Time To "Dole" Out More Punishment To Scotty

Mike Nizza of the blog The Lede at the New York Times tells us here that the latest literary “cause celebre” formerly of Bushco is still getting pummeled over his allegations of deceit and behavior for which individuals may yet be prosecuted in our lifetimes.

Yes, McClellan certainly deserves it and more. However, I want to take note of a particular individual “piling on” at this moment and what he had to say about the former Bushco flak…

“There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues,” (Bob) Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning. “No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique.”

(Obligatory acknowledgment of Dole’s service to our country and expression of respect and gratitude, particularly in light of his disabling injury; does that suffice?)

Now that that’s out of the way, let me point out some of the ways that Dole has contributed to our present difficulties (and in so doing, forfeited the right to criticize anybody else, IMHO)…

Dole pushed the Repug party talking point here that there was “no crisis in health care” in 1994 during the attempted reforms by the Clinton administration, particularly Hillary of course (I certainly don’t support her for president, as you know – and based on this, the end will come soon, apparently; thank God – but I would ask that you remember Dole’s intransigence along with that of Newton Leroy Gingrich the next time our corporate media tells you how the Clintons failed on their own in this regard…by the way, the “No Crisis” theme was concocted by that genius Kristol Mess; to read today’s errata on his most recent column, click here – h/t Atrios).

Dole opposed Medicare and housing subsidies as part of LBJ’s “Great Society” here (Wikipedia referenced that and other items in this post, but I couldn’t locate that anywhere else).

Dole uttered the following bogus line in a 1976 debate with fellow Vice Presidential candidate Walter Mondale (here):

I figured out the other day, if we added up the killed and wounded in democrat wars in this century, it would be about 1.6 million Americans, enough to fill the city of Detroit.

Yep, that was one reason why he and Gerry Ford lost, along with Ford’s line about the people of Poland not considering themselves to be under Soviet domination.

Also, as Wikipedia notes, Dole is the only person in the history of the two major U.S. political parties to have been his party's nominee for both President and Vice President, but who was never elected to either office (hint: maybe it creeps people out when you refer to yourself in the third person, Bob).

My point is that the guy who may have been one of the final links in Congress between what I would call a traditional, fiscally conservative and socially moderate Repug and the blundering neocon ideologues should show some backbone and, in addition to beating up on little Scotty, acknowledge that the drip-drip-drip of revelations from McClellan and many others is actually starting to paint a picture even to those of his own party of a hopelessly corrupt and utterly power mad horde of jackals who have done nothing but break our military, crush the middle class, twiddle their thumbs while our planet melts, and rend our Constitution into shreds.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, for starters, need that “scathing critique” from you a hell of a lot more than one of their mouthpieces ever will, regardless of whether you’re investigating the Walter Reed mess for them or not.

Why don't YOU "have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues?"