Cowering under the dome

From the NYT:

The founding fathers understood that there would be times in American history when the country lost confidence in the judgment of the president. Congress and the courts are supposed to fill the gap. But the system of checks and balances is a safety net that doesn't feel particularly sturdy at present. The (Bush) administration seems determined to cut off legitimate court scrutiny, and the Republicans who dominate the House and Senate generally intervene only to change the rules so Mr. Bush can do whatever he wants. (If the current Congress had been called on to intervene in the case of Mr. Allen, it would probably have tried to legalize shoplifting.)

The Democratic Party is not exactly the last word in prescience, but even the Democrats have put their finger on the mood of the moment, focusing on the theme of administrative incompetence. They're striking the right note, but it's not a tune we can afford to listen to for the next three years.

Well said, but I have even less faith in the "opposition" offered by congressional Democrats. Most are too busy distancing themselves from Sen. Russ Feingold's censure resolution -- "cowering," as Feingold puts it -- to offer any meaningful opposition. Imagine, they're too chickenshit to back something as toothless as censure, too afraid to say "shame on you" to a president whose approval ratings are in the thirties.

What hurts this country as much as a president with no regard for the Constitution is a pack of pussies in the Congress who are too worried about their own jobs to live up to the oath they took to defend the Constitution "from all enemies, foreign and domestic." You weren't sent to Washington to protect your own interests, you were sent there to represent ours. And nearly seven in 10 of us disapprove of the way George Bush is doing his job.

And we're not crazy about the way you're doing yours, either.