archived: 13 - 19 Nov, 2005 Back Next
WEIGHING IN
[Authored by
a self-described "recovering 'moderate Republican' in his 70s]
Junkie: The piece that appears below is from an email exchange between two contemporaries. “Recovering Republican” received an email from his contemporary that Pres. Clinton’s tryst was more serious and damaging than Scooter Libby’s “outing” of Valerie Plame. The contemporary concluded that Democrats should “get over it” because “that is how the game is played.”
“Recovering Republican’s” response is excellent on two points. First, he succinctly captures the importance of the Plame outing. Second, in a few short paragraphs he outlines the crucial political battle being waged over constitutional democracy.
And, “Recovering Republican” should remind us all again that there are people of good will who are waging a daily fight to counter the terrible forces radical neoconservatism that have been set in motion. So long as there are people of good will, the fight for constitutional democracy can be won.
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Weighing in . . . (or is it "wading" as into a tank of alligators?) . . .
Those last words of Bob -- "Get over it" and "How the game is played" -- bothered me enough to make me grab the mouse.
Yukk. Perhaps my gravest error all these years has been holding on to the idealism engendered at a college on a hill in New Hampshire almost a half-century ago. All those "Great Issues" discussions and dorm bull sessions raised my hopes that Humankind can move past the Cro Magnon tactics of bully, lie, grab, punch, steal, aggrandize, pillage, burn, smear, etc.
We have in fact seen glimmers of hope for resolving "hopeless problems," as in South Africa (thanks to Bishop Tutu), and Northern Ireland (thanks to lots of people including the much reviled Bill Clinton). These past few weeks my gorge has risen so many times due to Republican shenanigans that I may need a gorge-ectomy. The whole sordid business of "outing" a sworn agent of our secret intelligence services, to smear her husband for telling truth. Now, the unspeakably noisome, sickening, shameful business of secret prisons around the globe. Not forgetting the cronyism and mind-bending FEMA incompetence that led to the death and suffering of so many Americans without water, sanitation, nutrition, or even baseline official compassion in the aftermath of Katrina. (Why have the words "criminal negligence" or even "manslaughter" not been heard regarding this blatant dereliction of duty?)
So no, I cannot "get over it." Nor should we, as Americans. My Dad did not go off to fight in France in WWI to defend this sort of treachery and McCarthy-like smearing of honorable people.
The self-serving, in-your-face behavior of this administration has reached such disgusting limits. It is just not conceivable to me that the Veep wasn't at the hub of information if not the actual "source" for Robert Novak's cowardly form of gotcha journalism. Are we to believe that Scooter, Rove and Cheney could be riding on the same airplane without having intense conversations that led to the crime for which the Scooterman may fall on his sword?
Would you not think at President should have the interests of "All The People" at heart? Not just members of inner-sanctii like those Rangers who got fancy cowboy belts for raising $100K or more to re-elect Bush? And their ilk.
Can't quit this outburst without mentioning the amazing propensity of ultra conservatives & bible pounding preacher men for hypocrisy when it comes to extramarital fooling around. Now we learn that Scooter wrote a scatological novel that a British reviewer, quoted in the New Yorker, wrote: “That’s a bit depraved, isn’t it, this kind of thing about bears and young girls? That’s particularly nasty, and the other ones are just boring,” she said. “God, they’re an odd bunch, these Republicans.” Unlike their American counterparts, she said, Tories haven’t taken much to sex writing. “They usually just get caught,” she said.
Last Update: 03/23/2006