The Merits of Planning and Execution

The NY Times had a story this morning that is instructive in showing why the Republicans are where they are today, and, consequently, why the Dems are where they are.

Last February, as rumors swirled about the failing health of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a team of conservative grass-roots organizers, public relations specialists and legal strategists met to prepare a battle plan to ensure any vacancies were filled by like-minded jurists.

The team recruited conservative lawyers to study the records of 18 potential nominees — including Judges John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — and trained more than three dozen lawyers across the country to respond to news reports on the president's eventual pick.

"We boxed them in," one lawyer present during the strategy meetings said with pride in an interview over the weekend. This lawyer and others present who described the meeting were granted anonymity because the meetings were confidential and because the team had told its allies not to exult publicly until the confirmation vote was cast.

Here's the point. The Republicans started putting their court appointment strategy together almost a year ago -- in fact the article goes on to say that the plan was hatched back in 1982. As far as I can tell, the Dems didn't start to hatch a plan to fight Alito (at least not as a group) until they walked into the Senate hearings. Even then, they couldn't coordinate their attacks at all because each Senator was more interested in seeing his mug and hearing his eloquent speech on TV than on stopping the appointment.

As far as I can tell, the same thing is happening as we close in on the NSA spying hearings. The Thuglicans, as usual, will come in fully armed and totally prepared to do battle. The Dems will still be wondering what clothing they look best in on TV.

Nobody's going to vote for these jerks in November if they can't get their act together.

Now, all this raises an interesting question. How can it be that the Republicans can be so incredibly competent in planning and executing political strategies when they are so incredibly incompetent in running the country? Tell me anything that the Bush administration and/or the Republican Congress has done well when it comes to actual governance?

The War in Iraq - nope
Balancing the Budget - nope
Stimulating the economy - nope (at least not for the "working" man)
Handling natural disasters - nope
Catching terrorists - nope
Implementing Medicare Part D - nope

... the list could grow as long as your arm. There's just nothing the administration has done well. And, legislation and oversight are the jobs of Congress. Find me anything good in those spheres that they have done.

Medicare Part D - nope
Oversight - what's that?

Are good politics and good governance oxymorons?