Does democracy really work?

I was just perusing CNN's page and I noticed the headline about a key Republican is speaking out against John Bolton's nomination to Ambassador to the U.N. by the President. I looked to see who the key Republican was, and I was surprised.

First, I'm glad that anyone is against Bolton's nomination. I remember from the Daily Show, while Bolton was about to be nominated the first time, that Bolton is a prick. I'm pretty sure he's a racist too, and he uses tough guy tactics to intimidate people. And he has that mustache. Also, it's pretty impressive on the President's part to appoint him while Congress was at recess in August 2005, since he couldn't get a vote on Bolton from the Senate.

So perhaps the President will be forced to bring in someone who has good foreign relations. That sound you just heard was the collective gasp of everyone who thinks President Bush is incompetent, or, 60% of America.

But, I'm not really surprised that someone is coming out against Bolton or the President pushing another unqualified jackass into a position of importance. (Note, that's not to say that Mike Brown was a jackass; he was terribly underqualified to lead FEMA, and he was the one who took the fall for the President's failures. Personally I would support Brown for anything involving horse judging or for selling out the President more.) But it's the reasons behind this 'key Republican' coming out against Bolton.

I wouldn't trust this guy around my kids, let alone foreign leaders

The Republican in question is Lincoln Chaffee. He is a moderate Republican from Rhode Island, and he was recently lost his seat to the Democrat challenger on Tuesday. Well, Chaffee says he doesn't think the nomination of Bolton will get anywhere without his support, and he's not going to support Bolton.

But listen to this: Even though he's on his way out, he's voting for what the people want!! Can you believe it? A senator, with America's interests in mind! Now, I could see this in the House, because there are so many representatives there that you're bound to have one or two young people who think they can actually make a difference. But this is the senate. They know that can't get anything done without playing along, and they're usually so far removed from constituents that they have no idea about anything people want. Not even the President has America's interests in mind. Or, maybe he does, but they're well behind his own personal interests. So I'm just amazed.

When this guy says he's not going to support Bolton, it almost made me wish he had won his election. This is by far the most awesome thing I've heard this week. Well, at least since I heard Macaca Allen was conceding and Rumsfeld was stepping down.

So I guess this has been a good week for democracy. Votes were actually counted for the most part, and elections were close, people were sick of the way things are going down and they voted accordingly. Maybe I don't need to move to a communist country after all. But, then again, I wouldn't really have to work for my money. And that sounds awesome.