Something about ". . . meme chose"

I can't remember the French, but the translation runs "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

I really had hopes that the Democrats would do something about this runaway warmonger in the White House. Damn.

John Nichols in The Nation:

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies in the chamber's Democratic leadership initially accepted that spending legislation designed to outline an Iraq exit strategy should also include a provision barring the president from attacking Iran without congressional approval, they opened up a monumental discussion about presidential war powers.

As such, the decision by Pelosi and her allies to rewrite their Iraq legislation to exclude the statement regarding the need for congressional approval of any military assault on the neighboring country of Iran sends the worst possible signal to the White House.

It's called giving away the store, and I find it incredible that, out of all the possible negotiating points in the Iran/Iraq issue, Pelose gave in on this one.

One of the chief advocates for eliminating the Iran provision, Nevada Democrat Shelley Berkley, said she wanted it out of the legislation because she wants to maintain the threat of U.S. military action as a tool in seeking to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. "It would take away perhaps the most important negotiating tool that the U.S. has when it comes to Iran," explained Berkley.

You can count on the Democrats to shoot themselves in the foot. Another illustration of the fact that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to serve in Congress. Requiring the president to get congressional approval before attacking Iran doesn't take away anything from anyone, except His Majesty the Deciderer.

From Dennis Kucinich, as quoted at Hullabaloo:

This week the House Appropriations committee removed language from the Iraq war funding bill requiring the Administration, under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, to seek permission before it launched an attack against Iran.
...
This House cannot avoid its Constitutionally authorized responsibility to restrain the abuse of Executive power.
...
The Administration has been preparing for an aggressive war against Iran. There is no solid, direct evidence that Iran has the intention of attacking the United States or its allies.

Look, Bush and Cheney are going to take this and run with it. Who can possibly seriously think otherwise? Who the hell does Pelosi think is going to be satisfied with another empty bill? Not anybody out here, although I'm sure Bush and the Neocons are licking their chops. Are we all looking forward to a government that includes only the executive branch?

What do you do when the only options you have are Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dum-Dum?

A comment by Digby on the Bush foreign policy in general:

When you combined the neocon and harcore hawk track records with a mandate to reject anything that Bill Clinton might have endorsed, you ended up with the hacktacular mishmash of sophomoric chest thumping, mindless military actions and conscious rejection all mutual understanding with our allies.

Remember, this is the group that hasn't been right about anything so far.

And now Pelosi's going to let them keep on keepin' on? Sheesh!