Iraqis have gone to the polls today to begin their long march towards democracy . Whether the newly elected government will be accepted as a fair representational model by all Iraqis, remains to be seen. Also, it comes as no surprise that Iran's stake in the outcome of the Iraqi election may be as high as the Bush administration's !
Here at home though, some Republican politicians' dedication to fair representation for US voters falls short of the platitudes they mouth about Iraqi democracy and freedom. Cragg Hines, a columnist for Houston Chronicle has this to say about their hypocrisy and the danger to American democratic traditions at the hands of the current conservative government.
"You don't need to know much about the representational models, however imperfect, in the Iraqi elections this week to understand that they certainly are no more egregious than U.S. House districts in Texas.
What hypocrites Republicans can be: All this breast-beating about representative government in Iraq while they continually try to jigger the vote at home.
Is it more than a touch ironic that as ballots began to be cast in the first post-Saddam parliamentary elections in Iraq, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision to hear multiple challenges to the mid-decade, politically inspired redrawing of the 32 U.S. House districts in Texas as demanded in 2003 by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land?
And that it became clear that, against all precedent, nonpartisan staff attorneys at the Justice Department, having urged disapproval of Republican redistricting in Texas and having been overruled by their political masters, were then effectively cut out of the federal preclearance process altogether? ..... "
Tom Delay is currently mired in legal wranglings in Texas and his name could surface in the federal courts in the Jack Abramoff case. Now the US Supreme Court has decided to examine the legalities of the 2003 Texas redistricting which Mr. DeLay merrily designed like his own private, partisan jig saw puzzle. Perhaps the judicial process will do what DeLay's hapless Democratic challengers could not manage to do for more than twenty years - put an end to his powerful congressional tenure, best known for its arrogance, lack of finesse and vindictiveness. But a much more satisfactory scenario would be to see the Hammer learn a lesson in humility at the polls in his familiar stomping ground of Sugar Land, Texas, rather than in a courtroom in Austin or Washington D.C.
click here
Update:
And how is this for a presidential prerogative? President Bush steadfastly refuses to comment on the investigation of Karl Rove by the Special Prosecutor because that "is an ongoing investigation and in our legal system everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise". Yet today when asked about Tom DeLay's legal troubles, Bush said that "he is confident that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is innocent of money-laundering charges, and he offered strong support for several top Republicans who have been battered by investigations or by rumors of fading clout inside the White House" reports say. Maybe Iraq was a presidential prerogative too.
Comments