I am so smart. I am so smart, s-m-r-t... I mean s-m-A-r-t.

Once in a while it's not such a bad idea to venture over to the other side of the blogsphere and take a look at what "Right Thinking" Americans are up to. Or, as in the case of the above linked site, Jawas. Extremely conservative Jawas. But short, lizardlike Jawas.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford (in the made-up name department I outrank him as a Dean of a fake school) has a real problem with American Research Poll showing that a plurality (46%) of Americans supporting censure of President Bush and with Glenn Greenwald for citing it. Shackleford proceeds to meticulously and logically dismantle both the polling organization ARG but put Greenwald to shame in the process.

Just kidding.

Shackleford writes-

I don't know anything about The American Research Group or about Dick Bennett, who runs the New Hampshire polling firm, but the numbers seem very odd to me.

Either explain why the pollsters are biased or why their methodology is wrong or shut up. Don't allude...

Either these numbers are WAY OFF, or every single Senate Democrat (with the exception of Russ Feingold) has lost their sense of the direction as to which way the political wind is blowing.

Ya think? Try actually having to be a constituent of these clowns. They have all the political acumen of a baked potato and they absolutely LOATHE their base.

I don't find it hard to believe that 70% of Democrats would want Bush censured, but 29% of Republicans? Unless, of course, Andy Sullivan is still calling himself a Republican, I just don't buy it.

I'm right there with you. Hard to believe there are still 29% of Republicans that still BELIEVE in the constitution after what we've witnessed these last few years.

The same poll claims that 47% of independents want the President impeached. So, more independents want the President of the United States impeached than censured? What the hell kind of logic is that?

I dunno. The kind of logic that assumes that if the President broke the law he ought to get more than a slap on the wrist?

The Left, as expected, are soiling their panties over this one. They smell blood in the water and are pouncing. What is so interesting about the Left, which usually prides itself in its epistemelogical relativism, is how they claim to know reality as it really is. Glenn Greenwald makes the assertion that what the wiretapping program is breaking the law, as if that were an objective fact, and then advises: Go forth and censure.

Greenwald doesn't just "make the assertion" that the wiretapping is illegal. Greenwald has written pages and pages on his blog explaining why the wiretapping program doesn't even begin to pass legal and constitutional muster. He's a 1st Amendment lawyer as well so he knows what the hell he's talking about. He didn't just pull it out of his ass, Jawa-boy.

But really what leaps off the turnbuckle and and drives Shackleford into the mat is the very actions of Republican Senators themselves. Today Senator DeWine introduced a bill explicity making the warrantless wiretapping legal. The tacit admission, the 500 pound gorilla in the room, is that this means it's not legal now for the administration to bypass FISA and spy on Americans. But we all knew that already.

At least those of us that don't spend the majority of our time in a sandcrawler hunting droids.

Like, it's a gggghost!!

Democratic Senators had two options when facing Russ Feingold's call for censure: stand, fight and lose and try and change the broader frame that they're wimps or cut, run and lose and reinforce the broader frame that they're wimps.

Which would it be...

Democratic leaders shy away from censure plan

Democrats Beat Quick Retreat on Call to Censure President

Democrats attempt to postpone effort to censure Bush

Perhaps we should have offered them more Rooby Racks.

...and hear the lamentations of their women.

This weekend's announcement by Senator Feingold of a motion for censure was great to hear. It brought the predictable "for us or agin us" blathering from Frist who claimed it sends the wrong message to our enemies at a time of war. The Righty rag The New York Sun referred to Feingold's announcement as "pandering." Is it possible to pander when you assume a position that most Americans share with regards to the NSA spying? From where I sit the real politicians that are pandering on this issue are the Republicans who refuse to even investigate the program thus caving to the wishes of Bush.

Of course their weenie-dom pales in comparison to the rest of the Democratic party. I see Ted Kennedy and possibly Barbara Boxer being the only other two Senators that will sign on to Feingold's resolution. Just another in a long line of examples of the party choosing an election strategy that amounts to "we're not as bad as those guys." I'd love to be wrong about this but the Democratic party if nothing if not predictable.

Predictably chickenshit.

UPDATE: I realize I've been harping on this a lot lately but I know a lot of people share my frustration. The Democratic party is the only organization with enough financial and political clout to pull back the reigns on the reactionary craziness that poses as conservative these days. That so many of the leadership of the party seem to view "winning" as simply retainining their seats as oppossed to winning a majority and being able to affect REAL change just drives me absolutely crazy.

I want more leaders like Feingold. He isn't afraid to tell it like it is:

When the domestic spying story first broke, the President went from saying he wouldn't be able to talk about it, to suggesting there was no other way to wiretap terrorists, to implying that the FISA law is out of date. He went on to claim that sweeping inherent powers of the presidency or the authorization of force back in 2001 gave him such authority -- neither of which is legally or factually correct. While the President has cherry-picked information before, he cannot do the same with the laws of our land.

Censuring the President is not something that should be taken lightly. But the President has BROKEN the law and there needs to be action and accountability.

Which is why I'm off to put a call in to Wyden's office to urge him to support Feingold's motion.