Some Humble Advice To Republicans

Brian Zick

Notwithstanding all the many angry differences I have with Republicans, regarding ideology and policy, I make this following sincere suggestion. I believe it would narrowly serve to benefit the Republican Party politically, but more importantly it would aide the broader policy interests of the citizenry of the United States. Please! Read the writing on the wall. Awake and smell the coffee. Get that monkey off your back. Pay attention to that parade which everyone can see marching up 6th Avenue. Impeach both Bush and Cheney, and remove them from office. Now. Straight away. And then replace them with a President Hastert administration. You could wait until the Democrats retake the Congress in November, and then set yourselves up to lose even more seats in 2008 by trying to defend Bush's and Cheney's abject megalomaniacal disregard for the law and the Constitution, with your rubber stamp monumental double-standard hypocritical willingness to look away. Or you could lead the charge defending the law and the Constitution, and impeach them both now, yourselves - there is no inhibition to removing both a President and a Vice-President simultaneously - before the November elections. And let the Speaker of the House, the constitutionally designated next in line successor, try to restore a much needed credibility and dignity to the White House right away. And indeed, I dare suspect your own congressional approval ratings would improve dramatically, for the upcoming electoral showdown. The distraction factor alone, from Abramoff/DeLay/Ney/et al, would surely be worth it. Besides, I mean, if you don't do it now, yourselves, with the way shoes have been raining lately, there may well be a President Pelosi in your future before too long. Accompanied by a Speaker Hoyer and a Senate President Pro Tem Byrd. You're holding a "President Hastert" winning ace in your hand. A guaranteed fresh start. A likely new administration honeymoon period, in which to try and pass favored legislation. Perhaps even with retained congressional majorities. You can discard it, but you'd be throwing away a sure winner. And risking an enormous loss to gamble for the incredibly lousy stakes currently on the table. But don't take it from me. Go ask Bill Buckley or Bruce Bartlett or Lawrence Wilkerson or Kevin Phillips what they think. The window of opportunity won't be open to you much longer, however. This suggestion guarantees the means for you to preserve at least some measure of government power, maybe more than some. And what has Bush or Cheney actually ever done for you anyway?

The text is from the poem “QUADRENNIAL” by Golden, reprinted with permission. It was first published in the Poetry Project. Inside front cover photo by Golden.
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