Monday, December 19, 2005
Back Home Inside the Beltway
Asia was great. I love that part of the world. Someone told me I must have lived there in a past life.
But now I am back inside the Beltway, and back at work with Congress and the Administration. Nothing much has changed -- nothing is getting done in Congress and Republicans are pointing fingers at everyomeone but themselves.
One thing I noticed in Asia was the contempt many people around the world have for president bush. I watched local Asian TV as well as BBC. The coverage of the story about bush signing authorization for secret spying on U.S. citizens and how that story helped kill reauthorization of the Patriot Act was facinating.
Bush is seen by many in Europe and Asia as a bullying cowboy. He reinforced that message last night in the Oval Office address trying to shore up support for his failed war in Iraq when he said the only two choices are victory or defeat. To him, if we withdraw our troops before crushing all of the insurgents, we will have been defeated. In the meantime, many more of our troops will die.
But now I am back inside the Beltway, and back at work with Congress and the Administration. Nothing much has changed -- nothing is getting done in Congress and Republicans are pointing fingers at everyomeone but themselves.
One thing I noticed in Asia was the contempt many people around the world have for president bush. I watched local Asian TV as well as BBC. The coverage of the story about bush signing authorization for secret spying on U.S. citizens and how that story helped kill reauthorization of the Patriot Act was facinating.
Bush is seen by many in Europe and Asia as a bullying cowboy. He reinforced that message last night in the Oval Office address trying to shore up support for his failed war in Iraq when he said the only two choices are victory or defeat. To him, if we withdraw our troops before crushing all of the insurgents, we will have been defeated. In the meantime, many more of our troops will die.
