Friday, October 21, 2005

The Vice President Goes Down?

Just a sense I have that Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation around the whole disclosure of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative will eventually come close enough to take the VP down. It's hovering right around him as we speak as it has reached Karl Rove and Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. We'll have to wait and see what exact laws, if any, Fitzgerald will argue were broken, who broke them, and who knew that they were being broken but I just have suspicion. This is not good for the country that something like this has happened but it's remarkable and heartening that the culprits will likely not get away with it. So far, the system works. (Credit to Kate for the last part of this point.)

Of Rats and Traps

It was like the Righties were trying to chew their leg off.
Caught in the trap of the worst presidency in American history, they were declaring war, calling off all bets, and generally trying to put as much distance them and the BA as possible, Righties from the National Review and the American Conservative Union were voicing their discomfort in interviews with NPR this morning. It seems they played nice as long as they could take the country full-tilt to the Right, gnashing their teeth as W spent a hole through the heart of the country, girding their loins as he failed to take the country full-tilt starboard.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

STRATEGY: Campaign on Your Future Scandal!

Recently, there have been a lot of recommendations by the various members of the Democratic intelligentsia (aka the DLC) on how the Party of the People can recapture the legislature and win White House. As well-intended and self-less as these 64-page reports might be, it's time for a newer, dare I say, bolder approach.

You can talk about moving to the center, whatever that means, but electorally speaking, you're like a shoe salesman with a comb-over, who thinks he's a stud, trying to sell sensible shoes to a forty year old soccer mom and wondering what the best line is to get her to join you for dinner with you at Applebee's.

And this is the beauty of scandals: they keep the news going far into the night. The cherry-red F-Me pumps of politics, they remind us that there is more to life than White House leaks and agricultural subsidies. Now with a 24 hour news cycle, scandals go the distance. In the words of the immortal Boss, they can "prove it all night." Besides they're inevitable.

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