Something Like This, Jack?

(re: the pic to right…)

Why am I not surprised in any way that I’ve detected no military service whatsoever in the record of Georgia Repug U.S. House Rep. Jack Kingston?

Before I start hammering this guy, though, I should note that I’ve avoided saying much about Iraq until now because of my singular level of disgust with certain prominent politicians over the war. And the first would be that “straight-talking maverick” himself, John McCain, who decided that the media wasn’t reporting “the good news” on Iraq and decided to visit Baghdad himself with a rather sizeable posse (what, no doctored photos a la Melanie Morgan and Dr. Kaloogian? And of course, the question you always have to ask is how much of our force over there was compromised for this opportunistic clown so he could have his little “me, me me!” party).

Next, we have Barack Obama, of all people, telling the AP in so many words that he’s prepared to fold his cards, so to speak, if Dubya calls him and the Democrats on the troop withdrawal timeline in the Iraq supplemental bill (and, as SusanG of The Daily Kos notes here, Dubya acted typically like a whining little baby over the bill during his radio address last weekend).

Obama has done so well to get as far as he has, and I give him credit. But even though you knew a misstep was bound to occur, I wish to God it had been something less dramatic than this (and, as Robert Naiman of HuffPo notes here, there are other things the Dems can do besides cave in to an extremely unpopular president and a weak opposition party on the war).

And finally, in this fine Mahablog post, we have a discussion about the Dems strategy after Dubya’s inevitable veto takes place, including Russ Feingold’s proposal to cut off all Iraq funding in a year (Feingold consistently gets the mood of the people of this country, and precious few politicians can say that these days).

Also in the Mahablog post, along with “chicken littles” like Leon Panetta who apparently are willing to cave to Dubya also, is Kingston, who apparently has a problem working five days a week in Washington (the following is excerpted from the Wikipedia article)…

Kingston spends half of his time meeting with constituents in his District. According to an interview on MSNBC[7], Kingston "typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays." His schedule has been criticized by opponents because it results in Kingston working in the Capitol only three days per week. He has spoken against the increased Congressional work schedule proposed by Democrats for the upcoming 110th Congress, saying that a full work week "damages families" and that "Democrats could care less about families." [8]

Typically disgusting Repug boilerplate; also…

On December 11, 2006, Kingston gave another interview with Stephen Colbert to decry incoming Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's plan to have the House of Representatives debate and vote five days a week instead of the current three. Kingston argued that Congressmen already work 50-60 hours per week (mostly in their districts) and increasing this would force them to take time away from their families.

And in the Mahablog post, we have this choice item also…

“(The budget standoff between Bush and Congress is) ..going to be like the government shutdowns” of 1995 and 1996, predicted (Kingston). “The Democrats’ honeymoon is fixing to end. It’s going to explode like an IED.”

After reading that quote, I must tell you that I no longer want to read or hear any communication from anyone complaining about the fact that our troops are shouldering the absolute worst of this horrible war while the vast majority of this country feels almost no impact at all, aside from gas prices that are utter thievery.

The fact that someone like Kingston (who apparently has been welcomed by Bill Maher, among others – and yes, I know Maher is trying to do the right thing more often than not, but this comment by Kingston was truly repugnant) can say these things and not face any kind of penalty or censure fills me alternately with rage, shame, and utter disgust.

The war truly means nothing to people like him. He can say all he wants, but a remark like this betrays the fact that our military are truly invisible as far as he’s concerned.