politricks and other distractions

They're Getting Away With It

There's nothing like good writing in the National Journal to get me hot and bothered. The latest issue includes an article by Murray Waas called "Insulating Bush." It starts:

"Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration..."

It tells of the delaying tactics and obfuscation used by Condi and the gang to hide the fact that Bush knew it was bullshit to say that Saddam Hussein had been importing high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon. But that became one of the key issues -- along with the fake attempt by Iraq to buy yellow-cake from Niger -- that Bush used to lie our way into war. The article lays out the long trail of evidence that the White House engaged in serious, well, "lying" is the only word for it, to try to insulate the President and preserve his deniability on the story.

All this lying and moving around the shells on the card table just to get past the 2004 elections.

Now this alone wouldn't get me that pissed off. I mean, lying? Come on. This is politics. High stakes money is involved. People's CAREERS are on the line - of course lying is required. Right?

But then I think back on how the White House also got the NY Times to delay reporting on the domestic wiretapping story until after the November elections. And how they've gotten Scooter Libby's trial delayed until after THIS November's elections... and on and on it goes.

They're playing the game by changing the rules and you know what? That's a really easy way to win, especially when the other team doesn't want to upset the apple cart. It would be too complicated for them to explain this all to the simple American public, wouldn't it?

No, actually it wouldn't be. It might take a little effort, but anybody who's ever had a deadline understands the concept of having that deadline delayed and delayed and delayed. And most Americans can be trusted to understand that we have these little things called ELECTIONS the first week of every other November... with a really big one happening every FOUR years intead of two. I trust my fellow citizens to still be with me.

What scares me is that they're getting desperate now. Today Bush's poll numbers were positively nu-cu-lar. His approval rating: 32%. (Oddly, he got 47% "yes" and 47% "no" on the question, "is he competent?" - a split I don't understand in the context of his approval rating...).

But what scares me is how dangerous these guys will get when they're backed into a corner. His plane seems to be in a death spiral and I wouldn't put it past him and his coterie of whip-crackers to stir up a little somethin' in Iran to pull them out of it. After all, how could we vote out our loyal representatives in November if we need them on Capitol Hill staying nice and focused on getting us out of the NEXT war?

Iraq. Iran. Next up: the IRA. We're having luck with that letter combo. (Ixnay on the Anistan-Gay.)

They've gotten away with all of this incredibly dangerous, planet and civilization-threatening lunacy this far -- because NOBODY'S PAYING ATTENTION TO THE IMPORTANT STUFF.

Will somebody stop letting them move the finish line past November for anything important to happen? Please. People. Stop them. Wake everybody around you up. Go read National Journal - after you read Sy Hersh in the New Yorker last week.

A reporter told a friend of mine in DC her belief that Bush got us into Iraq because he thought only wartime presidents would be remembered. I wouldn't put it past him to bomb Iran for the very same reason ("Mo' often, mo' bettah!," as my friend Wayne would say).

The thing he doesn't care about is whether or not any of us are left alive to read the history books that will extoll his many virtues.

Stop him now.

Let's roll.

posted by dcnative @ 9:17 PM