Letters to the Editor
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Greg Palast in LA Times
In comparison to what Glenn Greenwald serves up on a daily basis, Greg Palast's op-ed in today's LA Times comes off a bit gentle, toothless. Maybe that's why it made it into the Times. Still, it's good to see more journalists willing to speak up about the criminal laziness and timidity of our corporate national media.
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Viability
Sorry, I know my typing sucks and my proofreading is worse.
Washington is a pretty cynical town, and one of the issues that is beginning to bite the White House and the Republicans on the ass is viability, or to put it another way, the desire of inhabitants of the DC scene to preserve their viability. The French have perhaps a better word, ministrable, which essentially means someone who can be appointed to a ministry, a patronage job, someone who will not so to speak, scare the horses or cause outrage.
Mitterand is often described having managed to preserve his status as being ministrable despite all sorts of mishaps in his career (e.g., working for Vichy), mainly because he knew when to jump ship. The reason this is interesting is a column I read in a British Newspaper today that described the misfortunes of the Neocons, I think it was the Financial Times, that described how numerous neocons are well, not doing well, and how Douglas Feith's inability to even find a good think tank perch.
What is beginning to be visible is a growing sense that the Republicans have not just lost the Hill for two years, bit maybe for much longer, and that certainly the Texas bible-belt types and the Neocons are going to be toxic for years, if not decades. What this means is that those that want to be ministrable are jumping ship, and you see this with every story from senior hill staffers, or political appointee who finds something to investigate.
Bipartisanship in DC was always a self-preservation tactic, people made sure they had friends in both camps in case there was a power shift. One of the tactics of the Republicans since 1994 was to thow out bipartisanship and say they would have a permanent majority -- and if, as a Republican, you believed this why show any bipartisan tendencies . Instead, tell the lobbying firms to fire their democrats (i.e., the K-Street Project) and run rabid. Now suddenly, the Republican majority is evaporating.
So the rats are abandoning the ship, and on the way they are trying to show that they now "get" bipartisanship. Lets encourage them
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Paul R.: There is no downside
to holding Rush accountable.
wrt your comment: http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/28/sea_change/permalink/bfc4ce810e367779bd5f85c45e76c5cc.html
Perhaps the seed of it is in his complaints after the last election... about the burden of carrying the water for the administration/party when they were so incompetent.
The meme: He's determined to support these incompetent losers for whom he has no respect, no matter the cost.
No matter what he does/says could be labeled as his way of helping BushCo and the GOP. Even (especially) his racist and misogynistic remarks. He says them because they can't, and so they won't have to.
Or is that being too much like the other side? I'm inclined to say no, because in his case, I'm not sure that it isn't the truth.
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Impeachment
There is indeed a sea change and it's happening in lots of places. Check todays NY Times; Bush can't even count on the Saudis to back him up any more. The wheels are coming off -- not just one wheel, all of them.
Bush and Cheney are rats. Increasingly they are going to be cornered rats. A cornered rat is dangerous. I don't think there's anything Cheney wouldn't do. They both need to be taken out of power.
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A Hope for Change.
Right on.
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Jumping ship
MacK, I've said it here before, but perhaps it bears repeating. I witnessed a similar tipping point during the Viet Nam era. When opinions began to shift, it was scarcely apparent. We went on doing what we thought we had to do as an embattled minority, without noticing that the country was moving around us.
It wasn't just the young couples with baby-carriages at peace rallies, or the hair on news anchors gradually creeping down over their ears which finally brought the change to our attention; it was also previously unthinkable phenomena like Walter Cronkite's prime-time misgivings, major newspaper descriptions of what happened in Chicago in 1968 as a police riot, the surprising success of Eugene McCarthy's campaign, and last, but not least, the photograph of a soldier in Hue, I think it was, with LBJ Hired Gun painted on the back of his helmet.
Before we even knew what was happening, we were mainstream. Heady days. Unbeknownst to us, of course, Nixon was already in the process of metastisizing into Nixon's golem (h/t Paul R.) and the new concensus was eventually strangled in its crib.
For what it's worth, I don't think that will happen this time around. Reality is far harsher now, and our shooterite apologists far more ignorant. In my judgment, the tipping point may well have already occurred, but as was the case then, it will probably be a while before we'll feel safe enough to do more than whisper the signs back and forth among ourselves.
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@ Tiberius…
you are so right – “9/11 part two is on the way and our enemies will just wait for the appeasers to take control.”
If the appeasers take control (they just might) then watch out because everywhere you go there could be a terrorist lying in wait to blow you to smithereens. Look, there’s one over there – quick, kill him. There’s another – kill him too. They are everywhere Tiberius now that the APPEASERS ARE IN CONTROL! There is a good chance that they might be around every corner for the rest of your life. You will never, ever, ever be safe!!!
Hey, here’s a thought! Why don’t you enlist tomorrow – we need you over in Iraq - maybe you can kill a few thousand innocent Iraqis before they come here! Go get them Tiberius – we are all right behind you all the way!!!! Wait, what’s that I hear - you are too old to enlist? No, it’s flat feet - gosh, that’s too bad. I know you would love to get right in there and kill, kill, kill those terrorists. Hey, you could send your son or your wife to protect you? Oh, sorry! – no son, no wife. How about a brother in law – maybe he can do your killing for you –no problem now! God Bless America and George W. Bush (with honorable mention to Richard Cheney) – we are all saved!!!!
Offered tongue in cheek – no, really Tiberius, it was tongue in cheek!