Shame on Us as Republicans

or The Demented World of Lindsey Graham

It seems that Republicans aren't getting a chance to enjoy their midterm victories. No sooner does Obama seize the upper hand on immigration than the GOP-led House intelligence committee on Benghazi absolves the President of any cover up, leading a visibly frustrated and angry Lindsey Graham to blast his own party for its inaction on immigration, and dismissing the Benghazi report as "full of crap."

Lindsey is a product of the 1994 Contract with America, winning a seat in the House that year and parlaying it into a Senate seat in 2003. The whiny senator from South Carolina is an easy target for The Daily Show. As Stewart shows in the series of clips, Lindsey seems to live in a state of perpetual fear, fueled by demons that appear to be living under his bed. He now thinks our country is so far gone that he is actually considering running for President!

What seems to have really gotten his goat is that the Republicans in the House couldn't find any dirt on the President regarding Benghazi. The poor man was apoplectic that the House Intelligence Committee, led by Republican Mike Rogers, came back with nothing. There is still the ongoing investigation by the House Select Committee, headed by fellow South Carolinian Trey Gowdy, but so far they've turned up nothing either.

This was supposed to be the dagger the Republicans could finally drive through the heart of Obama, using it to launch impeachment hearings. Now they turn to what they regard as his "unconstitutional" actions on immigration reform, which the House has dragged its heels on for a year and a half. Seems Lindsey, like so many Republicans, views himself as the great defender of the Constitution, and has established himself as the point man on immigration, whether anyone asked him to be or not.

Lindsey has always been a favorite of the talk show circles, sure to stir things up at the political round tables, but unfortunately has been a rather inconsequential legislator. He's been upstaged by Paul Rand and Ted Cruz in the Senate, and found himself being challenged on the right in the primaries by no less than six challengers. He easily fended them off, but it is clear that whatever popularity he held in South Carolina has waned. As far as a national figure, he is largely seen as a comic muse.

The shame is that the Republicans have done nothing this past six years except stir up unrest and use it to fuel voter frustration. To Lindsey's credit, he voted for the Senate comprehensive immigration overhaul bill in June, 2013, and hasn't backtracked on it, as other Republicans who had similarly voted for it. But, the GOP Senators were unable to convince their fellow legislators in the House to bring the bill to a vote on the floor. Now, these Senators vent their frustration on the President for carrying out immigration reform as much as he can through executive orders.

Yep, it seems like this new Republican majority is going to be very short lived.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

Rick DiguetteNovember 25, 2014 at 1:39 PM
The Republicans committed themselves to opposing Obama across the board in hopes of limiting him to one term. Then he got elected to a second time. That changed nothing as far as they were concerned. It was still oppose everything all the time. Now they have a majority in both houses, and they seem to think this means it is time for Obama to cede power or something. But the real kicker is this. Although Congress has only an 11% approval rating, 96% of incumbents in the last election were voted back into office. Blame people like Graham all you want, but the American voters are just as culpable.
James FergusonNovember 25, 2014 at 2:11 PM
36 percent voter turnout as well. Yep, this is what you get if you don't go to the polls.

Dispatches from Vilnius

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