You'll feel the tremors when you read this Wall Street Journal report, which is the one everyone will be talking about today. Bottom line: The Fitzgerald probe appears to have widened. It's not just about the Wilsons. It's about the war, and the lies that midwived it.
Mr. Fitzgerald's pursuit now suggests he might be investigating not a narrow case on the leaking of the agent's name, but perhaps a broader conspiracy...People are already speaking of Rove in the past tense, and the administration sans Rove will function much like a computer without a CPU.
Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims.
This analysis makes an interesting (if not truly persuasive) argument that Bush and Cheney have come to despise each other. Meanwhile, NBC political analyst Howard Fineman told the Hardball audience that Rove and Andy Card (who never gets into the news, for some reason) are engaged in internal battle; the administration, we are told, has become a house divided.
What will happen when -- and I think it is a matter of when, not if -- Fitzgerald brings indictments against high-ranking administration officials? The country may not know what hit it.
Most people do not follow politics to the degree bloggers and blog-readers do; millions remain unaware that a probe exists. If big names receive indictments -- and if the Abu Ghraib child-rape evidence receives exposure at the same time -- no amount of propaganda can save the Bush administration.
Reagan survived Iran-Contra pretty much intact, largely because a complicit Congress did not want to destroy his presidency. But he also had other factors working for him, including personal charisma (I never understood his alleged charms, but his personality seems to have pleased others), as well as a fairly robust economy (which came at the expense of horrible deficits). Dubya doesn't have these factors working in his favor.
His remaining assets -- illimitable lucre and media control -- are still formidable. But the brainwashed hordes seem to be nudging themselves awake. A substantial number of Bush cultists may finally experience "negative samsara."
What will happen? Rage? Rioting? Ragnarok?
I doubt it. But the makeup of Congress may shift, if the Democrats play smarter.
To seize the moment, Democrats must respond with both invective and initiative. I disagree with Barack Obama, who recently spoke out against shrill Democratic commentators. If Obama ever has to fight a tough election battle. he'll learn that shrillness works. American political history of the past ten years can be summarized as the Triumph of the Shrill.
On the other hand, there has been much talk lately of a Democratic answer to Newt's notorious contract with America. That's an obvious and long-overdue move. The harsh attack and the hopeful alternative can and must co-exist; we need not choose between strategies.
I beg progressives not to allow the usual sidetrack issues -- gay marriage, flag fetishism, creationism -- to carry even half a day's news cycle. Yes, I'm infuriated by the right's drive to fill our schools with theological swinepiss -- but now is not the time to fight that fight. That battle will come later, when Democratic forces are stronger. For now, if pandering must needs be done, Democratic political hopefuls should pander. If compromise can fetch a few more voters, compromise away.
Stick to the real issues: Corruption, cronyism, corruption, deception, corruption, outsourcing, corruption, deficits, corruption, inflation, corruption, hard times, corruption, energy, corruption, war, corruption, vote fraud, corruption, terrorism, and corruption.
We must have more seats. The situation is as simple as that.
Only something parlously akin to a miracle can bring about Democratic majorities in both houses. But if we make the miracle occur, majorities will translate into impeachment. Nothing short of impeachment can save this nation.
10 comments:
This is all great news and good advice - but what about the fact that they control the voting machines and are presumably still in a position to rig elections?
Dude, quit speaking in tongues! What the hell does "samsara" mean? Some of your readers ain't waking dictionaries -- translation, please!!!
yep, the time has come. corruption never lasts forever, but then nothing ever does. here, though, the matchless arrogance, incompetence, and self-delusion combined in magical ways, really, to give us the deadly version of the keystone cops.
here is my fantasy:
we take back congress.
actually, anon1, this will be possible if we take rove, the mastermind of that fraud, down in the biggest scandal in american history. without rove in charge of the election scam - and this is no small piece of their power puzzle - to manipulate the operation, the numbers, and the personnel, it will disintegrate from the weight of its own greed and corruption; exposure will just kill it off.
don't forget; rats will be abandoning ship faster than you can say 'prison time' once the guys at the top start toppling. the horizon will be thick with the new whistleblowers, some who could not find conscience midst their overwhelming obligations to family, but many who are simply opportunists and for whom conscience is forever lost. whatever; the corruption will be exposed like an x-ray.
ok, once in congress, we can impeach not just bush, but cheney as well. and now it will be safe, because whoever the speaker of the dem house is then will become prez. (john conyers, anyone?)
once we have a principled dem in office, then they can start replacing all the incompetent cronies so the country can begin running a bit more smoothly. the prez can open up those nondisclosed records on various players, such as john roberts, and discover ways in which he misrepresented himself to congress, and perhaps impeach him, too. congress can start holding all manner of hearings on the war, the contracts, profiteering, the media, corporate personhood, separation of church and state, the whole shebang.
and who knows, perhaps some of these committees will uncover the corruption behind elections from 2000 forward and pass a bill that voids legislation since then due to illegal representation.
there are ways for the process to work, even now when it seems so far gone, but it will require great diligence, dedication, and awareness that all this will happen again without strong participation from the electorate.
and anon2, samsara is roughly equivalent to nirvana, which roughly translated means peace; i wish you abundance of it!
John Q Public has no conception of what's going on behind the scenes--and this isn't just the proles I'm talking about, it's true of the professional classes as well. (I sometimes feel like I'm in some alternate universe where evildoers get their just desserts, but that I'll be yanked back to the surreal landscape of Amerika on Oct. 28, and nothing will have changed.)
So if the Fitz strikes this venal administration asunder, it will stun 90% of America. Disbelief will be followed by rage, as Rush and Hannity fiercely denounce Fitz and the liberal media for outright political assassinations.
I sincerely doubt the Democratic Party can jump on this bucking horse and ride it. Half of them are being blackmailed, most the rest corrupted. No doubt Conyers will rise to the occasion, but no way will he get enough support to rally the Party.
Meanwhile, the markets will likely get hammered, and as winter hits the heating bills start rolling in, and housing prices continue to erode, and Iraq dances drunkenly into civil war. And don't forget the unforeseen catastrophe thrown at us--we're due for another one. Bush will become utterly unstable--defensive one day, belligerent the next, rudderless.
It's going to look like no one is in charge, because nobody will be. Imagine the Katrina aftermath on a national scale.
History repeats. Ultimately, one of two scenarios is possible. The first is that from the chaos will emerge a Napoleon or a Lenin or a Hitler. The second is that the world descends into a new Dark Ages.
Whoa. Sorry. But lll's rosy predictions seemed like wishful thinking to me.
Triumph of the Shrill. Heh.
Of the Swill, too.
Joseph Cannon is a wise man. I hope that what his advice here will be followed by the national Democratic Party. I have worries about whether Howard Dean is up to the task--he has never reversed his statement of 25 August 2003, that the U.S. mustn't draw down troops in Iraq until "we get a democracy in Iraq."
Right now the country is at a terrible risk from the Bush-Cheney-Rove-Rice-Rumsfeld neocons because the closer Fitzgerald gets to handing down indictments, the more at risk these neocon folks will induce some national disaster in order to keep in power and they wouldn't hesitate to shift this country over to martial law. These lying, cheating, thieving bastu_rds would set off a small nuclear device in a city like Chicago or Los Angeles to create a smoke screen behind which their crimes can become obscured. They could care less if a few thousand people get fried, especially if they're democrats who voted for Kerry and minorities to boot (that's what the neocons call a "twofer" at their sick drinking parties).
God, please no national disasters.
I beg each person who reads this far to take a few minutes out tonight before you go to bed and visualize that this country will not have some neocon self-inflicted nuclear disaster that the neocons will in turn blame right away on Iran.
Please pray that all of us in this country are safe, that no bombs by special forces that report to the neocons gets planted and set off.
Light a candle in a safe place, see the light surrounding the entire united states while Fitzgerald continues his investigation undisturbed.
I'm not kidding, I'm serious. We're on the brink here folks.
thanks in advance!
I know more than I want to know about the neocon's secret war against some of their most hated targets, whiny, swishy, "out" gays and liberals.
I had a whole essay prepared for this section--mainly about my support for the notion that Bush and Cheney have a certain hatred for each other at this point, but to anyone still reading, let's do what the Anonymous poster above me here proposes. Tommorow (10/17) is going to be critical, I feel. Candles, visualization of a positive future, prayer, whatever you think will help. Truth? I'm actually out of candles. I'm scrounging around my house looking for more, but so far, nada. So, those of you with more plentiful supplies than I possess will have to pick up the slack.
If you would just take your time to know your way around, you could discover
Post a Comment