a new category I just added. What would actually happen in real life if Bush took the Democrats' advice?

1. He fires Gonzales and McNulty;
2. Regardless of whether they depart arm in arm, or if McNulty sneakily waits a few minutes before leaving, the net effect is the same: There would be two slots to fill at Justice, each requiring Senate confirmation;
3. Bush nominates a "movement conservative" to replace Gonzales;
4. Senate Democrats reject his nominee in committee;
5. Bush nominates another, who is also rejected;

At that point, the Biggest of Lizards continues, Bush can either cave to the Democrats and nominate a liberal AG, or else allow some emasculated deputy to run an impotent office for two more years; or he can keep sending conservatives into the Lions' Den to be eaten alive by the hyper-partisans--all scenarios with huge Democrat upsides. Of course Dafydd lays them out with more detail and clarity than I, but that is the long and short of it. Back to his conclusion:

Therefore, if Bush wants to retain any possibility of achievement in his last two years -- or even of staving off the slavering hordes of Democrats who desperately want to undo the last six years -- then he must not fire Alberto Gonzales in the first place.

Nothing good can come of it. We won't get another John Ashcroft; we'll get another Janet Reno. Or worse -- we might get another Ramsey Clark.

Gonzales is far from perfect; I consider him a thoroughly mediocre pick, though probably the most conservative AG Bush could have gotten confirmed following Ashcroft's resignation. But please understand: If Gonzales goes, any conceivable future scenario for de jure or de facto head of the Justice Department is much, much worse.

There is no upside to firing Gonzales. I do not believe that the president is so politically inept as to do so, nor that Congressional Republicans are so suicidal as to push it. But even if I'm wrong about Bush's fortitude on this issue, I'm afraid I won't be much wrong about the dreadful consequences.

For the sake of the nation, the party, and for Bush himself, Alberto Gonzales must stay.

Labels: Justice Department, US Politics

Labels: America War Support, Hearts and Minds, Iraq, Islamic Fascism, Media War, Terrorism, War strategy