[CLUE-Talk] Iraq Stuph

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Tue, 2003-04-22 at 09:02, Randy Arabie wrote:

*snip*

> > He holds the office, but that doesn't mean that I have to recognize
> > him as legitimate. And I don't -- I refuse to address him as
> > "president" or use the term "president" to describe Bush. 
> 
> I'm glad the folks in the military, members of congress, and others at
> all levels of government apparently have a more mature stance regarding
> the 2000 Presidential Election.

First, I don't consider my stance "immature" -- as usual, you're dodging
the issue -- that is, that I don't consider Bush's election legitimate
and there are certainly some grounds for dispute.  

Second, you raise an interesting point, kind of: If I were an elected or
appointed official, would I recognize Bush as president. Since I'm not,
I haven't really given the issue much thought -- I don't plan on running
for office or holding an appointed office, so I really haven't thought
about whether or not I'd recognize Bush in an official capacity. 

If I were in that position, I suppose I'd just deal with the situation
and move on. Voice my opinion that I didn't think that the result was
legitimate, but that there's little to do but deal with it -- but that's
a different matter than an individual saying that Bush isn't "my"
president. 

> Just imagine if half of the US Congress got up and went home because
> their guy didn't win.  Or, imagine if half of the US Military didn't
> recognize Dubya as the Commander in Chif because they didn't vote for
> him.

Hmmm... Congress with no quorum and the legislature at a standstill. I
can think of worse things. A couple of years with no new laws being
passed... yeah, I think we could deal with that. There's the budget
issue, though... 

First, I don't think a member of Congress has to claim the president to
do their job. I'm reasonably sure I could find examples of Republican
members of Congress saying that Clinton is "not my president," but I
don't think any of them packed up and went home. 

If I were in the military, I'd recognize Bush's authority while still
holding the opinion that he was not legitimately elected. Why? Because
to be in the military you have to take an oath, and the responsiblity
that comes with it. As an individual I'm not in that position, so it's
two different situations. 

*snip*

> If you truly believe he doesn't legitimately have right to the office,
> perhaps you should be doing more to right the injustice...

What would you suggest? Seems that most of the avenues of redress have
been exhausted. Hey, if you can think of a viable (legal!) plan that
might correct the situation, I'm all ears. 

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
jzb at dissociatedpress.net
Aim: zonkerjoe
http://www.dissociatedpress.net