Reality Gulf

The Republican Reality Gap is becoming a Reality Gulf. When it comes to the Bush Administration, it is becoming hard to imagine any decision bad enough, any crony incompetent enough, any ethical violation egregious enough for Republican politicians or pundits to place the responsibility where it belongs, on President Bush. If the President were caught on live television putting his foot out and tripping a little old lady, his supporters seem likely to characterize the footage in familiar terms: it was a politically motivated fabrication, it was taken out of context, we can’t comment because it was part of an ongoing investigation, he was trying to keep her from going the wrong way, she was an Al Qaeda operative, Bill Clinton tripped old ladies all the time, and so on.

It’s becoming beyond comical watching them try to justify the slow-motion train-wreck of the Katrina response, which will doubtless continue to generate stories like “KBR contract rigged” or “FEMA red tape nightmare” or “Rove questions ethics of first responders.” The hurricane has changed nothing about how this Administration does business, but it has altered our awareness of how this Administration does business. And the indictment of Tom DeLay, coinciding with that awareness, is yet another nail in the political coffin of President Bush.

DeLay seems to embody exactly what Americans are coming to dislike about our so-called leaders. He is beholden to big business, he has a callous demeanor and a reputation for bullying, and he will do anything to get his way, including things that may or may not square with the letter of the law.

Bush now has a DeLay problem, a Frist problem, a potential Rove problem, a bin Laden problem, a massive deficit problem, a cronyism problem, an Iraq problem, an oil problem, a consumer confidence problem and a leadership problem. These are not coincidences, but flow from his genuine ineptitude. I’m sure he’s a great guy to golf with, and can probably tell a lot of filthy jokes. But he has always been out of his depth as president. His writers have written great things for him to say, but, as an individual, he has no credible vision, no awareness of the world around him and seems incapable of putting together a cabinet skilled at anything more than getting him elected by writing great things for him to say. Jetting around and shaking hands with Katrina victims won't undo the damage. His words and actions simply don’t match, and with so many pillars of his Administration crumbling around his ankles, many now see clearly that the emperor has no clothes.

Yet his supporters insist that his clothes are magnificent. The gap between their increasingly histrionic support and the reality exposed by Katrina, Delay and other disasters is becoming as wide as the Gulf of Mexico.

Protest is Patriotic - DUH!

I support our troops, especially those in the Middle East. A Colonel commanding troops in Iraq is a college classmate of mine, and one of the finest guys you will ever meet. Our troops are dedicated, capable and courageous, and risk their lives implementing our nation’s policies and preserving our right to criticize our leaders. Unfortunately, through the arrogance, misguided idealism and poor judgment of the Bush administration, our troops have been placed in a horrific situation in Iraq, part of an ill conceived exercise in nation-building. It is my admiration for the troops and my compassion for their sacrifice that compels me to speak out against the string of bad decisions and failed policies that got our nation embroiled in Iraq.

On Saturday, thousands of Americans marched on Washington to protest the same failures of the Bush strategy, and to continue to pressure the administration to articulate specific conditions for withdrawal from Iraq. Some protesters wanted immediate withdrawal, while others wanted a gradual draw-down. But all believed that the Executive Branch has failed us, and failed our soldiers.

Yet some of our nation’s leaders cannot acknowledge, nor perhaps comprehend, that the President can make grave and unforgivable mistakes. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama spoke Sunday at a counter-rally that drew only four-hundred protesters. They described themselves as pro-troop, but their rhetoric was pro-war, not that the first requires the second. Sessions told them, "The group who spoke here the other day did not represent the American ideals of freedom, liberty and spreading that around the world. I frankly don't know what they represent, other than to blame America first.''

Sessions’ statement was absurd, the worst kind of corrosive and deceptive rhetoric.

Both groups of protesters were exercising the precise liberty Sessions references. Unlike tyrannical social systems like Communism, our citizens are free to speak out against the ineptitude of our leaders, to provide the ultimate check on power. When will Republicans admit that criticism is the ultimate form of patriotism? After all, when Republicans were out of power they spent most of their time criticizing, and it made for a better America then, too. Running out of justifications for the mistakes of the Bush team, they have no choice now but to bad-mouth the Bush critics.

Bill Moyers, hated by conservatives because he so capably describes their shortcomings, spoke at Union Theological Seminary recently about terrorists:

“They win only if we let them, only if we become like them: vengeful, imperious, intolerant, paranoid. Having lost faith in all else, zealots have nothing left but a holy cause to please a warrior God. They win if we become holy warriors, too; if we kill the innocent as they do; strike first at those who had not struck us; allow our leaders to use the fear of terrorism to make us afraid of the truth; cease to think and reason together, allowing others to tell what's in God's mind. Yes, we are vulnerable to terrorists, but only a shaken faith in ourselves can do us in.”

By his measure, the terrorists have been winning. Our nation has become more vengeful, and many so-called Christians have become increasingly intolerant, their leaders certain they know the mind of God. We have killed many innocents in our effort to force democracy on Iraq. Our President has become more imperious and his administration more paranoid, using fear to bully us into keeping quiet about his failures. Calling protesters “un-American” is a form of bullying. And remember those regular terror warnings that suddenly stopped after the ’04 election?

A recent article by the Associated Press detailed how US Navy jets were secretly conscripted to fly our prisoners to places like Egypt to be tortured. I’ve yet to hear any compelling rationale for this unjust and immoral policy. It is disgraceful and against everything our great nation says it stands for. Our President and Senator Sessions apparently hope this kind of shameful news will just go away.

But thanks to patriotic Americans, the spotlight remains on the vast and growing catalog of misjudgments, ethical lapses, mistakes, bad policies and dirty dealings of our Executive Branch.

Bushness As Usual

Anyone expecting the Katrina disaster to turn President Bush in a new direction is bound for disappointment. Bush is applying the same strategy for mismanagement and failure he has relied on in the past, putting Karl Rove in charge of the Gulf Coast reconstruction, a man who is one filing away from indictment, has no disaster recovery experience and who can be fairly described as one of the most partisan, divisive, mean-spirited, underhanded political operatives in a generation. As Bill Maher puts it, “Doesn’t the President know more than three people?” Rove is already enlisting his usual cronies, including fraud-convicted Haliburton, likely turning the reconstruction into another pork-barrel windfall for Republican CEOs and country club buddies.

Regarding the massive reconstruction tab, Bush is taking tax increases off the table. As a person who dislikes and distrusts government, low taxes are sacred to the President, though he has no problem spending a lot more than the government takes in. More importantly, Bush would have no campaign promise left to stand on were he to raise taxes, opening his party to criticism in the next election cycle. So he is planning to borrow the money, adding it to the enormous mountain of Iraq-war debt piling up. Our children will be footing the bill with interest, and they don’t vote yet. By the time they do, maybe Bush and his party will have gotten lucky.

As the saying goes, better lucky than good. And since the Bush Administration has proved itself so inept, so beholden to big business, so habituated to cronyism, so blinded by arrogance and so poor in decision making, luck is all they have left to hope for.

Trojan Horse Twins

We will find no more eloquent, bright-eyed, pleasant nominee for the Supreme Court than John Roberts. Unlike President Bush, he speaks clearly and easily and demonstrates a towering intellect. But he and Dubya have much in common.

When George Bush ran for President in 2000, he cast himself as a moderate, ensuring voters that he stood at the center of most issues. He wanted to be a uniter, not a divider. He rarely answered any question in depth, and based his appeal on a warm smile and a pleasant demeanor--the beer buddy candidate. And it worked. People believed him and voted for him.

Five years later, we know that he misled us, that the person he claimed to be was a lie. He turned out to be a radical, and his manipulative, spiteful team had a radical agenda. It took the public a long time, distracted by 9-11, to see clearly the vast chasm between the Bush rhetoric and the Bush agenda. Not only was he a divider, but the core of his Rove-spun election strategy depended on division! He claimed to represent regular Americans, but spent most of his energy assisting the wealthy and handing out favors to incompetent cronies. He and his team made inexcusable blunders, and promoted those most responsible.

Further, Bush has presided over the most secretive, paranoid administration since Nixon, and seems incapable of answering spontaneous or critical questions without turning red-faced and fumbling his words. Recently, while taking partial responsibility for the Katrina-response failure, he avoided the cameras, turning back and forth as though his skin were on fire. Clearly, his handlers forced him to say something he didn't really believe. And shortly thereafter, his address to the United Nations came with the most rageful, angry, smirking smile I have seen him give. But no matter how he tries to smile or dodge or pretend to be sorry, his poll numbers show that the public no longer buys his spin.

So who does he nominate for the Supreme Court? Another good-time smiling man, John Roberts. Not a single Senator could get him to admit to a feeling, much less an opinion. And he was carefully coached in how to avoid saying anything that might reveal his thoughts on Roe, eminent domain, or the scope of Federal power. The character witnesses that followed his testimony fell into two camps. Detractors, who criticized his track record, and Supporters, who could only praise his personality.

Like Bush, Roberts is a Trojan Horse nominee. He looks great, has a warm smile, and seems a nice guy, someone you would want to have a beer with. He claims to have no agenda, no ideology, but this is a dishonest, semantic dodge. He has clearly formed opinions on the scope of Federal power, the propriety of Roe and the legitimacy of civil rights legislation. And yet he refuses to share those opinions. He wants us to believe he can ignore them, that he can be perfectly, saintly impartial.

But Roberts doesn’t want to share his opinions because he might become the next Robert Bork, rejected by offended Senators. Once on the court, the real Roberts will emerge from behind the carefully crafted deception and reveal himself for a Radical Right Conservative. His notions of the scope of Federal power are tantamount to an agenda, an ideology, and they were reflected in his prior writings, writings he categorically disavowed as reflections of the policies of his bosses. Sadly, we will be hearing his opinions when he becomes Chief Justice and begins turning back the clock. His deceptive cloak fits perfectly with the rest of the Bush Presidency. One big lie.

The Riddle of Roberts

Senate hearings to confirm nominee John Roberts to the Supreme Court got underway today, and several things became quickly clear. John Roberts was a relaxed, affable, knowledgeable man who thought quickly and spoke with great articulation. He also did everything possible to avoid direct or substantive answers to questions, and was determined to cast most of his prior writings as reflections of the views of his employers, not necessarily views of his own.

Despite writings that suggested strongly held views on a number of legal issues, Roberts claimed that his writings were merely an approximation of the views of his bosses. And when asked whether a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the broader right to privacy, Roberts dodged the issue, claiming he was not comfortable talking about an issue that is pending or may be addressed by the court in the future.

The American public should be worried about his responses, as they guarantee that we will know very little about the actual views or thinking of this man, and will end up confirming him not because of where he stands, but merely how he stands. Given his background and those who nominated him, it is highly likely that his desire to avoid delineating his views implies that he has things to hide, things that would jeopardize his chances were they to come to light. Clearly, he is intent on giving less information to the Senate than any justice already on the court.

Do the American people deserve to have a rough idea of his views, or should we be satisfied that a black box will be confirmed as Chief Justice, to serve for perhaps the next thirty or forty years? Suppose, in his heart, he believes that the states should be allowed to pass laws that prohibit abortion if the majority of residents wish it. Suppose he believes that the right to privacy does not extend to the bedroom. Suppose he believes that prayer should be mandatory in public schools. It looks like we won’t know until he starts deciding cases.

But hey, John Roberts has big blue eyes and a nice smile, so let’s go ahead and roll the dice. It’s only the second most powerful job in America after the Presidency.

Get Real, Huckabee

Arkansas Governor Huckabee spoke recently at the Strafford County Republican Picnic in New Hampshire, and gave a rambling account of why he is a Republican. He claims that his choice was motivated by a desire to join a party that had room for everyone. It sounded like a wonderful rationale, but how could it possibly be true?

Over the last forty years, with small but notable exception, the Republicans have been the clear party-of-choice for bigots, racists, supremacists and klansmen. At least until the second Bush became President, the national voices of hatred, intolerance, rage or bitterness were usually Republican. Turn on the radio in any city and you would find raging conservatives spewing rancorous venom on anyone who would listen.

Several years ago I heard one such hate-spewer declare that there were no liberal talk show hosts because the liberals didn’t have any good ideas! But he was wrong. The truth was, when a conservative said something incendiary in a public forum, he got angry letters from liberals. But when a liberal said something incendiary in a public forum, he got killed. Overly dramatic? Not when you remember Alan Berg, the original shock-jock and basis for the movie Talk Radio, who was gunned down outside his Denver station by a white supremacist. Consider all the other prominent people assassinated over the years. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and of course, Abraham Lincoln. All liberals.

Yes, violence stifles dissent, and the Republican Party has long been associated with violence. Want to get hate mail and death threats? Write a column opposing gun control and the NRA. And who does the NRA control? The Republican Party. Why do so many (mostly white) members of the NRA abhor any attempt to limit or regulate guns? Because they are increasingly terrified that their mostly-white world will someday be taken over by darker-skinned people, especially African Americans. Don’t believe it? Then explain why conservatives have supported laws against mixed-race marriages, affirmative action and immigration, and supported laws requiring poll taxes. Explain why Confederate Flags are still displayed everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line. When southerners defend the flag as a symbol of the “lost southern way of life,” what could they possibly be referring to other than the loss of slavery? Of course, these are Red States.

Despite several prominent cabinet members of the Bush Administration, the core of the Republican Party is vastly white, and has a history of intolerance, exclusivity and anger. Pointing this out entails some risk, which is why it is seldom addressed directly. There are certainly scores of wonderful Republicans, but they need to get honest about the history and composition of their party. When Governor Huckabee says he wanted to join a party that had room for everyone, it sounds like the same hollow nonsense his party has been saying about a lot of things lately.

Blame Game Baloney

The conservative spin-meister’s latest linguistic creation, "the blame game", has most of America laughing. Are the conservatives kidding?

After years of misjudgments, bad calls, smear campaigns, cronyism, corporate pork, fiscal recklessness and outright lies, the question becomes: under what scenario should Americans criticize and hold accountable their leaders? For conservatives, the answer is none.

Because their politicians are ostensibly guided by Christ, they may believe themselves incapable of error, much less enormous blunders. But in reality, from the beginning, Bush and his administration have been desperate to deny, quash or smear any dissenter because their political house is made of cards. When a house is brick-solid, the removal of a single brick has little bearing on the structural integrity of the whole. And when an administration is solid, it can afford to remove or admonish operatives who make bad decisions or simply screw up. But when a house is made of cards, one little change and the whole thing comes tumbling down. In the case of Bush, taking responsibility for any imperfection becomes impossible because the deception and imperfection run all the way to their shaky core.

There has never been anything honest, capable or virtuous about the Bush crew, and they know it. Their chief strategist, Karl Rove, is the dirtiest, sleaziest, back stabbing, scheming, smearing, cynical, take-no-prisoner, ends-justify-the-means scumbag in a generation. And that’s just the beginning. The improprieties, favoritism and conflicts of interest are so vast that an observer is forced into one of two radically different camps. One, that no administration could be this bad, and any critic of it must therefore be an unpatriotic liar. Or two, that this is the most inept, clueless, arrogant, deceitful, vindictive, manipulative administration since Nixon, maybe ever. Recently, the second camp has been swelling while the first camp has become increasingly shrill.

Take President Bush’s recent speeches concerning Katrina. Clearly rattled by the hurricane of criticism that followed, he has been slurring his words, upper lip twitching, jaw grinding back and forth, looking almost cross-eyed. The media finally grew enough backbone to hold his feet to the fire for the failure of FEMA to properly respond, and the ensuing orgy of investigation confirmed that Brown, like so many Bush appointees, was a no-talent hack whose job was a reward for loyalty, for fund raising, or simply a paid-back favor.

At this point, watching a conservative try to defend Bush is like watching an object lesson in self deception, denial, tortured logic and outright nonsense.

When politicians don’t want to play the blame game it is because they are to blame.

Government For Sale

FEMA director Michael Brown, or Brownie, as President Bush calls him, claimed to Ted Koppel on Nightline that, despite reporters on the scene and hours of TV coverage, his office wasn’t factually aware of the thousands of people stranded in the New Orleans convention center until four days after hurricane Katrina had passed. Which indicated Brown was either lying or grossly incompetent or both. How long before he gets a promotion or a medal?

The failure of government embodied by FEMA likely caused many fatalities in the wake of the storm, and further illuminated what many have come to understand well in the last five years; that the Bush Administration is more interested in giving patronage jobs to loyalists and rewarding corporate sponsors than in staffing federal agencies with competent people. Before heading FEMA, Brown ran the International Arabian Horse Association, from which he was fired. If it weren’t so disgraceful it would be comical.

By now, anyone who doesn’t appreciate the Republican-led orgy of pork and cronyism on Capitol Hill is either dead or has “special needs.” We’ve seen no-bid contracts go to fraud perpetrators like Haliburton, promotions for wrong-headed staffers like torture-czar Alberto Gonzalez, top jobs in the EPA for oil industry lobbyists, homeland security disbursements to states based on population instead of risk (thus favoring red states), and budget bills stuffed with mega-million-dollar bridges to nowhere. What more proof do we need that our government is for sale?

While our so-called leaders talk about morals and values, they pillage our federal treasury by channeling funds to the businesses of their golf buddies back home and jobs to their former college roommates in Washington. Meanwhile, in the face of tragedy, we confront the cold fact that “the greatest country on earth” has large pockets of third-world poverty and federal agencies whose stated missions are beyond the abilities of the people who staff them.

The Republican party is run by and for affluent country-club types, yet they brilliantly convince the poor and working class to vote for them. But Katrina has exposed the rot at the core of our Republican-run government. Too bad the price of that exposure is so painfully, fatally high.

Disaster Disgrace

How big a disgrace? Let us count the ways.

First, we saw Katrina coming. Both the actual storm, days before, and the virtual storm, years before. We knew this could happen, and yet did little to prepare for its eventuality. We saw Katrina approaching, and yet how many buses, troops and supplies were readied before it hit? Why weren’t armies of relief workers and guardsmen waiting on the margins, ready to swoop in? Emergency preparedness? What a joke, and an absolute failure of government.

Second, the President got on television immediately afterward and gave a speech so ridiculous as to be surreal. In typical “deny-bad-news” fashion, he glossed over the severity of the tragedy and spent his time mouthing simplistic drivel. We will rebuild. The people are tough. These are heroes. Gonna get past this. Help is on the way. Life goes on. If we let this disrupt our lives, the terrorists have won.

He should have said: “This is an urgent national emergency. I call upon every citizen to pitch in and help in any way they can. The situation is dire. Every minute counts. We are failing the victims. We can’t rest until every victim, every stranded person, is found, housed and properly cared for. The local responders and national guard have no excuse for not being on the ground within a day of this tragedy. We are obligated to pursue a thorough investigation of this mess when the situation is under control.” Days later, the best he could say was that the situation was “unacceptable.” How pathetic.

Unfortunately, President Bush lacks the intellect and leadership skill to understand what a situation like this calls for. In fact, he stated “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees…”, which was either an outright lie or an indication that he is just plain stupid. People--scientists, engineers, urban planners, local officials--have anticipated a breach of the levees for years, and have apparently done little to protect the citizens of New Orleans from that risk. But Bush is incapable of acknowledging the incompetence, misjudgment or failure of anyone remotely associated with power, particularly conservative power, and unable to speak truthfully about the severity of any situation that doesn’t smell like a rose. Why? Because his Presidency is so insecure and brittle that any acknowledgement of hardship, trouble or mistake might confirm what many suspect. That his administration is utterly inept.

Finally, we should not forget that Bush and his war-bound cronies gutted FEMA and turned it into a shell of its old self. Like so many other agencies, current and former workers have been complaining for several years about the degradation of FEMA by the Bush crew, claiming it was treated like an unwanted stepchild, sidelined and ignored, its top managers forced to depart for greener pastures. And now we have grim evidence of the veracity of their claims.

Every American should now wonder how prepared we really are for future calamities and terrorist incidents, and hold our elected leaders accountable for this botched response, which has clearly cost many lives and untold suffering. We should also wonder when we will stop spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to fix the rest of the world and fix ourselves.