Word has been leaking out that the surge in Iraq is working better than anyone – except perhaps General Petraeus – expected. The military progress has been so good that mainstream media is no longer able to keep a lid on it. But now that the first few days of shock have worn off, the Dems and the media elite have a new mantra: military progress is great, but we need political progress. (though back when elections were held and constitutions formed, the same pundits pointed to a lack of military progress)
Historical rhetoric aside, I find it pretty ironic that this Congress thinks it can school other politicians on progress. Let’s take a look at what our congress has accomplished:
- “1st 100 Hours” Promises were broken within a week (congress was going take less time off and work more)
- Of the “Six for ’06” bills touted by House Democrats, only one has become law. And that one, which raises the minimum wage, passed not on its own, but only because it was tacked onto the Iraq funding bill.
- The Dems have refused to follow their personally dubbed “voter mandate” to end the war in Iraq.
- Majority Leader Reid is working hard to remove all mentions of earmarks from the ethic rules revision (earmarks ie personal pork was a linchpin of the “culture of corruption”)
- Achieved an all time record for lowest approval rating ever. (14% for the official poll, though Zogby now has them at 13%)
So compared to the greatest democracy on the planet, I’d say the Iraqi government is really getting into the swing of things with delays and silly political drama. A secret of democracy, though, is that it tends to distract all the “leaders” of the country with politics, which leaves them much less time for indiscriminately killing the citizenry.
But perhaps the Democratic congress referring to the area where they have made a lot of headway: starting investigations!
According to White House spokesperson Scott Stanzel, the Democrats have launched over 300 investigations, had over 350 requests for documents and interviews and they have had over 600 oversight hearings in just about 100 days.
ASIDE: Unfortunately for the Democrats, none of these investigations have found ANYTHING. Which can lead to only one of two conclusions. 1) The Bush Administration is one of the most well run and ethical administrations ever and the Democrats should stop wasting their time investigating them. 2) The Bush administration though vile and corrupt is quite effective at hiding any and all evidence of their crimes from the inept investigations of congress. Therefore the Democrats should stop wasting their time investigating them. Either way you end up in the same place. The Dems should really get back to the business of protecting social security from privatization and making sure illegal immigrants don’t have to pay out-of-state tuition.