As Congress heads home for the Memorial Day weekend after burying their immediate hopes for stopping the war in Iraq, a few words of consolation from the idol of their Republican tormenters:
“(T)ake increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
And, Lincoln might have added, take your heads out of your asses and stop following George Bush up legislative blind alleys where he can gun you down with vetoes.
The lesson this week for Democrats is that the way to end the war is to rescind the 2002 resolution that started it. All the party’s Presidential candidates will back that, and so may an increasing number of Congressional Republicans, who would have to explain to voters next year why they didn’t vote to stop the war without endangering our troops when they had the chance.
Try to finesse the funding, if you must, but don’t let Bush, Cheney and Rove keep splintering your party without a yes-or-no vote on the continuing legality of the disaster over which they are presiding.
Lincoln had the guts and the grace to try to heal a fractured nation. Today’s wannabes can do the same and still keep going to the theater.
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