Beware the Cornered Beast
It has been extraordinarily entertaining to watch the vaunted Royalist political machine -- which has been terrorizing the landscape of American public discourse for nearly three decades --- turn almost overnight into a circular firing squad. Following the exposure of an Internet sex predator in their midst, members of the ruling party initially responded with their typical reflex -- blame someone else. In most cases, they first blamed each other, with House of Representatives Chief Rubber Stamper Dennis Hastert (R-Denial) taking the strongest and most vigorous fragging. Proving he is no dummy, Hastert -- immediately upon understanding that bombs were going off under his feet -- pivoted the blame elsewhere. Big Denny assures us the true malefactors in all of this are not the IM'ing Royalist Mark Foley, nor the many Royalist members of the House who knew he was trolling for teenagers, nor the even more numerous Royalist functionaries in the Capitol who were sounding alarms about his habits. No, Hastert would have us believe those most culpable are those who had nothing to do with it -- the Anti-Royalists and their scurrilous bankrollers.
In doing so, Hastert is merely following the example of his Beloved Leader. For the past week, King George has been prancing hither and yon ramping up his Election Year message: "Shake in your boots, my good people, for you are all about to die -- unless you vote correctly." Oh, he hasn't been using those words (though one of his enablers is more blunt: "These are people [who] will kill all of us, any one of us.") but his message couldn't be clearer. Keith Olbermann -- who somehow managed to transform himself from a cerebral, detached chronicler of large men playing children's games into a sharp-tongued firebrand of the Anti-Royalist cause when I wasn't looking -- calls His Imperiousness to account:
"The president of the United States — unbowed, undeterred and unconnected to reality — has continued his extraordinary trek through our country rooting out the enemies of freedom: the Democrats.
{snip}
"A president who since 9/11 will not listen, is not listening — and thanks to Bob Woodward’s most recent account — evidently has never listened. A president who since 9/11 so hates or fears other Americans that he accuses them of advocating deliberate inaction in the face of the enemy. A president who since 9/11 has savaged the very freedoms he claims to be protecting from attack — attack by terrorists, or by Democrats, or by both — it is now impossible to find a consistent thread of logic as to who Mr. Bush believes the enemy is.
"But if we know one thing for certain about Mr. Bush, it is this: This president — in his bullying of the Senate last month and in his slandering of the Democrats this month — has shown us that he believes whoever the enemies are, they are hiding themselves inside a dangerous cloak called the Constitution of the United States of America."
Olbermann is, of course, only saying out loud what rational Americans have known in their hearts and minds for years. Refreshing as it is to hear someone give voice to such thoughts, I can't help but wonder if maybe those words are too dangerous to speak. For Olbermann personally, and for the country generally.
Here's why: the Royalists are backed into a corner with no apparent avenue of escape. By every objective measurement, they are about four weeks away from losing the majority in at least half -- if not all -- of Congress. Their tried-and-true campaign message ("Vote for us or you'll all die!") has been drowned out for a week by the Foley scandal. But even before that, the red-meat message had begun to decompose. Its fetid aroma just wasn't getting the digestive juices of the electorate flowing like it did in 2002 and 2004. Too many people are starting to understand, as soccerdad at The Left Coaster puts it:
"Possibly the greatest long term threat to the Republic has been the continued accumulation of power by the unitary president."
The problem is the accumulation of power has already happened. Congress has voted to permit the Boy King to abduct, imprison, and torture -- unto death, if he deems it needed -- any American citizen he considers an enemy of the crown. Congress has voted to give him authority to monitor the phone calls, emails, instant messages and all other communications of any American citizen (with the possible exception of Mark Foley). Royal apologists will insist Congress did not make such a sweeping capitulation to the "unitary executive", and they will be lying (as usual).
With that much power in his hands, there is no way this Imperial Highness will sit idly by and watch his retainers be voted out of power. There is no beast more dangerous than one cornered. Rest assured, the Brain Trust that has brought America to its sorry current state is hard at work on ways to destroy the opposition and cling to power. Can disappearances of prominent or vocal critics be far behind? (Someone already tried to scare Olbermann into silence. Unsuccessfully.)
October Surprise, anyone?
In doing so, Hastert is merely following the example of his Beloved Leader. For the past week, King George has been prancing hither and yon ramping up his Election Year message: "Shake in your boots, my good people, for you are all about to die -- unless you vote correctly." Oh, he hasn't been using those words (though one of his enablers is more blunt: "These are people [who] will kill all of us, any one of us.") but his message couldn't be clearer. Keith Olbermann -- who somehow managed to transform himself from a cerebral, detached chronicler of large men playing children's games into a sharp-tongued firebrand of the Anti-Royalist cause when I wasn't looking -- calls His Imperiousness to account:
"The president of the United States — unbowed, undeterred and unconnected to reality — has continued his extraordinary trek through our country rooting out the enemies of freedom: the Democrats.
{snip}
"A president who since 9/11 will not listen, is not listening — and thanks to Bob Woodward’s most recent account — evidently has never listened. A president who since 9/11 so hates or fears other Americans that he accuses them of advocating deliberate inaction in the face of the enemy. A president who since 9/11 has savaged the very freedoms he claims to be protecting from attack — attack by terrorists, or by Democrats, or by both — it is now impossible to find a consistent thread of logic as to who Mr. Bush believes the enemy is.
"But if we know one thing for certain about Mr. Bush, it is this: This president — in his bullying of the Senate last month and in his slandering of the Democrats this month — has shown us that he believes whoever the enemies are, they are hiding themselves inside a dangerous cloak called the Constitution of the United States of America."
Olbermann is, of course, only saying out loud what rational Americans have known in their hearts and minds for years. Refreshing as it is to hear someone give voice to such thoughts, I can't help but wonder if maybe those words are too dangerous to speak. For Olbermann personally, and for the country generally.
Here's why: the Royalists are backed into a corner with no apparent avenue of escape. By every objective measurement, they are about four weeks away from losing the majority in at least half -- if not all -- of Congress. Their tried-and-true campaign message ("Vote for us or you'll all die!") has been drowned out for a week by the Foley scandal. But even before that, the red-meat message had begun to decompose. Its fetid aroma just wasn't getting the digestive juices of the electorate flowing like it did in 2002 and 2004. Too many people are starting to understand, as soccerdad at The Left Coaster puts it:
"Possibly the greatest long term threat to the Republic has been the continued accumulation of power by the unitary president."
The problem is the accumulation of power has already happened. Congress has voted to permit the Boy King to abduct, imprison, and torture -- unto death, if he deems it needed -- any American citizen he considers an enemy of the crown. Congress has voted to give him authority to monitor the phone calls, emails, instant messages and all other communications of any American citizen (with the possible exception of Mark Foley). Royal apologists will insist Congress did not make such a sweeping capitulation to the "unitary executive", and they will be lying (as usual).
With that much power in his hands, there is no way this Imperial Highness will sit idly by and watch his retainers be voted out of power. There is no beast more dangerous than one cornered. Rest assured, the Brain Trust that has brought America to its sorry current state is hard at work on ways to destroy the opposition and cling to power. Can disappearances of prominent or vocal critics be far behind? (Someone already tried to scare Olbermann into silence. Unsuccessfully.)
October Surprise, anyone?
posted by wally at 11:43 AM
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