Spinning into a Death Spiral

The bell isn't tolling for Team Bush--yet--but the elections yesterday can't be seen as good news for the 'nuts...well, except for Kansas' insisting on a 19th century educuation policy for teaching biology (maybe they'll abandon mechanized agriculture too)...and, as you might expect, Texans refuted Gunnery Sergeant Hartman's assertion that only steers and queers reside in the Lone Star State--at least when it comes to gettin' hitched.

Shrub and Company can take small solace with the elections stealing the spotlight, however fleetingly, from the REAL problems the administration faces as it lurches towards next year's midterm judgement. And if things continue along the same path, "the failed Bush presidency" might be putting it a little too politely.

As I noted yesterday, the GOP is of late on a tail chasing mission, with DeLay in the docket, Frist soon to follow, Trent Lott admitting it was probably a fellow party member who opened his trap and revealed the administration's secret love of Soviet style "jurisprudence"...and there's still the matter of the Fitzgerald investigation, which already has Scooter worried about who might be his cellmate ("please, nobody nicknamed 'Tiny'"). It's a real pressure cooker.

When the heat's on, and the steam's rising, character reveals itself--people revert to their natural comfort zone. With Team Bush, we're seeing a two-fold strategery: the usual slash and slime...but also a sort of frat-boy defense--a combination of "everybody does it..." (i.e., snorted coke, whored around, thought Saddam was a threat--even Clenis--and "the intel fooled the Democrats too"), along with an equally lame "assumption of innocence/can't prove beyond all doubt" mantra I've been seeing on cable TV here and there.

Well, bullshit is bullshit, and this spin is bullshit too. GOP'ers might think they can, by sheer volume, pass this off as a reasonable defense, but the elections demonstrate the public is growing weary of their snake-oil...and the Democrats might want to turn up the heat even more.

The issue ISN'T whether or not Scooter, Ari, Rover, Big Dick, or Little Lord Shrubleroy, etc. can beat the rap--though 'nut spinmeisters now act as if that's the only thing that matters. The issue is the moral bankruptcy: taking what everyone now KNOWS were VERY IFFY intel reports coming from Langley and acting as if they were carved in stone by the almighty--then playing a combination of "gee, we were ALL fooled" and slash/slime when everything fell apart...which is virtually GUARANTEED to happen when you're dealing with such a degree of unknowns.

My own thoughts are that the agency most likely produced any number of best and worse case assessments of the Hussein regime--Big Dick, being dissatisfied, pressed for even more worst case reports--but all of them probably made at least some mention, if not heavy emphasis, on the uncertainty of the data. However, being classified, Team Bush was able to cherry-pick here and there, and push their own case based on selective reading and dissemination...in some cases, going over the edge (i.e., seeking uranium from Africa--of course, that could be pawned off to "the British government"). When called on their bullshit by one Joe Wilson, Team Bush engaged in their usual sliming...unfortunately forgetting that national security assets are protected.

And that's both the nub of the case, and the essence of this administration itself...supposedly concerned with the security of the nation, they flat out LIE when it comes to intelligence matters, and have ZERO COMPUNCTION about outing a damned NOC dealing with...anti-proliferation issues, for chrissakes!

If I was a Democrat (I'm registered independent--small "i")--and if I was on TV with one or another GOP spinster, I'd hammer this point home over and over again: it doesn't matter one goddamned bit whether or not Scooter or ANYONE walks. Hell, O.J. was found "not guilty" but it's not like he's announcing football games on NBC. The point is that Team Bush flat-out LIED to get their war, and flat-out undercut the national security of this country by revealing state secrets.

We don't need a trial to know that. Case closed.