Pat Lang at Sic Semper Tyrannis is running out of patience with the neocons, and decides to fold, spindle, and mutilate a David Brooks column in the post: The Children’s Crusade/Thirty Years War.

“1 – He shows no evidence of thinking that the situation in Iraq has passed beyond American ability to control events at the macro level. It is over, David, just over…”

Maybe if we performed the Dead Parrot sketch, inserting “Iraq” for “Parrot”, Bobo would understand. It’s worth a try, nothing else gets through.

“2 – Brooks is quick to condemn anyone who wishes to reverse the venture of American intervention in Iraq. He says nothing of the direct influence and prevalence of the neocons in causing the situation now prevailing in the Middle East generally and Iraq in particular.”

If you go back to the first Gulf War, the reason no attempt was made to pursue the Iraqis and take out Saddam at the time is because everyone agreed that removing Saddam would result in exactly what has happened. The Saudis, the Syrians, the Turks, the Kuwaitis, the Emirates, everyone agreed that Saddam’s regime was the only reason Iraq didn’t fly apart at the seams.

“Brooks and his friends are seeking to position themselves in such a way as to re-focus blame for catastrophe. This should not be allowed.”

Brooks et al. own the shards of Iraq. They are the ones who thought it was a reasonable idea to remove Saddam. They are the ones that formed the chorus to cheer on this disaster. They are the ones who ignored the facts and the considered opinions of people who have spent their lives studying the area. They are the ones who attacked every voice raised in opposition to the invasion.

It wasn’t surprising that the House Ethics Committee determined that no rules were broken in the Foley affair, Tom DeLay worked long and hard to ensure there were no rules left to break in his effort to hang on to power.

After taking over the House for the 110^th Congress the Democratic leadership needs to turn back the clock to a time when there were rules and there was an effective Ethics Committee to deal with them.

After that it is time to do something about their own “bad boys”.

We now know that Rahm Emanuel lied about his knowledge of the Foley affair. He will claim that “technically” he didn’t lie, but his intention was to lie and he accomplished it. We have gotten all the lies we have ever needed from the Republicans, so we don’t need any from Democrats.

And then there is the case of William “Cold Cash” Jefferson who was just re-elected in Louisiana. He is still under investigation and has never explained his actions.

Members of the House are elected by the people of their district, and the House shouldn’t overrule that decision without a finding of guilt, but there is nothing that requires the House to embrace them as brothers. They are entitled to all of the benefits of every other member of the House, but they are not entitled to anything more, and they shouldn’t receive anything more.

There has to be a cost associated with bad behavior or it will never end. If the Democrats don’t discipline their own members, they lose the moral standing to discipline others.

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