Have we thanked them adequately?

Check them out. These are the two who decided Mukasey might be OK, gave him the benefit of the doubt, and enabled him to become our Attorney General. We owe them so much. Like voting them out of office at the earliest possible opportunity. I might give Chuck Schumer a second chance [with one helluva tongue lashing] but I am a California native and have had to live with DiFi's compromises too long. When she supported an anti-flag-burning amendment to the Constitution I told her I would never vote for her again. If I were still living in California that would mean something. Now I don't have the opportunity to vote against her. She could lead me out of yellow dog Democrat territory so that I would vote for anyone who ran against her, no matter how awful.

Yes, I bear grudges. Deal with it. She could have been a great senator. Every now and again she says or does something really wonderful. Then she lets her inner Republican take over and upholds the Bush agenda. Repeatedly. She's a great example of what that touted bipartisanship gets us. Fucked over. Dry and without condoms. Leaving us raped, pregnant, diseased, and left to deal with the misery we owe to our rapists, who never gave a shit about us. We weren't even objects of desire--just something to be dominated and degraded and tossed aside. Rape, after all, is about power not sex. Yep, that's bipartisanship these days.

You see, while abuse continues it's pointless to discuss bipartisanship. Making nice with your abuser does not stop abuse, no matter how many times you tell yourself the abuse is your fault and it will stop if you can just be the woman, man, partner, parent, colleague, etc. your abuser wants you to be--which is presumed to be the correct ideal, of course, no matter how arbitrary, twisted, and sick it may be.

The Dems in Congress have been behaving as abused persons for far too long. They buy into the abusers' framework, they try to placate their abusers, they internalize all the lies they are told, and they take it, over and over and over again. Then they despise themselves, which plays further into the hands of their abusers. They tell themselves there are no alternatives to either making nice or getting slapped down. They cannot imagine any other way of being. That is exactly what the abuser has wanted to establish, a situation where the victims cannot even imagine things being other than as they are, or to imagine that they don't deserve what happens to them.

So here we are, making nicey nice with AG Michael Mukasey while he conveys, with less obvious contempt than Abu Gonzales, that the White House does not give a shit what Congress thinks, what laws it passes or does not pass, what oversight it thinks it is going to exercise, what subpoenas it issues. It is a law unto itself with plenipotentiary powers not subject to any restraints from Congress or the Courts.

Mukasey, a very borderline nominee for his position, was considered "the best we can get"--and isn't that the despairing perspective of the severely abused? Thanks to DiFi and Chuck turning, he got confirmed. Those hopes that he would be better than Bush's old BFF Fredo? Pfft!

Glenn Greenwald writes:

All day long, in response to Mukasey's insistence that patent illegalities were legal, that Congress was basically powerless, and that the administration has no obligation to disclose anything to Congress (and will not), Senators would respond with impotent comments such as: "Well, I'd like to note my disagreement and ask you to re-consider" or "I'm disappointed with your answer and was hoping you would say something different" or "If that's your position, we'll be discussing this again at another point." They were supplicants pleading for some consideration, almost out of a sense of mercy, and both they and Mukasey knew it.

Mukasey can go and casually tell them to their faces that the President has the right to violate their laws and that Congress has no power to do anything about it. And nothing is going to happen. And everyone -- the Senators, Bush officials, the country -- knows that nothing is going to happen. There is nothing too extreme that Mukasey could say to those Senators that would prompt any consequences greater than some sighing and sorrowful expressions of disapproval. We now live in a country where the President -- and those acting at his behest (see Lewis Libby, AT&T, and Verizon)-- have the power to break the law and ignore Congress and every other aspect of government, and can do so with impunity.
...
It ought to be newsworthy, to put it mildly, when the President announces that he has the power to violate the law at will. But in another sense, it's not really newsworthy any longer. It's been going on for years and we've chosen to do nothing about it. We have a Government where the President is not bound by the law, and it is just as simple as that.

That, my friends, is where we are today. We effing let it happen. Our representatives in both houses of Congress have let it happen. Makes you wonder whether we might not be better off today if the earth had opened and swallowed the Capitol and all in it during the SOTU speech, doesn't it?

So, how do we appropriately thank these people?
--the BB


[Note: I recognize that not all are spineless compromising slime-buckets. Alas, too many are, so the collective judgment stands in spite of some sterling exceptions.]

UPDATE:

Here is Greenwald's description of bipartisanship, only slightly less unsavory than mine:

But more importantly, "bipartisanship" is already rampant in Washington, not rare. And, in almost every significant case, what "bipartisanship" means in Washington is that enough Democrats join with all of the Republicans to endorse and enact into law Republican policies, with which most Democratic voters disagree. That's how so-called "bipartisanship" manifests in almost every case.

Advent thoughts – Saturday of Advent 3

Now why does Psalm 55 make me think of the Anglican Communion's current unpleasantness?

For had it been an adversary who taunted me,

then I could have borne it; *

or had it been an enemy who vaunted himself against me,

then I could have hidden from him.

But it was you, a man after my own heart, *

my companion, my own familiar friend.

We took sweet counsel together, *

and walked with the throng in the house of God.
(Psalm 55:13-15)

Psalm 55 is eloquent as it speaks of betrayal by a trusted friend, an intimate, the last person one would expect to turn on one.

I think of neighbors who have lived side by side for decades, perhaps families who lived next door for centuries: Serbs, Croats, Bosnians--Muslims, Catholic, Orthodox. Then, when it suited the political purposes of some, the divisions were raised in the public consciousness and the ancient ties were forgotten. The calculating dug among the embers for age-old sparks of resentment and fanned them into blazes that consumed the populace. Suddenly the grocer who lives next door, the cobbler down the street, the woman who helped nurse your aunt through a sickness--these are mortal enemies. No one can be trusted. The person you thought you knew became a stranger; the friend of many years is now an enemy.



Or the Tutsi and Hutus in Rwanda who gave little thought to their differences until fear and suspicion raised their heads and the atmosphere went from cooperation to distrust. Before long it all turned to raging slaughter. And then having to live with the aftermath, a waking nightmare.

My companion stretched forth his hand against his comrade; *
he has broken his covenant.
His speech is softer than butter, *
but war is in his heart.
His words are smoother than oil, *
but they are drawn swords.
Cast your burden upon the LORD,
and he will sustain you; *
he will never let the righteous stumble.
(Psalm 55:21-24)

What has happened to the person you once worshiped with, ate with, babysat for, discussed football with, conducted business with, prayed and sang hymns with? The ones with whom you shared the Body and Blood of Christ for decades?

Now you find yourselves divided over your understanding of the Bible, your evaluation of other people's relationships, the (not again? not still?) issue of women clergy.

A few years ago you were working together in your parish food bank. Now you cannot sit comfortably in the same pew. Perhaps not even the same church.

What was the betrayal? And by whom?

Are we the same people we were ten years ago? (On many levels, of course not. And yet....)

Then, of course, there is the issue of those who fan the flames for their own purposes, their own ideological crusades, their own accumulation of power and importance.

These are the things that you shall do:
Speak the truth to one another,
render in your gates judgments that are true
and make for peace,
do not devise evil in your hearts against one another,
and love no false oath;
for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord.
(Zechariah 8:16-17)

Have you noticed how often these pithy summations deal with how we treat one another and not whether we are Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, gay or straight, young or old, rich or poor, red or brown or black or yellow or white, rural or urban, isolated or crushed in throngs, unlettered or educated, swift or slow, weak or strong? The Torah, prophets, writings, gospels, epistles, and even the apocalypse all have things to say about abusing each other (don't do it) and treating each other justly (always). While many laws and teachings begin applying to some and not others, there is a clear development toward universality. Not matter who we are or with whom we deal, we are to behave justly, honestly, and graciously. In so doing we recognize the image of God in the other and in ourselves.

When we lose sight of the image of God, then we become capable of incredible cruelty and evil.

I know I have a list of people I demonize on a regular basis. Folks who read here know most of my list too.

How can I look for, espy, and attend to the image of God in them? Perhaps by praying to see it, and for them to find it and live out of it too.

While we're at it, we all have accountability issues. Speaking of which, holding someone accountable upholds their dignity but attributing agency to them.

Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” (Matthew 25:44-45)

--the BB