"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Iraq, Cherrypicking, Population Genetics

From Steve Benen at TPM, this comment:

But what I find really odd is that GOP lawmakers are circulating polls about Iraq at all. How many more surveys do Republicans really need to see before they realize that the country rejected the Bush policy quite a while ago? Their political expectations regarding U.S. public opinion appear to be about as realistic as their expectations for Iraq.

This in relation to the latest Repubican cherrypicking venture. But I think Benen misses a point here: it's not about the Republicans not realizing that the country at large has lost patience with the Bush agenda. It's really another facet of the same syndrome that keeps the Democrats completely ineffectual in a Congress in which they hold the majority. Call it kabuki, call it politics, call it business as usual. The point is, they don't have the intelligence, creativity, what-have-you to break the mold -- there's no resilience there. They're married to a strategy, and even though the strategy no longer has a foundation, they're still going through the motions.

It's the same syndrome that has made the Beltway pundits -- and the president, now that I think of it -- pretty much irrelevant. They talk to each other, don't really say anything, don't listen, and no new information seems to penetrate the fog.

News flash for the Beltway: Adapt or die. (This public service announcement brought to you by Charles Darwin.)

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