Tuesday Twofer: Savagery on Kos

Despite the fact that it's only Tuesday, Daily Kos is busy laying down some serious smack on people. What, you thought "the netroots" would be satisfied just because Barry got elected? Think again...

Item 1: The first victims, courtesy of Hunter, are two of the sleaziest, most neoconservative lackeys that the Bush administration overpaid: John Yoo and John Bolton. Tweedle-lawyer and Tweedle-diplomat put out an opinion piece in the NYT on Sunday that focuses on the the Senate's Constitutional power to ratify treaties. Why are these executive branch powermongers so concerned, now, about this congressional check on presidential power? Why because their patron, the eminent Mr. George Walker Bush, is no longer the president! Thus, it becomes urgent for them to "redefine" their "fundamental" neoconservative support for presidential power and rediscover the other two branches of government. As I noted, Hunter deftly points out the mind-boggling internal satire that emanates from this verbal cow pie.

As usual, the president-elect was correct when he noted that Republicans are much better at governing when they're out of power than when they're in charge. It is only then that they show deference (bordering on reverence) for the checks on executive power that so bedeviled their efforts when their man was sitting in the Oval Office. All of a sudden, it's not okay that the president is "the Decider," or that he alone should dictate and define American foreign policy interests, even though that was the norm for the last eight years, during which these bozos actually had power to make policy. Perhaps Yoo and Bolton would now be in favor of a special minority-party-only foreign policy committee in the Senate to approve all treaties for ratification, just to make sure that the Senate doesn't keep getting circumvented and to really bulk up that treaty oversight power? Just remember, guys, the Democrats get to use it when you're done...

BTW, I tend to agree with commenter Smiley Sam: The entire reason Yoo and Bolton wrote this hilarious diatribe is to cover their own asses and drum up anti-ICC support. Here's the choice quote:

President Bill Clinton signed Kyoto, but the Senate in effect rejected it. He also signed the Rome Treaty of 1998 that established an International Criminal Court, which would subject American soldiers and officials to unaccountable international prosecutors and judges for alleged war crimes (including, potentially, the undefined crime of "aggression"). Mr. Clinton did not even send this agreement to the Senate. Mr. Bush "unsigned" it. Mr. Obama might re-sign it and seek approval by only a majority of both houses of Congress.

Sounds like some people are scared of being tried as war criminals...

Item 2: The other solid piece of Kos-generated savagery I'd like to highlight is rightly directed toward Congress, that do-nothing-but-please-dear-God-try-to-look-like-we're-doing-something body that now has to deal with the domestic shitstorm left behind after Bush. Bill in Portland Maine has some choice words to share with the 111th Congress, many of which I wholeheartedly endorse - enjoy!