America: 402, Rangel: 2

The Cocco kids are safer tonight, thanks to house Republicans, who destroyed Democrat Charles Rangel's bid to weaken the military by adding conscripts to the ranks. Rangel's bill to reinstate the draft was demolished, 402-2:

"We're going to put a nail in that coffin," said the House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas. He accused Democrats of generating opposition to President Bush - especially on college campuses - by raising the idea that the draft might be re-established after the November election to provide troops for service in Iraq

I'll be sleeping easier in my tent tonight, thanks. But the Dems were quick to condemn the Republicans for exposing their fraud:

Democrats were outraged at the tactic, charging Republicans with a cynical political ploy on a matter that merited more thoughtful hearings and debate. The Democrats originally introduced the measure early last year as a way to protest the war, even before it began, and to spotlight how low- and middle-income Americans shoulder much of the burden of serving in the military.

Actually, patriotic Americans quite willingly shoulder that responsibility with pride - the above paragraph is just another example of the NY Times (and others) complete inability to comprehend the core strength of the all-volunteer force, and that's not a topic to debate.

But the next paragraph in the story offers the ultimate in deranged sputtering, combining delusional comments from the bill's sonsor with what had to be one of the most agonizing lines ever sweated by an editor in the Times:

"It is a prostitution of the legislative process to take a serious issue and use it for political purposes on the eve of the election just to say they are against the draft," said Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, the author of the bill, who ended up voting against it.

If anyone can provide a rational translation of that paragraph please do so in comments. Like dialogue in a Jerry Lweis film, it's too ridiculous to ridicule.

But shortly after, the Times story returns to "real journalism" by claiming three non-related anti-war talking points are crucial draft facts:

Some Democrats said it was the administration's loss of credibility due to the failure to find chemical and biological weapons in Iraq and its mishandling of the aftermath that was to blame for worry about the draft. "The president's foreign policy is scaring the kids of this country," said Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio.

A quick search of the story finds that Bush stealing the election in 2000 was not mentioned - a massive failure on the part of the usually sharper Times staff.

Honestly, they may have been trying to balance the Republican talking points which were included in the story, and that was just the best the opposition could do. But sometimes a simple "not available for comment" works best, especially in response to statements like these:

"The reason we are doing this is to expose the hoax of the year, which has been needlessly scaring young people," said Representative Duncan Hunter of California, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Administration officials including Mr. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have said they have absolutely no plans to restore the draft and believe that the all-volunteer military is the proper way to field troops. Both of them have reiterated that position in recent days.

"We will not have a draft so long as I'm the president of the United States," Mr. Bush said to applause from a crowd in Iowa on Monday.

"We do not need a draft," Mr. Rumsfeld said during a radio interview with Sean Hannity. "We've got, you know, 295 million people in this country and we have an active force of about 1.4 million and we are having no trouble at all attracting and retaining the people that we need to serve in the Armed Forces."

But instead of "no comment" we get this (attention South Dakota voters):

Senate officials said they had no intention of acting on a similar proposal, but the Democratic leader, Senator Tom Daschle, said he doubted the House vote would put the matter to rest.

"I would expect you're going to continue to see debates about the viability of a draft as we move forward," Mr. Daschle said.

Yea, okay. Bring. It. On.