Republicans Spill the Beans Over Spilt Blood

In a cold blooded admission that will go down unmatched in the annals of infamy the Republican Party over the last two days has given some insight into the real reason why the Iraq War must be brought to a quick end. Notice I did not say a victorious end, since the Republicans have moved the definition of that word more often than birds migrate.

Does the Republican Party want to end it soon because hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died, far more than Saddam ever killed, since the war of choice began? Get real and think again.

Does the Republican Party want to end it soon because, after misleading the American public into thinking it would be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues, it now has run up to $424 Billion and counting? Given that Republicans have a history of large deficits (see my post Republicant Balance a Budget) no reasonably informed person would ever think fiscal responsibility matters to the Republican Party.

Check out this site for a continuous running tally to see the dollars slip away: www.nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

Does the Republican Party want to end the war soon because after misleading the American people into believing it would last "I doubt six months," as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld put it, it is into its fifth year?

Well, you would think this might cause some concern but, regardless of the recent, showy pretense of breaking with their fearless leader the Republicans march right back to the Congress and put their votes at the opposite ends of where their months are and vote en masse to give Mr. Bush exactly whatever he wants.

Does the Republican Party want to end the war soon because the number of dead as of May 10, 2007, has reached 3,382 and continues to rise? Add the 25,245 wounded in action and the casualties in Iraq stand at 28,627. Is that why they want to end the war soon? Nope.

What really has the Republican Party unwrapping itself from the flag and on the run (away) from this war in Iraq? Well, none of the above, even though most Americans, even those only marginally acquainted with Christian ethos and pathos, would start to question continuing the war after hearing the first reason.

The real reason can be gleaned by looking at the comments of the Rep. Tom Coles (R- Okla), current head of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and a former head, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va), as revealed in two recent articles in The Washington Post and corroborated by Tim Russert, NBC's Washington Bureau Chief .

In an article two days ago, May 9, 2007, in the Post entitled A New Pitchman-and a New Pitch written by Juliet Eilperin and Michael Grunwald the inside-politics, database knowledge and expertise of Tom Coles is revealed, a story about the cold, hard numbers behind and the message out in front of successful campaigns, a story every campaign manager should read, a story that is all politics and nothing but politics, in the best sense of the word.

After a lengthy rendition of the ins and outs of the political calculus of candidate recruitment, fundraising, and message molding Coles, who is still optimistic about GOP's chances, reveals his greatest fear for GOP in 2008. What's his greatest fear? The answer comes near the end of the story: "His biggest fear is not poor NRCC recruiting or anemic NRCC fundraising but a collapse of the Iraqi government."

The second story from the Post dated yesterday, May 10, 2007, entitled Bush Told War is Harming the GOP by Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman reveals the concerns of the former head of the NRCC, Davis (R-Va).

In a meeting that included, among others, the president, the vice president, Secretary Rice, Karl Rove and moderate Republicans, some part of a group known as the Tuesday Group, and has been described as candid, even blunt, Davis is reported to have pressed for a Plan B if the current surge, the current war escalation, fails and presented polling figures to the president.

"Davis, a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, also presented Bush dismal polling figures to dramatize just how perilous the party's position is, participants said. Davis would not disclose details, saying the exchange was private. Others warned Bush that his personal credibility on the war is all but gone," Murray and Weisman report.

According to a recent Newsweek poll the president's approval rating has plummeted to 28%. Tim Russert reports that during the hour and a half meeting someone, presumable Davis, reported to Bush in some counties his approval rating is as low as 5%.

Are you getting the message now America? After wrapping themselves in the flag and campaigning on this war in 2004 the Republicans now are thinking about and speaking of "cutting and running" because it might hurt their election chances! Principles what principles? I think it is becoming clear to an ever growing majority of Americans that the only principle that matters to the jingoist Republican Party is political power is everything. To them power is truth, justice, the American way.

And for this, every made-member, every soldati, every Button of this unholy Republican camorra should be, if there is a god, condemned to stagger around purgatory draped with and dragging like Scrooge's Jacob Marley a chain, not of iron links, not of tiny American flags, but of rotting corpses of the dead of this war bound cadaverous head to cadaverous foot, and dragging at the end of this foul funereal procession a box with its lid ripped clean off and its owner's name scratched on its side in blood. The name on the box?.... Pandora!