Dodd can't help himself

Running for President, promoting a new book, and trying to remain a viable presidential candidate have left Chris Dodd breathless.

Dodd, appearing on Keith Olbermann's Countdown last night started his segment by imploring his Democratic colleagues to speak with clarity. Then he proceeded to drone on, in a series of run-on sentences, filled with political phrasing, strangely obtuse metaphors ("Iraq is a petri dish") and a campaign-stump varnish, that will leave his message difficult to interpret by the large majority of listeners.

Don't get me wrong, most of what he said was on the money, he just had no concept of how to speak with the "clarity" he was demanding of his colleagues.

Here are the issues in plain English, and I wish the leaders of the Democratic party would begin to say them in words America will understand:

Bush is a liar who cares more about his own legacy then he does about the lives of soldiers.

Bush is a former drunk who is always looking for someone to bail him out of trouble. It's scary that he's leading our country and our armed forces.

Petraeus and Lindsay Graham estimated that 60 soldiers a month will continue to die in Iraq. Bush is willing to sacrifice another 1,000 lives of brave American serviceman so that he can hand off this war to his successor.

When Bush hands the war off to a Democratic president, he, his Republican colleagues and conservative pundits will blame any failure in Iraq on the Democrats.

Bush is a coward who is afraid to even speak in front of a real audience who would question his words and actions. He was afraid to meet with Cindy Sheehan. He is afraid to submit to an interview by a real journalist asking the tough questions. Bush avoided combat when he served in the National Guard. But this coward is very happy to keep your sons and daughters at risk. Happy to see them die to preserve his legacy.

We're spending $10 million a month in Iraq (much of it going to connected contrators) - bankrupting our economy and crippling our Armed forces to keep this war going long enough so he can offload it like a Texas frat boy offloads a sack of empties from his pickup.

The Petraeus testimony, and Bush's speech tonight are part of a con job on the American people. It's a public relations game in which he's trying to sell damaged goods. If we buy it, we buy it at our the risk of our own lives, our own safety and our own futures.

We need to get Bush out of office now. He has damaged America for the forseeable future, he can only make it worse.

To me, that's speaking with clarity.