Cool Bunny

“Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”  George Orwell


The Republicans are desperate.  Whatever the White House and Karl Rove may be saying about “THE numbers,” recent actions and their campaign mode right now speak far louder than mere words.  Anyway, words have always meant whatever it is this White House wants them to mean.  Actions are harder to hide (similar to consequences and the results of failed leadership).   Lurking on the horizon is the possibility that George Bush’s six year run is about to come to a crashing halt as the country takes a sharp turn to the center.   More than anything, public discomfort with the debacle progressively unfolding in Iraq is the reason this may happen.

In the past few weeks, the Bush administration has abandoned “stay the course” while making a big show of looking to the military and outside advisers for advice on Iraq.  They came up with a set of “milestones” to be met by the Iraqi government, though offered no hint of any consequences should those markers, like so many of the administration’s prior markers, fail to be met.   And in yet another indication of how vulnerable the Bush administration now is, the Iraqi government promptly disavowed the whole thing.   

Unfortunately, a change in marketing slogans or tinkering with tactics isn’t going to have any effect on the problems in Iraq.  It’s like deciding to use a glass instead of a cup to bail the Titanic.    The simple reality is that the news from Iraq isn’t good and hasn’t been good for some time now.  Sadly, the administration itself appears to be the last to hear the news.   Mr. Bush was clearly being honest when he once told reporters he never read the papers.

The president is out on the campaign trail, no doubt thrilled to at least be playing at running for office, even as most of his party runs away from him as fast as possible.   It is normal for a seated president to campaign on behalf of other party members in mid-term elections, but this year Mr. Bush has been relegated to cheerleading slots in long-time Republican base areas.  Mr. Bush’s campaign stops are all in heavily favored Republican districts.  He is preaching to, and reaching out for, the most solid of the Republican base.  It’s an act of desperation because it acknowledges that the president is mostly a liability these days.  The Republicans cannot hope to get independents on board, so they’re desperately trying to shore up their base.    

Mr. Bush is kept to safe venues and crowds, carefully selected to sustain whatever shreds of presidential stature he still has, while Laura hits the hustings in more competitive races.  With his approval ratings hovering below forty percent, no one but the hard-core party faithful want to see him.  The only remaining unanswered question of his presidency is how much of a lame duck he will be from now on.   His historical legacy is already determined, as we bleed ourselves in the stalemated sands of Iraq.

Down to the wire, the best the Republicans can throw at the opposition is the increasingly tired (and incredible) argument that electing the Democrats will mean losing the war on terror.  Unfortunately for Mr. Bush, that wouldn’t make us any worse off since we’re losing the war on terror now.   They can accuse John Kerry, a decorated combat veteran, of disrespecting “the troops,” but as Senator Kerry pointed out, the real disrespect is sending them into a war they were unprepared for, without the necessary equipment to fight that war, without a viable strategic plan for that war, and handling the occupation phase so ineptly that the situation today is worse than it was a year ago.....and far worse than it was in the immediate aftermath of our invasion of Iraq.     Leaving “the troops” to die for a failed “stay and pray” policy is the height of disrespect.   Who wants their child to be the last to die for a failed policy?   The point of Senator Kerry’s mangled joke was clear to anyone with half a brain, and hopefully most voters will recognize White House “outrage” for the desperate effort to change the subject that it is.    

Although predicting elections is always a dangerous gamble, a week out this one looks tilted toward the Democrats.  A lot can change in a week.  There could be a terrorist attack...there have been rumors of an al Qaeda attack planned to coincide with the election.   There could be a major terrorist alert, something that sets everyone’s nerves on edge and reminds us all who has allegedly prevented more attacks here at home subsequent to 9/11.   Or an impending terrorist plot will be prevented, with the highly publicized arrest of a hidden al Qaeda “cell” here at home.   

Winning for the Democrats may turn out to be bittersweet, however.  Even holding one house of Congress will guarantee that the Republican media machine will go into high gear, blaming Democrats for every bad thing that happens.....never mind that the groundwork for all the bad things now beginning to happen around the world has been well laid over the past six years by the Bush administration and their irresponsibly profligate allies in Congress .   

For the die-hard supporters of this administration, failure in Iraq won’t ever be the consequence of Mr. Bush’s inept and blundering implementation of an occupation, any more than America’s inability to influence events will be attributed to this administration’s feckless, downright reckless, foreign policy.   Instead, it will be the fault of obstructionist Democrats and the liberal media.   A new “stab-in-the-back” theory to comfort narrow minds, made even more credible with a strong Democratic victory next week.   One can only hope that the country is finally waking up to the reality, which is that this president and his supporters have done this country some severe damage, and it is going to take a major bipartisan effort to dig ourselves out of the whole they’ve put us in.

dtf