Monday, December 22, 2008
THE UNLIKELY STATESMAN
George W. Bush, a most unlikely statesman, may well have shown himself to be just that entering the final month of his presidency.
No, we are not pointing toward his revision of standards for protection of the natural environment, nor are we discussing his allowing drilling in the neighborhood of national historic monuments.
Certainly we are not influenced by his efforts to polish a rough and ugly legacy through historic revisionism. All of the administration’s team spokespersons have been out on the networks this past week telling us what a great man G. W. will prove to be when historians gather fifty years from now to evaluate his presidency.
These spokespersons, including speeches and interviews by the president himself, offer new twists on the same old tired clichés about why we had to go to war in Iraq. They were not valid then, and they still are not valid.
So what, pray tell, has George W. Bush done that may prove him to be at least a momentary statesman at the close of his days in power. Only the president could do something about the impending economic catastrophe in the automobile industry, and Mr. Bush stepped up to the plate.
The democratic controlled Congress failed to get the legislation passed to do the job. It failed in the Senate because an obstructionist republican minority refused to waive the filibuster rule in order for an ordinary majority vote to pass it, rather invoke than the rule of 60 for cloture.
Minority Leader McConnell of Kentucky and Senators Corker and Shelby, of Tennessee and Alabama respectively, led the republican opposition to the bill for bridge loans to the car companies. All represent states which have given large subsidies to lure Japanese car companies to locate assembly plants within their borders. In their selfish desire to foster their own foreign-owned businesses and jobs, they seemed quite willing to let the American car companies go under and take with them millions of jobs from other states.
Other republicans joined with these senators, finding this an opportunity to strike a death blow to organized labor. The UAW has been one of the last bastions of labor strength, and it has normally supported democratic candidates.
Republicans made unusual demands for breaking existing contracts, and they called for rollback of union wages and benefits obtained over the years. While it seems likely there will need to be more sacrifices by labor, as well as by management and stockholders, these upfront immediate demands were irrational.
These senators put themselves in an unusual position of trying to negotiate with the union, directly themselves under the threat of killing the companies. This is unacceptable procedure, setting a bad unworkable precedent, and of questionable ethics.
After the republican imposed gridlock in the Senate, it was necessary for Mr. Bush to ride to the rescue, albeit a temporary one, for this major sector of our economy. In so doing, it is just as he said, avoiding a disastrous blow to an economy already in trouble. This will carry the companies until a more studied approach may be taken by a new president and a new congress.
We must give Mr. Bush credit for stepping out in opposition to the ranks of his erstwhile friendly republican senatorial corps and doing that which was necessary and right for the nation. The shame of his party’s senatorial delegation has given Mr. Bush the opportunity to be a statesman.
We applaud his actions.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
No, we are not pointing toward his revision of standards for protection of the natural environment, nor are we discussing his allowing drilling in the neighborhood of national historic monuments.
Certainly we are not influenced by his efforts to polish a rough and ugly legacy through historic revisionism. All of the administration’s team spokespersons have been out on the networks this past week telling us what a great man G. W. will prove to be when historians gather fifty years from now to evaluate his presidency.
These spokespersons, including speeches and interviews by the president himself, offer new twists on the same old tired clichés about why we had to go to war in Iraq. They were not valid then, and they still are not valid.
So what, pray tell, has George W. Bush done that may prove him to be at least a momentary statesman at the close of his days in power. Only the president could do something about the impending economic catastrophe in the automobile industry, and Mr. Bush stepped up to the plate.
The democratic controlled Congress failed to get the legislation passed to do the job. It failed in the Senate because an obstructionist republican minority refused to waive the filibuster rule in order for an ordinary majority vote to pass it, rather invoke than the rule of 60 for cloture.
Minority Leader McConnell of Kentucky and Senators Corker and Shelby, of Tennessee and Alabama respectively, led the republican opposition to the bill for bridge loans to the car companies. All represent states which have given large subsidies to lure Japanese car companies to locate assembly plants within their borders. In their selfish desire to foster their own foreign-owned businesses and jobs, they seemed quite willing to let the American car companies go under and take with them millions of jobs from other states.
Other republicans joined with these senators, finding this an opportunity to strike a death blow to organized labor. The UAW has been one of the last bastions of labor strength, and it has normally supported democratic candidates.
Republicans made unusual demands for breaking existing contracts, and they called for rollback of union wages and benefits obtained over the years. While it seems likely there will need to be more sacrifices by labor, as well as by management and stockholders, these upfront immediate demands were irrational.
These senators put themselves in an unusual position of trying to negotiate with the union, directly themselves under the threat of killing the companies. This is unacceptable procedure, setting a bad unworkable precedent, and of questionable ethics.
After the republican imposed gridlock in the Senate, it was necessary for Mr. Bush to ride to the rescue, albeit a temporary one, for this major sector of our economy. In so doing, it is just as he said, avoiding a disastrous blow to an economy already in trouble. This will carry the companies until a more studied approach may be taken by a new president and a new congress.
We must give Mr. Bush credit for stepping out in opposition to the ranks of his erstwhile friendly republican senatorial corps and doing that which was necessary and right for the nation. The shame of his party’s senatorial delegation has given Mr. Bush the opportunity to be a statesman.
We applaud his actions.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
