Has congress always been in this mode of high school student council douche-baggery with the executive branch? Or is it just because, you know, the "black president"? I give up on government.
I do find it ironic (and scary) that the biggest drum-beaters against "the coming of Sharia Law," which they can't even define, are the same people who want creationism taught in schools and Jesus to be in every courthouse.
Congress was never this bad in the past; even exiting Republicans lament how insane things have gotten (without ever owning up to their own complicity of course). Here's Olympia Snowe complaining about the impasse in Washington:
But the part she leaves out is, from 2009-2011, there is a great deal of work that was blocked in the Senate because the Republicans were filibustering everything they possibly could -- which had never been standard operating procedure before -- and Democrats were coming up one vote short (the public option being the single most visible example). In other words, all it required was one principled Republican to actually refuse to give in to the hyper-partisanship that Olympia decries. Where the hell was this principled Olympia Snowe when the country needed her?
So fuck her, she is a talking pile of shit, as close to literally as is humanly possible. And while I sincerely doubt she reads this site, I like to hope she does, because she doesn't deserve a single day where she isn't haunted by her hypocrisy.
Cotton got where he is by barking the conservative line as faithfully as one can, and so he's the current rising star of the right. It's hard to tell if he'll piss them off by showing human decency (i.e liberal tendencies) at some point or ride it all the way to a big mainstream implosion.
It's remarkable how Ben can get his hand all the way up through Tom Cotton's digestive system to control his mouth. That's a funny way to make a Golem, I'll tell you!
So I am sort of obsessed with thinking about the strategy that goes into the actions taken by guys in Washington. This guy befuddles me. I can't figure out if he wrote that letter either not caring at all what the public reaction would be or underestimated the fallout. Or if this was a huge power play just to invoke any possible conflict with Iran they could and its starting now, which is pretty fucking brazen.