Stop the Presses?

This past week's coverage of the House Democratic leadership election should, once and for all lay to rest the concept of a Liberal Media bias. As reported in most major news organizations - including the NY Times and Washington Post - instead of an orderly leadership selection process, we witnessed a bizarre menage-a-trois between Nancy Peolosi, Jack Murtha, & Steny Hoyer. The MSM painted Speaker Pelosi as some Beltway Borgia feverishly scheming to have the white smoke plume blow for Enforcer Jack, while the Party establishment did an end run around her in favor of Hoyer. This was largely brought about by Enforcer Jack's somewhat checkered past with lobbyists, fake Saudi Princes (ABSCAM) and other forms of typical DC debaucherie. Of course on careful inspection, what becomes obvious is a very simple chain of events that let everybody save face:

1. Speaker Pelosi shows loyalty to Enforcer Jack by nominating and supporting him
2. Dems do their bit and vote in the right man - Hoyer
3. Murtha loses fairly in a floor vote but can continue to function as Pelosi's enforcer since she publicly supported him

End of story, everyone's happy, but not the press who rely on the cliche of disorganized, fratracidel democrats to either appease their corporate media masters or because they're too lazy to do real reporting. Yet again. Can you spell W-M-D?

That's not to say that the Democrats aren't fratracidel - to wit - James "I married a Nazi" Carville and his very public fight with Howard Dean and the DNC. Why anybody would still pay attention to this idiot (Paul Begala too) is simply beyond me. The bottom line is that Dean's 50 state strategy as Joe Conason rightly points out in Salon, worked. The Dems were effectively able to roll-back the GOP in states that were totally written off by the party establishment - including Mr. Carville & Begala. They are now and always will be the attack dogs for the Clinton Party - not the Democratic Party. And if Hillary is going to get the nod, it won't be because the DNC is going to be loud, active, and motivated to support her. So better to try and take out Dr. Dean - again. Remember folks, the scream wasn't leaked by Republicans but by the Party establishment personified by Jimmy the C and Lil' Paulie. So now that the opposition is in the driver's seat the Dems need to take a page from the GOP - create and manage the story - but STOP becoming the story!

All too often Dems focus on their own, limited and independent agendas while foresaking the message of the party. This has got to stop or the GOP will be back with a vengence in '08. It's up to all of us to make sure this does not happen. Monitor the news - where you see the press being lazy and indulging in their penchant for cliche - write them! Make them work for a change and really report. When you see needless sniping between party spokespeople - call them on it. Write their offices, call them, tell them we won't stand for this nonsense anymore. That they need to keep these things and themselves out of the media and focus instead on advancing the party agenda. Enough is enough! Tell the talking heads to shut the f@#* up and help us accomplish something the next 2 years!

We Won?

We won. Simple words. Short, sweet, and pregnant with meaning. But after the balloons and confetti are cleared and the champagne hangovers start to fade, the words are amended to - Holy shit we won. Anyone who's been following the US political landscape over the last few years has been painfully aware of the viscious reactionary nature of the US electorate. "Values" voters with paleolithic agendas such as anti-gay marriage, anti-stem cell research, anti-evolution, and the full endorsement of a fundamentalist christian agenda. Nothing's changed. And that is the significant detail that we must bear in mind as we go forward to clean up the tragic mess that BushCo and their minions have created. This was a vote against BushCo - not a vote for a progressive agenda. This was a much needed message against incumbants and one party rule - not a repudiation of "family values". Ken Mehlman (RNC Chairman) has already been making the rounds of the AM talk shows putting significant distance between BushCo and real republican Party values in preparation for 2008. You see, the last 6 years have really been an aberration - watch how they spin.

Yes our democracy worked - a day late, a dollar short, but the peaceful transfer of power is being accomplished at the will of the people. The bums have indeed been tossed out. Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House and it looks like we will claim the senate as well. So yes - by all means, let's enjoy the day - the week even. But let's be focused on the fundamental issues still facing the country - a significant plurality of our countrymen refuse to use their native common sense and continue to reject fairness, equality, and science. Iraq is still burning, N Korea and Iran are still churning, and loving people now can't get married in seven more states.

Whoo hoo! We won

Buyer's Remorse?

Now that the facts on the ground in Iraq have been incontrovertably revealed for the disaster that it is, what's a poor neocon to do? Bascally head for the exits as fast as possible, leaving BushCo to stand alone in the midst of the wreakage. How fascinating. The loudest, most intellectually compelling cheerleaders for this International Katrina have now exited with all the grace and aplomb of a chimpanzee on roller skates. What's especiallty stunning is how personal its all become. Even the most hardcore of the neocons is now castigating the Last Crusader, Dead-Eye Dick, Rummy von Doom, and of course, Madame Mendacity in terms that would have been unimagineable 6 months ago. Would-be triumphalist Oracles such Nial Ferguson, Richard Perle, Ken Adelman, David Frum, Bill Kritsol, and the whole bunch are now cringing Cassandras pulling out their hair while decrying nightmare end of Western civilzation scenarios. Words such as incompetence, dysfunctional, delusional, sychophantic, and bubbled, are now forefront in their public pronouncements.

To wit: Michael Leeden of the AEI: "Ask yourself who the most powerful people in the White House are. They are women who are in love with the president: Laura [Bush], Condi, Harriet Miers, and Karen Hughes." Bush as momma's boy. There's an interesting view of the Swaggerin Sarsaparila Kid.

Or better, from the Prince of Darkness (Richard Perle) himself: "In the administration that I served [he was an assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan], there was a one-sentence description of the decision-making process when consensus could not be reached among disputatious departments: 'The president makes the decision.' [Bush] did not make decisions, in part because the machinery of government that he nominally ran was actually running him. The National Security Council was not serving [Bush] properly. He regarded [then National-Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice] as part of the family."

Adelman himself points to what was the watershed moment for the disillusionment of the neocons: "The most dispiriting and awful moment of the whole administration was the day that Bush gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former C.I.A. director George Tenet, General Tommy Franks, and Coalition Provisional Authority chief Jerry [Paul] Bremer—three of the most incompetent people who've ever served in such key spots. And they get the highest civilian honor a president can bestow on anyone! That was the day I checked out of this administration. It was then I thought, There's no seriousness here, these are not serious people. If he had been serious, the president would have realized that those three are each directly responsible for the disaster of Iraq." Of course I remember this same Ken Adelmen responding with joy on the Sunday talk shows when it was announced that "Jerry" Bremmer was going to be pro-consul for Iraq over the body of Jay Garner. Well so be it. Memory is a funny thing when you're an armchair quarterback eh Kenny boy? Hard to remember which calls you actually made vs. which ones you did in hindsight..

So this is the way their world ends - not just with a bang but whimper too. As Samual Taylor Coleridge said "Experience informs us that the first defence of weak minds is to recriminate." And so we have it - the last "intellectual" gasp of the political Right of the 20th century - spreading morality and virtue through the barrel of a gun - is snuffed out by the Heckuva Job Mayberry Machiavellis in the sands of Iraq. And with the religious Right in total disarray - read Ted Haggard, Mark Foley - might we finally be seeing a severe diminishing of the Right in US politics? Not likely - remember Richard Perle is actually a registered democrat. And with such feckless Dems as Hilary and Joe Lieberman running around, I'd expect the neocons to regroup and wait for the next full moon....sadly, the Fat Lady hasn't sung yet and somebody will have to answer the question: "Who lost Iraq?" and it won't be the neocons doing the answering.