Earn Your Perks: Three Landmarks

by Andrew Bast

(Reprinted from today's Metro.)

Well look at that! For the first time in over a decade, the Democrats have majority power in the House of Representatives, and it’s looking like the Senate as well. As President Bush has ruled with an iron fist for almost six years, the obvious question is almost baffling, what to do now? Quick answer: Don’t oust the president.

One issue trumps all others, and that’s Iraq. Iraq turned Tuesday’s election, and is still ostensibly the central front of the War on Terror. What follows here are three landmarks to be achieved before the 2008 election as the Dems awake from their slumber. They’ve got to change the way we’re fighting the war.

First, quit pussyfooting around Iraq. The American endeavor there has become nothing short of a disaster, but few are willing to discuss the real questions: Get out? When? Send another 200,000 troops? Reinstate the draft? Consider this: The United States is constructing an embassy in Baghdad larger than Vatican City. Troops will not leave Iraq on Bush’s watch, so the Democrats must own the thinking on Iraq. Exactly what to do (get out? send reinforcements?) is worth another column, but let’s say this: Dems need to get unified around an idea and start pushing it. They now control the purse strings. Stop the wishy-washy political talk, yank on those strings and take a stand.

Second, we need to make America energy-independent. Buying insane amounts of expensive oil is like shooting ourselves in the foot every day. Bush has said we’re “addicted.” And yesterday, he and soon-to-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi uttered the word “bipartisan” over and over like it was going out of style. So, Dems have to live up to what could be the greatest technological revolution of this generation. Get the flailing Bush on board, undertake a 21st century Manhattan Project, and call it “The Green Drive.”

Last, avoid impeachment talk. It would waste time, burn money, and squander the faith entrusted by voters. Dems need to take a serious jab, but there’s one far more constructive. A year after issuing their report and recommendations, members of the 9/11 Commission reconvened and submitted a report card to the federal government. Grades were dismal — not a single A in any of the 41 categories of ways to protect the homeland. Dems ought to form a task force, get recommendations implemented and then have a fireball ready at hand in time for the 2008 elections.

Politicians are fickle, and the Democratic track record in the last five years has been nothing short of impotent. It’s barely a stretch to say that Dems didn’t win this election, but the GOP lost it. Regardless, the nation has offered up its trust, and politics as usual won’t cut it. Neither will talk. Go earn your perks.

(Image from ilmungo's flickr stream.)