DeLay's Replacement
A quick update on the Delay story, Drier is not going to be the House Majority Leader, Roy Blunt is stepping in as temporary leader. He is NOT a friend of the Armenians, however, he will be sharing responsibilities with Drier. Hastert just had to mention that Delay is only “temporarily” stepping down and that he will still be on the sidelines overseeing the process I guess. It’s still a great thing though. The republicans are under a lot of heat right now, which is not a good thing considering they are the ruling power right now and our country is struggling between hurricane season, a continuing war and gas prices through the roof. I want my government to be able to do their jobs, but the sad reality is that they weren’t doing it very well before, so let’s weed out the dirt. Delay is a dirty man, and the mere fact that he was walking around yesterday with a smirk on his face disgusts me. Anyway, this is a developing story... new bits of info and spins come out every minute, of course Washington is a buzz over the whole thing... oooooo you thought things were so divided before. What a cat fight. More later.
posted by Arsineh at 6:39 PM
4 Comments:
Let me think the politics of this through a second. Whether the bribery allegations against Hastert are true or not, there are large U.S. business interests in Turkey, through their lackey Brent Scowcroft, that will be lobbying hard for the House Speaker NOT to bring the Resolution to a debate. Those business interests include the arms manufacturers a.k.a. Merchants of Death, which are a pretty powerful lobby in Washington.
On the Armenian side, is there any election that can be tipped by the Armenian vote? It seems the Republicans have a pretty good lock on Congress and there is not the incentive like there was in 2000, when the Democrats seemed poised to take back the House.
It seems to me that the bribery stuff may be the best ammunition the Armenian community has on its side. The threat of the Armenian American Community making an issue of the bribery allegations could push Hastert to try and put the issue to rest by allowing a vote.
That's just my thoughts.
That's the idea. To answer some of your questions, Armenians have tipped elections, such as the case in Glendale when Rogan was up against Schiff and Schiff proved to be the better friend to us and we did manage to get the votes for him. That's the only case I know of in congress. We do not have that much power on that level. However, I'll say this. The genocide issue is not partisan. Republicans do support the resolutions. One of the Armenian Caucus co-chairs is a Republican, two of the four resolution co-sponsors are Republican. Granted, when you count the votes at the end of the day, there are more democrats. The problem in Congress and overall is that key elected officials are blocking it because of pressure from the State Department and the Bush Administration. Don't get me wrong, Clinton years weren't great, but we had it a little easier then to at least communicate with the White House back then. Now, Bush has completely closed the door on us.
Pretty much, the grounds we stand on is truth. We have that on our side, which is why there is so much support for the resolutions. Once we find ways to break the leadership on their "promises" to Turkey, the truth will come out.
Oh media, how I despise you. An article today in the Washington Post discussing the fall of the Republican party noting each of the Republican leaders recently caught in controversy... Rove, DeLay, etc. but not a MENTION about Hastert and the heat he is in right now. Why are people afraid of the Hastert relationship with Turkey controversy? But I'll say this, I saw House Minority Leader Pelosi talking on the issue as if all Republicans are corrupt and Democrats are not... let's be realistic, I know a few democrats who could use a slap or two.
Anyway, here's the most reliable news source I have these days:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4293322.stm
You hit the proverbial nail on the head. The Democrats are silent about the Hastert allegations because undoubtedly some of their own party members are on the ATC/ATAA payroll. Whereas with the Delay accusations, the Dems have no involvement.
Also, besides Hastert are implicated as of yet unnamed State and Pentagon employees- many of whom were appointed during the Clinton years (Marc Grossman?)and retained by Bush.
Post a Comment
<< Home