More "Do As I Say, Not As I Do"
Yesterday, I complained about John McCain making political hay out of chastising Congress taking their scheduled vacation while himself not having shown up for a single vote in four months.
Today it's John Boehner, House Minority Leader. You probably heard about how last weekend, when the House went on it's scheduled vacation, a few Republicans remained in the chamber with the lights out, vowing to remain there until Speaker Nancy Pelosi reconvenes the House and calls a vote on offshore drilling (a plan which virtually no one thinks has any serious merit or benefit, at least so long as most of our domestic oil is sold on the international market, and as long as there are large areas of area allowed for domestic drilling that are not even being tested yet). Boehner issued several publicity stunt statements talking about how Congress "does not deserve a break" and rallying Republicans to stay.
Well, Boehner is at home. On vacation. He's been spotted at at least two different golf courses playing rounds this past week.
So once again, hypocritical political theater wins out, as yet ANOTHER Republican makes moralistic statements they themselves cannot live up to.
Liam.
posted by Liam at 8/08/2008 07:35:00 AM
5 Comments:
The thing is, I suspect that if most Americans even noticed this nonsense, it was with a collective yawn.
The whole country knows that summers are for vacations, especially in August before the Autumn schedule of school and work. And who expects any politician to not be vacationing now, gaining strength before the conventions.
I doubt few take this theatrics seriously. And guess what, Mr. McCain and Mr. Boehner, family always trumps fake political blustering during summers. I think it all just makes them look foolish, if anyone is looking at all. They're on vacation, for goodness sakes.
Friday, August 08, 2008 10:01:00 PM
I know I'm looking foolish with this comment, going way out on a limb. .... But recently watching the Georgia/Russia events unfold and the candidates' reactions to it gives me an unsettling feeling.
With what's-his-name who was a policy advisor to Georgia up until March when he started devoting himself fulltime to McCain's campaign, I find myself entertaining strange thoughts.
How farfetched is it to wonder if this McCain friend policy advisor might have encouraged Georgia to invade and provoke Russia's ire, and time it all so that this happens while Obama is on vacation? And all so that McCain can wave a lot of American flags and mention Georgia's pipeline a lot?
.... Yes, I'm venting.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 11:16:00 PM
It's an interesting hypothesis, but I tend to doubt conspiracy theories of that grandiosity. It could just be me, but I have trouble believing anyone could be so evil as to start a war that kills thousands SOLELY to gain points in an election.
How that would be particularly worse than starting one that's killed tens of thousands over lies for reasons we still don't know for certain, I don't know.
But it just seems like the ultimate shallow reason, to say nothing of how slowly political things unfold. It would take some masterful political engineering to ensure that the war broke out just while Obama was on vacation.
Still, though, as I said, an interesting topic to consider. Thanks!
Liam.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 7:29:00 AM
Ok, so maybe the Georgian President didn't know Obama's vacation plans. But why now? Interesting timing, what with up coming conventions and the campaigning heating up.
But hey, it seems I'm not the only one wondering out loud. I have no idea what is the blog tpmmuckraker. But I saw this quote from them today:
"State Department officials insist they were clear that Georgia should not expect U.S. military support in case of a clash with Russia.
Sure, that was the official line. But we can't help but wonder, what did Scheunemann tell the Georgians? While they were paying his firm hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to help build a strong relationship with Washington, how did he characterize the level of support Georgia might expect?"
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/randy_scheunemann/
(sorry, I don't know how to make the links)
And today's Washington Post had an article including this first paragraph:
"Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser prepped his boss for an April 17 phone call with the president of Georgia and then helped the presumptive Republican presidential nominee prepare a strong statement of support for the fledgling republic."
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure it was only about NATO, right? So why did Georgia provoke Russia now?
.... My imagination is running wild. lol
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 7:53:00 PM
You may be right, but interestingly enough, John McCain has gone and blown any benefit he may have gotten from it by chastizing the players in that situation with the words "in the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations".
Kinda hard for him to claim much foreign policy bona fides if he's not even aware that we ourselves have invaded two and perpetually threaten a third in the 21st century...
(I also posted a bit on the main page about this).
As to the speculations, Georgia had to know they were in the weaker position. Had McCain's campaign been in touch with Russia the idea might have made sense, but to me it would seem self interest would stop the smaller of the two from poking the bear with a stick, no matter how much we tried to encourage it.
Again, though, this may be based less on facts and more on the limits of my own mind's wish to believe in that level of evil self-interest.
Liam.
Thursday, August 14, 2008 7:03:00 AM
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