Did you ever think you'd hear a Republican senator utter these words:

"Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality.... It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

That is Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) responding to what US News.com refers to as the "sunny assessments from the Bush administration" that the insurgency is in its "last throes."

Another seismic shift under the Republican bedrock comes from none other than Walter Jones, the North Carolina Republican who brought "Freedom Fries" to government cafeterias everywhere. He and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex) have joined House Democrats in supporting a bill that would set down metrics for determining just when the US military's mission in Iraq is complete and set a timetable for withdrawal.

Obviously, two reps (one of whom, Paul, has opposed the war from the start) do not constitute a revolution, but with public support for the war at an all-time low, you have to wonder. Even this Republican-controlled Congress would not be able to stave off calls for an investigation forever, given the right combination of public outcry and a few key defections.

Comments:

Captain's Quarters is starting to gather up facts and evidence that this whole (hole?) DSM is based on yet to be authenticated memos. The nerve of some people! We DSMers have to redouble our efforts and prove their authenticity beyond the shadow of a doubt, lest we get caught with our pants down again...remember Rather/memo-gate?

Where's the smack-down proof that these memos are authentic? We can't let Bush off the hook again!

# posted by Anonymous : 10:50 AM

Who was on the Steve Young show yesterday? You did a great job and I wish you would have taken calls. I was the first call right after you left, and just before the Clinton hater.

Mike S

# posted by Anonymous : 5:25 PM

I can't understand why there haven't been serious calls for an independent investigation on the 'Downing Street Memo(s).' As I understand the rules, it only takes one senator to begin the impeachment process... is there really no one in the Senate willing to take on G.W.?

I love my country, and I don't want a repeat of the Clinton-style investigations, but this is serious. American's shouldn't tolerate being lied to by our president!

# posted by aBSuRDiST : 6:58 PM

I am enraged, I am furious that this has not been taken seriously by our media here in the States. What has happened to our news media? Are they all afraid to offend that they will tip toe around the real issues? We here in America were never shown the real war in Iraq, oh yes, we all watched CNN when it began, but then I would speak to friends in the UK and they knew and saw more of what was really happening over there. It's time for the America people and the American news media to step up and take our heads of our asses, urr I mean sand

# posted by Lisa : 2:17 PM

Downing Street Minutes/Memos is just the tip of the iceberg of "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC). It won't go away, haven't too many racketeering and international laws been broken, not to mention a few of the Ten Commandments?... I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of Republican defectors (not from the GOP) but from the Bushco Administration's shadowy quagmire when the Republican representatives and senators start to educate themselves about the PNAC. A lot of true-blue Republican Christians are still very naive about the PNAC, and would not tolerate it if they knew how Bushco really got into power. The PNAC are the Neo-cons that thunk up all this horror that's happening, not the good ole USA, and PNAC must've even violated the Patriot Act, with its Orwellian think tank plan to fund and start an illegal, immoral war (ya think?).

# posted by Anonymous : 2:27 PM

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Dissention in the (R)anks

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