There is something pathological about the monochromatic world movement conservatives seem to need. Jon Stewart's line about how the the Republican mind is composed, not of gray matter, but black and white matter, is too true to be funny. And so I think we can now expect Bush's numbers to fall even further as the past is re-written. In six months it will be hard to find anyone who ever voted for him.

But this transparently absurd revision will likely succeed, for the reasons you have been hammering on for some time -- the sycophancy of the beltway media. it does not matter that "we have always been at war with Eurasia" claims are as easily debunked as you have shown. And unlike in Orwell's dystopia, erasing history will not be necessary. The newspapers of record will dutifully transcribe. The pundit class will not acknowledge the sleight. So-called liberals like Richard Cohen will provide them cover, as Jonah Goldberg gratefully notes. And fact-checking will remain as foreign as Fellini.

The other thing that struck me is the way in which he premises his warmongering on manifestly absurd claims. Here's what he said, in the course of stepping up his efforts on behalf of the body bag industry:

"Iraq is now the main front in the long war we are fighting against the Islamist terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. In fact 90% of the suicide bombers in Iraq today killing Iraqis and American soldiers are foreign Al Qaeda fighters. Iran is training and equipping soldiers, Iraqis, to come in and kill American soldiers and Iraqis," said Lieberman.

With just a little bit of contextual elucidation, the incoherence of this logorrhea is evident:

"(Shia-majority)Iraq is now the main front in the long war we are fighting against the (Sunni) Islamist terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. In fact 90% of the suicide bombers in Iraq today killing Iraqis and American soldiers are foreign (Sunni) Al Qaeda fighters. (Shia) Iran is training and equipping soldiers, Iraqis, to come in and kill American soldiers and Iraqis," said Lieberman.

If you can tease a logically meaningful conclusion out of Lieberman's terminal case of the stupids, please share it with the rest of the class.

Where do the majority of suicide bombers actually come from? According to one prominent source, 70% come from .... U.S. ally and Sunni fundamentalist-dominated Saudi Arabia.

Noted intellectual Ronald Reagan once said that "facts are stubborn things." Alas, he seems to have been wrong. Stupid seems to be far more tenacious.

Paris Hilton serves as an example to the rabble and to the false gods of Hollywood. But putting Scooter's head on a pike makes the "legitimate" (in Klein's eyes) royalty uncomfortable, because it is aimed at them. If Scooter can go to the joint, why, half the people Joe shares cocktail weenies with could end up there! What is this world coming to!

I think the larger point is that we need to break the frame that allows Versailles to claim that Klein is a liberal. Like that other pseudo-Democratic contaminant Joe, and subject of yesterday's post, Klein totally undermines our cause because he claims opposition, yet wholeheartedly embraces the framing and talking points of the right wing. He thus allows the lazy media (that would be virtually all of them) to adopt that framing and those talking points as universally accepted reality. And he is held up by his Republican friends as an example of how to be a non-traitorous Democrat (i.e., a self-defeating, Republican-empowering wimp).

I'm convinced he will never have his "River Kwai" moment, at least not until someone else defeats his enablers. Helping the Japanese build their bridge is too socially and economically lucrative.

I caught a few minutes of NPR this morning. They had a piece about the presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee. What struck me was the brief interview with some woman Huckabee met on the campaign trail, who waxed rhapsodic about the man on the basis of ... his handshake. She could tell all she needed to know about a Presidential candidate from his handshake.

Where to begin?

The reporter didn't ask her, but I'll bet she voted at least once for Dubya. I'll lay odds that even now he gives better handshakes than John Kerry or Al Gore ever did.

We here in the lefty blogosphere are comfortable in the world of ideas, facts and substance. We parse and analyze what our candidates say and do; we compare policy positions and voting records.

I am sure the woman I heard on NPR does none of these things. She chooses her leader the same way dogs do; she looks at body language and posture, sniffs for fear, and seeks safety by submitting to dominance. The Republicans have understood this approach for decades, and have played that game while seemingly ignoring ours. We win the chess game, and wonder why the loser keeps knocking over the pieces and stealing our lunch money.

More here:

http://bluememe.blogspot.com/2007/06/government-we-deserve.html