The problem is the fact that we've got a House and Senate full of Republicans where we can't even peel off 20, 30% of them to vote with the Democrats to create a veto-proof majority to say to George Bush, "Sorry George, your sick war is over. The occupation of Iraq, it's done".
Thom Hartmann Iraq funding rant 24 May 2007
George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, Don Rumsfeld, you guys have blood on your hands, and any Democrat or Republican. I mean, you know, here's my rage being directed at the Democratic Party this morning. How stupid is that? It's the Republicans who brought us this war. It's the Republicans who are continuing to bring us this war, and it's the Republicans who didn't provide a filibuster-proof majority in the House and Senate so that George Bush's veto got shot down. I mean, I really need to be redirecting my rage; all of us do.
I mean, let's take a deep breath here for a moment - I'm talking to myself as much as to you - and realize that if there had been even a small handful of bloody-handed Republicans in the House and the Senate who had joined with the Democrats in creating a veto-proof majority against George Bush's veto, this war would be wrapping up. The funding would have happened, the minimum wage increase would have happened to pay for the..., everything would have happened.
You know, so here I am, ranting and raging against the Rahm Emmanuel, and yeah, I don't like the guy, I don't like most of his policies, frankly. I don't know him personally. He's probably a very, very decent guy, you know, but I disagree with many of his policies. But he's not my congressman. But he is the head of the Democratic caucus. But, you know, he's not the problem. He's part of the problem. But the problem is the fact that we've got a House and Senate full of Republicans where we can't even peel off 20, 30% of them to vote with the Democrats to create a veto-proof majority to say to George Bush, "Sorry George, your sick war is over. The occupation of Iraq, it's done".
You know, we're going to follow the advice of Michael Lerner and the Coalition of Spiritual Progressives, we're going to follow the advice of Dennis Kucinich, we're going to follow the advice of many of our generals, we're going to follow the advice of common sense, and we're going to apologize for what we did, we're going to admit that this was illegal, going into the war like this, you know, without even a declaration of war. It was 'an authorization to use force'. Come on. We've been there longer than World War II. This where I said, you know, Ron Paul, the Republican, one of the few Republicans who doesn't have blood on his hands, one of six Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted against the original 2002 authorization to give Bush the power to use the threat of war as a negotiating tool, and then he didn't bother to negotiate. And let's keep that in context.
The real enemy, here, if enemy is the appropriate word, the real malefactors here, the real bad guys here are the Republicans and they need to be hearing absolute hell from you if you live in a district that is represented by a Republican, and I can tell you Gordon Smith is hearing hell from me, my senator here, although he's already saying he's opposed to the war, but we'll see how he's going to vote on this thing. Contact your Republicans; Greg Waldon here in Oregon. Wherever you may be, if you have a Republican representing you, you have actually twice the power of if you have a Democrat representing you in terms of hopefully turning these people around, because that's what it's going to take. Democrats can't do it alone because they don't have a veto-proof majority; they don't have a two thirds majority in the House and the Senate; they just have a simple majority. It's going to require the Republicans. You and I have to get on board and let them know.
