Thoughts about the Conyers hearings.
Just bouncing back and forth between the Meeting and the House session.
Lots of good stuff there, but I was heartened to hear in the main House session – Rep Alcee Hastings taking the Republicans to task for the bill that would yank 50% of the US’ UN dues.
One other thought… The Republicans have worked so hard to make the Democrats irrelevant to the legislative process in the House, it must burn their butts that the Democrats now have all this free time to poke into the GOP’s dirty laundry.
1. Visually this is going to be roasted by attack-machine pundits. It’s a very, very amateurish-looking setup compared to the committee hearing rooms – of course we know exactly who to blame for that *cough* Sensenbrenner*coughs*. Prick.
2. Conyers is SO GODDAMN NICE. His words are gentle and fumbling, like a kindly old teacher. And yet so very skilled and effective. On Washington Journal a wingnut chewed him, the mayor of Detroit, and the governor of Michigan, in one long, continuous breath. Apparently investigating the DSM is distracting from what he should be doing. Conyers, with warm ease thanked the caller for his call, for his opinion, and for the fact that he was under-represented in the caller’s screed – and at the same time countering everything the caller said. Conyers rocks.
3. W00t! Jim Moran is there, and cutting to the heart of the matter – asking incisive questions. I’m so glad I’m going back to Fairfax County.
4. Note to self – nominate Tubbs-Jones for the Wings of Freedom award – She’s the one who started all this with the Objection to the Certification.
5. The air is of defiance and jubilation, barely restrained… Even in this jury-rigged hearing room, even in the tight quarters with the Representatives and witnesses struggling to move around and over each other, the morale in the room is amazingly high.
6. Rep. Charles Rangel is SAYING IT! He’s directly asking whether or not Bush committed an impeachable offence, directly and unequivocally, as well as articulating how much the general populace hopes this is not the case… but he’s confronting it directly.
7. OMGWTFBBQ!! Rep Maurice Hinchey joins the heresy club, flat out stating that the chemical weapons that WE GAVE Iraq under Reagan and Bush I were all accounted for… it’s the WE GAVE that made my jaw drop! Yay, go you!
