Not So Fast, Shrub!
Three Senators Challenge GWB's Rewarding His Lawbreaking Buddies -- and Also the Assumption That the GOP Has Smooth Sailing Ahead
by Tamara Baker

Feb. 21, 2001 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA (APJP) -- You all remember my bringing to light Usurper Boy's minders' decision to  reward his lawbreaking business buddies by repealing President Clinton's federal rule that prevents the government from awarding contracts to bidders who have broken environmental, labor, tax and other laws.

Well, it looks like some Democratic Senators are saying "Not so fast!" to  Usurper Boy.

In an AP article dated February 20, 2001, Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut (also known as "Vice President of Al Gore's Government-in-Exile"; more on that later), and Teddy Kennedy of Massachusetts have written a letter to His Fraudulency, warning him that his determination to overturn President Clinton's anti-corporate-crook rule may itself prove to be illegal:

In their letter, the senators said they were "troubled by a coordinated effort by several departments and agencies to exempt themselves for six months" from the new rule, especially without public notice or public comment. 

The senators cited a memo by the Congressional Research Service saying the rule suspension "would likely be held by a reviewing court to be legally deficient on its face."

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No duh. Even Nino the Fixer Scalia might have a tough time torturing the language of American jurisprudence to sufficiently say otherwise.

Will the Usurper's minders continue to give the backs of their hands not merely to the letter of the law, but to its spirit as well? Is the Bear Catholic? Does a Pope live in the woods? This crowd is swaggering in its arrogance. It knows it has the Celebrity Press Corps securely under its thumb, even if they do whine a bit about having to take so much stuff on a not-for-attribution basis so the Bushies can play the Good Cop in their Good Cop, Bad Cop scheme.

But even with CelebCorps showing a Pravda-like dedication to spewing untruths on behalf of the Appointed One, the signs are pointing to a crumbling of the political foundations that once seemed so firm to the GOP:

• Joe Lieberman, once so overly friendly to the Republicans, seems to have been re-radicalized by the raw deal handed to him during the 2000 election by both his GOP friends and what he thought was a neutral and unbiased press corps. It's not just his speaking out with Durbin and Kennedy on behalf of obeying the law, either. As the Palm Beach Post reports, he's been going to Florida black Baptist churches as well as Palm Beach synagogues, talking the truth about how he and Al Gore won Florida.
• After peaking in 1994, the great GOP wave that washed over so many statehouses and Governor's Mansions is at a very low ebb. Democrats are poised to retake enough Governorships, including that of Illinois, to regain the majority in that category by 2002. This will mean that redistricting won't go the GOP's way, particularly in the high-population states that vote Democratic, such as California and New York and Illinois.
• The latest Orvetti.com polls show that 43% of Americans think of themselves as Democrats and progressives, compared to a mere 37% of Americans calling themselves Republicans. If that proportion was spread a little more evenly around the country, Al Gore would have easily won the electoral vote as decisively as he won the popular vote, even with Ralph Nader doing his damndest to elect George W. Bush. This bodes well for the Dems in 2002.
• And of course both Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms aren't getting any younger, or healthier. And since both those gents hail from states with Democratic Governors, their replacements won't be GOPers. This alone threatens the Republicans' ability to promote the illicit agenda of His Fraudulency's minders.

Bottom line: Dick Cheney had better declare martial law soon if he wants to keep his job as America's most powerful puppeteer. Come 2002, if free elections are still allowed, his party is going to get creamed.

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