It was so gracious of Madame Speaker to take a few minutes out of her busy schedule whoring for war criminals to chat with Wolf Blitzer and Dana Milbank. I can’t speak for anyone else here, but I learned a lot from these helpful interviews. For example, I had no idea that Democrats curling into fetal positions every time The Decider appears at a podium is actually courageous defiance. I had no idea that handing Bush $300 billion to keep getting American soldiers killed in Iraq is supporting the troops.
I had no idea this 60-vote barrier in the Senate was such a sacred bipartisan tradition. Ever since this Beltway Race to Batshit Land started back in 2001, I thought it was a shameful trick only treasonous obstructionists would resort to. I had no idea that taking Impeachment off the table would unleash a juggernaut of accountability of such awesome power that Scooter Libby might lose his license to practice law.
I was feeling exceedingly reassured because of Madame Speaker’s enlightening explanations until I noticed that she sounded an awful lot like Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. When she told energized advocates of the Constitution like us to calm down and get with the program, she said it in a superior, Nurse Ratched sort of way, like she knows what’s best for us and is just trying to help us adjust to our confinement in this coast to coast mental institution that used to be the United States of America.
Let’s get something straight, Madame Speaker. You are not Nurse Ratched and we are not going to line up to take our daily dose of Feel Good pills from you. We are not going to be lulled into submissive obedience by that expedient posturing you call “leadership”. We are not going to clap louder. We are not going to listen to any more condescending lectures from you about how Congress functions.
We’ve seen how Congress functions.
Bush tells Congress to roll over and Congress rolls over. Bush tells Congress to fetch a stick, and Congress fetches a stick. Bush tells Congress to lay down by its dish, and Congress lays down by its dish. That’s how Congress “functions,” Madame Speaker.
I’m fed up with that shit. So is Chief, so are several million other ADVOCATES, Madame Speaker, and we’re not the only ones. The people running this nationwide Cuckoo’s Nest, and the people content to swallow their Feel Good pills day after mind-numbing day are the crazy ones.
It’s time to fly, progressives, it’s time to set ourselves free. Madame Speaker isn’t going to set us free, all Madame Speaker cares about is Madame Speaker.
Restoring American democracy is up to us and a few of our friends now:
GORE/KUCINICH 2008
Make.
It.
Happen.
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Toss Pelosi’s ass out of Congress, CA-08.
Vote for Cindy.
and the comparison to Ratchet… holy fucking moly
chills
btw, one of my alltime favorite scenes in a movie and one of the best scenes ever directed (love this)
I think Pelosi has a lobotomy planned for you.
Good stuff Buddy.
Tough stuff Rusty. I’m loving it.
The difference of course is that nowadays many of the folks in Nurse Ratchet’s ward would be wandering the streets.
But that doesn’t worry Nancy; just so long as the cops keep them off her lawn.
she definitely ain’t on our side.
for a variety of reasons- many of them good reasons.
it will be interesting to see, if gore does run and win, whether congress will serve him as compliantly as they have served bush. we should have much larger majorities. if they don’t do his bidding, i hope he will push for a bottom-up change of leadership. if rahm and steny are replaced, maybe pelosi will start acting like the san francisco liberal she’s so afraid of being. if not,…
I’ve always liked your essays.
I was arguing with a Pelosi apologist at another blog yesterday and was trying to communicate that I felt Pelosi and the dem leadership were not on the side of the people of this nation and listed several points as evidence.
I was asked if I were really on Pelosi’s side.
I declined to answer because I wanted to avoid a dumb argument, but I’ll say here that the apologists just don’t get it. Why should I be or would I want to be on the ‘side’ of people who continually sell me and others down the river to placate the masters of war?
Dem apologists seem to have the attitude that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em because at least they don’t have an ‘R’ after their names. All that will do is ensure that the status quo continues and we will be in Iraq for many years, which is probably what the plan has been all along. I just don’t understand how otherwise intelligent people can keep falling for this bullshit.
Here is couplet from a DK thread yesterday:
Will Fancy Nancy Antoinette
Still let us eat our cake?
Madame Speaker. Heh!
For all these long years now, we have been collectively constipated and that Armani-suited wench refuses to pull the plug. Well, it’s time to reverse the tables! We need to give her a big, long dose of constipation — it’s the only way to cure her!
I love this essay, Rusty!
You are so right.
It’s not as if we can count on being able to continue to have any say in Congress. It is a waste of time, effort and energy to try to go incrementally. The older I get the more I realize that we have to seize our opportunities when we have them because they can only too quickly evaporate. Time offers no safety.
Keep writing this good tough stuff!
I agree, it’s going to take Gore, Kucinich, and millions of Americans to move the marble and bust out of the insanity.
But, we CAN make it happen!