Democratic Pussies and the Jesus Factor (Part of the "Taking the Fight To Where They Live" Series):
Gee-whiz, boyoboy, we got 'em yesterday, didn't we? Democrats everywhere can say we did good. When Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs announced in the House chamber, where Congress was busily annointing George Bush the elected President, that Senator Barbara Boxer had signed on to a protest of the Ohio vote, you could hear the weeping of revelatory joy across the land. All over, good citizens thought, "Cool. Now that scene in Fahrenheit 9/11 won't repeat itself." Man, and then? Oh, sweet photo op, while the media and the Republicans ignored them, the Democrats huffed and puffed, but, like that wolf at the brick house, there was no way they were gettin' at those succulent piggies inside.

And, really, and c'mon, while supporters of Tubbs and Boxer might want to say that this is about "calling attention" to the "irregularities" in the electoral process (some might call it a "broken" system), what this really was about was the scene four years ago when Al Gore took a dive that'd make Terry Malloy proud. It was goddamn pathetic, like when an asshole gets in your face at a bar to fight you, and when you back down, he calls you a "tit-sucking mama's boy." Then, on the shameful car ride home, you think, "Yeah, I should have said, 'Tell your mama to keep her tits in her shirt'" before kicking yourself for the missed opportunity. The only thing more pathetic than your initial action would be to go up to the asshole the next time you see him and say it. Yeah, it'd been a beautiful thing if, in 2000, some Senator had had the balls to stand up to the unending bullying by Republicans. But you know what would have happened - the Republicans would have whined like bitch puppies about unfairness and the Democrats would have gone prone and said, "Oh, okay, fuck away."

That's because they hadn't seen the true face of squalid hate that is the way of the Bush Republican party. And now that they have seen it? They're still fuckin' prostrate at the overwhelming debauchery of the Republicans.

Yesterday's "hearing" on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General should have been a no-brainer. Oh, you cynically manipulated the language of the law and our international treaties to justify acts of torture that included sleep deprivation, physical pain, and unending degradation? Why, then you shouldn't be Attorney General, charged with enforcing the laws in whatever way the whim strikes you (see John Ashcroft, who was so bloodthirsty he ordered federal prosecutors to go for the death penalty any time they could). See how easy that is? Gonzales may say he doesn't support "torture," but if he changed the definition of "torture," then how the fuck do we know what he means? Or is what he says meaningless? It's like "Clear Skies," "No Child Left Behind," and so many other things - sure, everyone knows what "clear skies" means, but that doesn't mean the administration is using the same fuckin' dictionary, now, does it? Gonzales' defense was to say that he didn't believe the Geneva Conventions applied to al-Qaeda, but he wouldn't even acknowledge the existence of a policy that he helped craft that was applied in other ways, like at Guantanamo and Abu-Ghraib. And the Democrats' response? In essence, "Well, you're gonna get confirmed, but, boy, if you're ever nominated for the Supreme Court, watch out - all the shit we wanna say now, we're gonna say then." And somewhere in the White House, a cry was heard as Karl Rove sprayed jism all over the drapes of the Red Room as a housemaid rolled her eyes when she thought about sending them out for cleaning again.

The path to defeating Gonzales was so easy. Again and again, the Rude Pundit is saying: take the fight to them. Get the citizens of the Red States behind you and the Republicans will crumble like so many houses of cards. Here we go: you know how popular that little movie, The Passion of Beating the Shit of Christ, was with its vision of a gooey Jesus on the cross? Those who have suffered through the bizarre movie, which is supposed to make us feel the pain of the Lord, understand that Jesus was an innocent man tortured at the hands of brutal soldiers, with a mad king condemning Christ to the lash, the thorns, etc. (ad nauseam - really). Those who tortured Jesus believed in King Herod, or at least feared him, and, in the film, gleefully went about their nasty business. Ahhhh, you see where this is going? Mel Gibson gives cover for politicians who want to say no to Gonzales, no to anyone who supports torture. And will anyone deny that Jesus was a torture victim at the hands of a government? Sure, sure, the risk is there that someone will say, "Are you comparing al-Qaeda members to Jesus?" and the answer is, "No, we're talking about innocent victims who have been tortured, like Jesus." Now, argue with a politician who says Alberto Gonzales is, at best, Pontius Pilate. Prove he isn't. What the religious believe is that if they had been in that crowd that chose Barrabas over Jesus for mercy, they'd have yelled differently. Now is the time for them to prove it.

Doesn't anyone in the Democratic party get the way the world of politics works now? It ain't about give and take. This ain't about resistance, motherfuckers. It's about complete war. If the Democrats don't act like the survival of the country is at stake, then they deserve to end up in the mass graves of forgottenness along with the Whigs and the Know-Nothings. Rolling over on Gonzales (why? For fear of opposing an Hispanic?) simply says that we, as a nation, accept and agree with the idea that torture is a useful, necessary evil, and, once again, we are all complicit. And can there not, at the end of the day, be some things we won't abide?