This is all Bush derangement syndrome. Like Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman, George W. Bush is mocked and reviled by the mobs and the demagogues during the latter part of his term in office. As Jesus said, "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house". And President Bush will be seen in hindsight as a great Prophet, who set in motion the forces of freedom and prosperity both here in the US and throughout the world.

Karen M:

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.

No, I agree with you. It's not too much like the other side. For not just evidence, but in-depth analysis that it's true, see "Rush, Newspeak and Facism," the Koufax-winning series by David Neiwert, revised and compiled here:

http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php

A crucial core of the analysis presented is the role of transmitters--Limbaugh key among them--in transmitting hard-right memes into the mainstream political discourse.

As early as the day after 9/11 I realized that the Bush administration was going to take advantage of the catastrophy and use it as an excuse to invade Iraq. My only surprise was that it took them so long to do so. This single agenda item was probably on the current occupant's mind even when he was Governor of Texas. It certainly was on Cheney's mind and part of his plan. It has been from day one an unmitigated disaster that just keeps on giving.

The deception and lies that Bush and his cronies used to get us into this disaster and to ruin our reputation throughout the world as far as I'm concerned reaches the level of high crimes and misdemeanors....or felonies and treason if you will.

Tenet and Condi are equally responsible for our entry into this disaster. How dare he now write a book about it, coming out and blaming Cheney and how dare Condi refuse to testify before congress on the lies leading up to the war. These people worked and work for us. They might answer to G W but in a larger and greater sense they answer to us as well.

If I knew it was a scam...why didn't all the johnny come lately democratic reps and senators also know it? Throw all the bums out....bring our soldiers home....let's save some lives for a change. john higgins

It'll just be you and the rest of the 144,000 that reap the benefits of George Bush's God-like power. The rest of us, the 200 and some odd million of us that you call the mob (and demagogues) will surely tear our hair and beg your forgiveness for our Wrongs when the day of righteousness falls upon us like the Hammer of God. Then you'll be able to step forward and claim your share of the Crown of The Lord and all of us will stand back and gasp at the wonder and majesty that is nazalfibbr.

Lieberman doesn't agree with Harry Reid's characterization of the war and, like Broder, said so in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042502410_pf.html).

But, as a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus, Lieberman signed the letter, too. That makes it even more amazing.

Wow -- I wish I had the time to address every response and conversation in here. Glenn, my hat's off to you for keeping on top of these threads so well, I couldn't imagine.

Let me just say a couple things briefly. First, no one should misunderstand my comments as indicating I am in any way unaware of how much more work needs to be done before normalcy can ever return to this country. I'm not trying to blow sunshine up everyone's arse, just acknowledging that a very real trend has begun, which stands a very good chance of putting this country back on the path to recovery if voices of reason continue to stand up for what they believe.

Second, I acknowledge the plain reality that movements and counter-movements come and go, and the national mood swings slowly like a massive pendulum. So, of course, no matter how successfully we recover from the nightmare of the last several years, we will need to remain ever-vigilant against similar political and sociological diseases.

Third, everyone has a role to fill in this process. Some, like Glenn, will continue to be spotlights on the insanities and idiocies that continue to stand in the way of recovery. Others will help with elections and citizen activism. Others will help via their careers, professional, civil, scientific, and so on. The possibilities are literally endless, but no one should underestimate the impact their particular efforts can make.

So, please, whether you are a skeptic or an optimist, please, please do what you can to shine a candle (or a flood light) against the waning darkness.

See ya around.

But, as a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus, Lieberman signed the letter, too. That makes it even more amazing.

Amazing is one way of putting it. Totally unbelievable is another way.

There is no doubt at all a sea change is going on, and my ideological cohort, the Reason-magazine type, Hayekian libertarians is something of a canary in the political coalmine. For decades, since the 60s or so, we tended to overwhelmingly vote GOP. That began a decline in 2000, and we made a number of differences in the 20006 midterms, with the most significant percentage of us yet voting Democratic, including many high-profile libertarians such as (in)famous global warming skeptic Ron Bailey (who has for a few years now accepted the science is in on that, btw).

As Cato Institute's Executive vice president David Boaz (Cato is a big deal libertarian think tank) has co-written that the studies show the GOP is losing us (http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=121106B):

President Bush and the congressional Republicans left no libertarian button unpushed in the past six years: soaring spending, expansion of entitlements, federalization of education, cracking down on state medical marijuana initiatives, Sarbanes-Oxley, gay marriage bans, stem cell research restrictions, wiretapping, incarcerating U.S. citizens without a lawyer, unprecedented executive powers, and of course an unnecessary and apparently futile war. The striking thing may be that after all that, Democrats still looked worse to a majority of libertarians...

this was the year that New Hampshire and the Mountain West turned purple if not blue, and libertarians played a big role there. New Hampshire may be the most libertarian state in the country; this year both the state's Republican congressmen lost.

Meanwhile, in the Goldwateresque, "leave us alone" Mountain West, Republicans not only lost the Montana Senate seat; they also lost the governorship of Colorado, two House seats in Arizona, and one in Colorado.

Boaz identifies 15% of the electorate as being either self-identified libertarians, or fitting-the-profile of his (and my) kind of libertarianism. We used to abide very heavily in the GOP. That has been changing, and is now very much changed thanks to George W. Bush and the Elmer Gantrys who surround him in the party.

Finally, let me join the chorus comneding DCLAW1 for that elegant comment; this was especially rich:

An undeniable intellectual and social confluence is rapidly gaining momentum and solidarity. This solidarity is amazingly organic, not hierarchical -- its only guide is the sixth sense of skepticism, outrage, and, yes, reason.