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Ready To Act?
Free speech works. Free assembly works. The political season (the time when politicians
have to seriously consider listening to the citizens) is upon us. The October campaign, please note, is now going
to be about large issues and serious arguments. The question has been settled but only in the last few days. The
prospects of war will be the great issue of 2002. The debate will be between the grave risks of action and the
grave risks of inaction. To a critical world, we invite them to watch and see how the world's oldest democracy
goes about resolving solemn questions of great importance.
This nation doesn't suffer fools gladly, especially in times of war. So, as columnist Hugh Hewitt points out, the
Democrats begin the run up to the election wanting to divert attention from questions of whether or not they are
capable of serious and responsible behavior.
Homeland Defense. The Democrat leadership has placed the interests of the National Treasury Employee Union
in upholding the Federal Personnel Manual and Merit Systems Protection Board with its hearings, appeals, seniority
rules and policies of not firing incompetents and not disciplining malcontents above the administration's ability
to hire, fire, train or reassign federal workers in a newly consolidated agency devoted to protecting the nation
from terrorist attacks. The other 95 percent of the bill has bipartisan agreement. Under existing law, the President
has the power to exempt federal workers from unions on national security grounds. Every President since Kennedy
has exercised this authority. The current Democrat legislation sponsored by Senator and Vice Presidential candidate
Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn) would allow that same existing discretion to the President in every department except
Homeland Security.
Appropriations. The $2.1 trillion federal budget for the next fiscal year begins October 1st, next Tuesday.
The budget resolution, which influences the allocation between segments by capping total spending, was due last
April but was never produced in the Senate. Lawmakers have yet to complete any of the 13 annual measures needed
to finance federal operations, including defense and military construction. At issue is the amount of discretionary
spending. The two parties are $9 billion apart. The last defense against excessive spending is the veto pen. Neither
side has exhibited a willingness to go to a government shutdown. A brief extension will keep government operations
open until October 4th. Since Congress wants to be free to campaign by mid-October, a second continuing resolution
is expected. The only debate will be over whether the continuing resolution will expire early and thus force a
post-election lame duck session or whether the ball will be punted to the new Congress which convenes in January.
No other legislative issues are likely to pass in the short time remaining. The caveat is possible panic legislation
created by pressure from the economy or the stock market. The 401-K holders receive their quarterly reports this
coming week.
U.N. Resolution. The joke of the week is "How many Germans does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
The answer is none. Without U.S. backing, it's lights out. The competing joke is "What's the definition of
a nanosecond?" That's the amount of time between the release of the British Dossier on Iraq and the announcement
from the appeasement crowd that they were not convinced. This week, says columnist Pete Du Pont, we witnessed the
death of decades-old U.S. foreign policy doctrines. The first is containment. It was born of the necessity to limit
Soviet expansionism and died with the advent of non-state actors capable of attacking our nation within its borders.
Post 9/11, the Bush administration has repeatedly stated that the United States will not wait to be attacked again.
The second casualty is the idea of liberal multilateralism that sovereignty does not lay within the nation state
but only within the international community. In the grip of the ideology of the left, 47 of 56 Democrat Senators
voted against authorizing American force to expel Saddam from Kuwait in 1991. Today's Senate cannot muster the
votes to take the sovereign decision to declare war away from the President and Congress and give it to the United
Nations. The U.N. simply has no real power of its own. It cannot back up its rhetoric. As the administrator of
the Iraqi food-for-oil program, it profits through service fees to the tune of a billion dollars or so each year
and is itself not a disinterested party. It has refused to reveal or audit its books on the program.
Weak nations (of which there are many) want the U.N. to be perceived of as a rival power to America because they
can influence the U.N. but not the U.S.A. Jonah Goldberg concludes that if America declares the U.N. irrelevant,
its role as the secular Vatican will end because it cannot supply a credible enforcer.
War Debate. In the hallways and next to the water cooler, the motivation for Senator Majority Leader's Tom
Daschle's (D-SD) imitation of Mike Dukakis driving the tank is seen as caused by the report from respected Democrat
consultants that they were in real danger of losing control of the Senate. Unable to pass a resolution restricting
the President's actions and expanding the authority of the Security Council, the radical left pressed for the Barbra
Streisand solution: attack Bush. The immediate idea was to create an atmosphere of chaos and then announce that
in this environment of distrust the vote on a war resolution would simply have to wait until after the election.
In other words, when faced with matters of national defense - vacillate. While Bush talks about matters of international
substance, the Democrats talk about matters of domestic process. The Daschle speech, after all, was a clarion call
for better deportment.
Time to Move. In the real world, one fact remains. When high administration officials publicly make the
connection between Iraq and al-Queda as they did these past few days, it means two things. (1) They have the intelligence
to back up their claims to foreign governments and congressional leaders and (2) we are getting ready to go.
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