Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Democrats In the Dental Chair”

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March 15, 2007

Democrats In the Dental Chair

Hatched by Dafydd

One of the weirdest -- and funniest -- segments of the original Roger Corman movie the Little Shop of Horrors is when dental patient Wilbur Force (Jack Nicholson in a very early role in his career) demands that the dentist, Phoebus Farb, drill Force's teeth without anaesthetic: Wilbur Force is a masochist, you see, and that's how he gets off. (When first we see him, he's sitting in the waiting room, reading an issue of Pain Magazine -- and giggling.)

Whenever the Democrats throw another handful of defeatist red meat onto the floor of Congress, I always think of Jack Nicholson squirming in the dental chair, laughing in masochistic glee. I'm not sure why I have that association...

The latest volley of dueling Democratic defeat-o-ramas -- one in the House, three in the Senate -- raises my earlier question to greater urgency: Does the 110th Congress plan to do anything besides making symbolic gestures of surrender?

Do the Democrats have any agenda at all, other than to bring the troops home in failure and disgrace? They seem to believe that if only America can be "chastened" and "humbled," if we stop acting as though we're somehow "better" than other countries, then maybe the rest of the world will love us again. It might be true: The reaction to 9/11 proved that the world loves America when America is on its knees.

But as usual, the result of these non-binding (or binding but unpassable) resolutions outside of the liberal fantasyland is just more pain and humiliation for the Democrats. As witness today, when the House Appropriations Committee only narrowly passed along an emergency supplemental surrender bill to the full House... and the Senate actually rejected a similar cut-and-run bill by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Caesar's Palace, 100%), 50-48.

Yup: The Democrats needed 60 votes; they couldn't even get 50. And if both McCain and Johnson had voted, it would have been an absolute majority against, 51 to 49.

Only one Republican, Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon [72%], voted in favor of the measure. Two Democrats, Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas [90%] and Ben Nelson of Nebraska [55%], voted against it, as did Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut [80%]. Senators Tim Johnson, a Democrat from South Dakota [95%] who is ill, and John McCain, an Arizona Republican [65%] who is in Iowa, did not vote.

(The House bill was passed by the committee with one fewer vote than there are Democrats on the panel: Rep. Barbara Lee -- D-Berkeley, 95% -- decided it was too pro-Bush and too right-wing, since it didn't call for an immediate pull-out... not today, man, yesterday!)

Meanwhile, a pair of -- wait for it -- non-binding resolutions in the Senate, each promising that funding would not be cut for troops in the field, passed overwhelmingly, according to Paul at Power Line:

The [Sen. Judd] Gregg Amendment, which I understand calls says that Congress should not eliminate or reduce funds for troops in the field, has passed 82–16. The [Sen. Patty] Murray Amendment, which I understand calls for Congress to provide funds for training, equipment and other support for troops in the field, has passed 96-2.

How many holes can we drill before the Democrats are left utterly toothless?

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, March 15, 2007, at the time of 8:03 PM

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Tracked on March 23, 2007 4:16 AM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: yetanotherjohn

Not to piddle on your scaly parade, but wasn't it Bill Murray as the masochistic patient, not Jack Nicholson? Steve Martin was the dentist.

The above hissed in response by: yetanotherjohn at March 16, 2007 6:59 AM

The following hissed in response by: Big D

Ah, the young!

There were two movies called Little Shop of Horrors. One a serious (well not so serious) Roger Corman classic, the other a musical comedy with Steve Martin et al.

So are the Democrats ever going to...uh...doing anything other than not pass non-binding resolutions? Yeah, we get it already. You don't like Bush or the war in Iraq. Time to move on.

Well, I guess they have moved on. To endless investigations of...what exactly? Bush firing a few guys? Plame? Hey let's rehash the intelligence that led us to war!

The above hissed in response by: Big D at March 16, 2007 9:42 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Yetanotherjohn:

Not to piddle on your scaly parade, but wasn't it Bill Murray as the masochistic patient, not Jack Nicholson? Steve Martin was the dentist.

Heh. I mean this one... which actually predates my hatching, and is therefore superior to the later imitation, songs or no songs (for all that I love Rick Moranis).

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at March 16, 2007 1:11 PM

The following hissed in response by: yetanotherjohn

I had forgotten the B-grade original. So now I have a choice. I can graciously accept the correction and revel in my rediscovered knowledge. Alternatively, I can blame you for a lack of clarity in not distinguishing between the two. But instead, I shall say this is an example of how the quagmire that is Hollywood is dividing this country and if the producers and directors don't meet certain benchmarks, then we will shut down the industry within 180 days and re-deploy to Bollywood.

The above hissed in response by: yetanotherjohn at March 17, 2007 9:15 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Yetanotherjohn:

But instead, I shall say this is an example of how the quagmire that is Hollywood is dividing this country and if the producers and directors don't meet certain benchmarks, then we will shut down the industry within 180 days and re-deploy to Bollywood.

Well, maybe we should do that anyway!

Actually, that's unfair; we just saw a Hollywood movie -- in fact, it's Disney, one of the first post-Eisner Disney movies -- that we highly recommend: the Bridge to Terabithia.

It's a great movie for somewhat older kids, too... say at least 5th-6th grade on up: There is a very sad thing that happens that might really upset younger kids, unless their emotional development is more mature than their age. But it's artistically motivated, foreshadowed, and neither gratuitous nor emotionally manipulative.

(Anybody who comments on this movie, please don't post any spoilers here.)

So I won't totally bag on Hollywood... but for the most part, I wouldn't mind seeing 85% of all releases not released, so long as it were the right 85%.

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at March 17, 2007 2:37 PM