Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

The Difference

by tristero

UPDATED: SEE BELOW

Much has been, and will be, said about the far-right group of zillionaires operating under the paranoid name of “Freedom Watch.” Of course, they’re a propaganda outlet of the White House, and they’re crazy as bedbugs. But I would like to draw attention in the Times article to one of my ongoing concerns: the problem of modern rhetoric.

Please understand: I love Eli. I’m pointing this out simply to make it clear how, even today, rightwing nuts with reputations of respectability deploy the most vacuous of cliches coupled Neanderthalian vitriol and still retain a sense of “seriousness.” Here’s some of what the crazies say in the article:

“Ideologically, we are inspired by much of Ronald Reagan’s thinking — peace through strength, protect and defend America, and prosperity through free enterprise,” Mr. [Ari] Fleischer said…

“A bunch of us activists kept watching MoveOn and its attacks on the war, and it just got to be obnoxious,” said Mr. [Mel] Sembler, a friend of Vice President Dick Cheney. “We decided we needed to do something about this, because the conservative side was not responding.”

The emptiness of Fleischer’s comment is self-evident (although, at a different level, the association of Reagan with all these “goodies” is more subtle than you might think). But Sembler’s are rather interesting.

Notice the colloquial, ungrammatical “A bunch of us activists.” You’d think he was some kind of stringy-haired student with a denim jacket full of “Peace Now” buttons. In fact, as the Times puts it, he’s “a shopping center magnate based in St. Petersburg, Fla., who served as the ambassador to Italy and Australia.”

This far removed from the fake erudition of an old-style conservative like William F. Buckley who could demand, in perfect Miss Grundy grammar, that those diagnosed with HIV should have their “buttocks” – his word- tattooed. But don’t kid yourself: The use of “us activists” is quite deliberate, setting up the equally grammatically crude putdown “it just got to be obnoxious.” Sembler may actually talk like a stoner in real life – who knows or cares? – but clearly he’s doing so on purpose here. Remember: this is coming from an ambassador, not some Motley Crue fan slurping on a bong.

Here is what Eli said in response:

“This is the fourth or the fifth group that intends to be the right-wing MoveOn,” Mr. Pariser said, naming other fledgling groups like TheVanguard.org and Grassfire.org. “So far, it’s not clear that this group is anything other than a big neoconservative slush fund. They are a White House front group with a few consultants who are trying to make a very unpopular position on the war appear more palpable [sic]…”

I think people see that Freedom’s Watch is a few billionaires, and not a large, mainstream constituency,” [Pariser] said.

This is all perfectly fine, but it’s not great, and that is my point.

Wingers got the following emotionally-laden phrases and words in their comments; “Inspired; Ronald Reagan; thinking; peace; strength; protect; defend; America; prosperity; enterprise; obnoxious; do something about this.” (To their audience, Reagan is a positive.) Eli got in “right-wing MoveOn; big neoconservative slush fund; White House front group; few consultants; unpopular position; a few billionaires.”

We can quibble about this, adding or subtracting a few words here and there but the difference is quite clear. The wingers’ language is simple and direct, filled with monosyllabic feelgoods, and a nasty one-word putdown. The response was hedged (“So far”), polysyllabic, included words with complex structure and meaning (“palpable,” but “palatable” is meant), and unjustifiably restrained. Certainly both Fleischer and Sembler can easily be characterized as “obnoxious,” and that’s the least of it.

So yes, Eli made his point (and of course, he’s right: I’m talking only about the use of rhetoric here) but it was nowhere near as memorable as “us activists” and “obnoxious.” Nor did it have the levels of association embedded in Fleischer’s words. Again, this isn’t about Eli Pariser, but about the extent of the problem we all face with modern rhetoric.

I am not – repeat, NOT – advocating a Rhetoric of Stupidity – monosyllabic and contentless. The rightwing has a lock on that. What I am saying is that until normals can find a truly persuasive style of presentation, we will continue to fight an uphill battle, rhetorically speaking, against rightwing extremists. And that ain’t real good.

[UPDATE: Some of us have been trying, in comments, to come up with what we think Eli should have said. But, thanks to Nell, we have a topper. From WaPo, and don’t you just love it when wingers sue each other?

Larry Klayman, the conservative lawyer best known for repeatedly taking the Clinton administration to court in the 1990s, sued supporters of the Bush administration yesterday, claiming they appropriated the name “Freedom’s Watch” for use in a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign in support of the Iraq war.

Klayman, who supported the initial invasion but now says he is against the “chaotic” war, accuses what he says is an “arrogant Washington elite” of adopting a name he has used for nonprofit work since 2004.

Freedom’s Watch is made up of an arrogant Washington elite.” I like it, I like it! ]

[Updated to take notice that “palatable,” not “palpable” was meant.]

Saturday Night At The Movies

Brother Sun, Sister Moon

By Dennis Hartley

I thought we’d take a spin around the solar system tonight, via two new films; one that gets my vote for the best documentary of 2007, and the other…well, we’ll get to that.

Normally, I make a conscious effort to not shamelessly gush about films in this column (it’s so unseemly) but pardon me while I gush over a new documentary about the Apollo space program, “In The Shadow of the Moon”. Admittedly, I walked into the theater with a bit of trepidation; it would seem that the NASA legacy has already been milked for all its worth, from a slew of hit feature films (“The Right Stuff”, “Apollo 13”) and popular IMAX documentaries, to highly lauded TV fare (“From the Earth to the Moon”).

But somehow, director David Sington has managed to take this very familiar piece of 20th century history and infuse it with a sense of joyous rediscovery. In the process, it offers something rarer than hen’s teeth these days-a reason to take pride in being an American.

The premise is simple enough; surviving members of the Apollo moon flights tell their stories, accompanied by astounding mission footage (some previously unseen). There are a few of the “tumultuous 60s” clichés tossed in (clips of student demonstrations, political assassinations, etc) but they remain onscreen just long enough to provide brief expository reference. The film is beautifully scored (Philip Sheppard) and edited (David Fairhead).

The term “hero” is glibly tossed about with reflexively wild abandon in our post 9-11 world; but as you listen to these astronauts recount their extraordinary experiences with such eloquence, fierce intelligence and self-effacing candor, you realize that these people truly do represent our best and our brightest, they are “heroes” in every sense of the word.

It’s interesting to hear the astronauts expound on the pragmatic geo-political perspective that results from being in a position to “blot the entire earth out with (your) thumb”, as one gentleman puts it. Several marvel at how truly fragile the Earth looks hanging “like a jewel” in the vast blackness of space; one interviewee ponders incredulously as to “how we can worry more about paying three dollars for a gallon of gas” than we do about attending to the health of the planet. I lost count of my “amens” halfway through the film.

This is also the first time (to my knowledge) that these men have been given a public forum to extrapolate at some length on the profound spiritual, metaphysical and philosophical questions that arise following such literally out of this world experiences as walking on the surface of another planet; it’s fascinating and extremely moving at times.

I don’t say this about a lot of films, but I am prescribing that you run out and see it immediately. “In the Shadow of the Moon” is a perfect tonic for the Bush blues. It reminds us that there was a time not too far gone when the rest of the world looked to this country for inspiration; a time when people were NOT ashamed of hailing from the great state of Texas, because it was then better known as the home of Mission Control.

We move now from science fact, to science fiction. For his new sci-fi thriller “Sunshine” (currently available on PAL DVD only), director Danny Boyle teams up again with writer Alex Garland, who provided the screenplays for both 28 Days Later and its sequel (Garland also penned the original novel that inspired Boyle’s film “The Beach”).

Ostensibly about a team of astronauts on a mission to salvage the dying Sun and save the Earth, “Sunshine” ambitiously aims to take its protagonists on a Homeric journey, by way of Tartovsky (“Solaris ”) and Kubrick (“2001 – A Space Odyssey”). Unfortunately, after a fairly successful liftoff, the film quickly veers off course and loses its trajectory.

The story is set in 2057, when the Sun is suffering from a condition that, as near as I was able to tell from the rather sketchy scientific exposition, is akin to some type of solar constipation. There’s something blocking the star’s ability to generate its own nuclear fusion…uh, I think. Well, whatever “it” is, there ain’t no sunshine when it’s gone…okay?

Anyway, the highly specialized 8-member crew of “Icarus II” is mankind’s last hope (the crew of “Icarus I” apparently stopped sending postcards some months back). It is up to them to launch and detonate a powerful bomb that will presumably jump-start the Sun back into its preferred central heating mode for our solar system.

I know what you’re thinking-sounds a tad familiar? Yes, it is pretty much a glorified rehash of “Armageddon”. Well, “Armageddon” for philosophy majors. Because, you see, things get “deep” between the requisite scenes of stuff blowing up real good. There’s an awful lot of brooding and gnashing of teeth going on amongst the crew members once they set the controls for the heart of the sun. It is also implied that there are metaphysical conundrums afoot, but the screenplay fails to extrapolate on the significance. By the time the third act disintegrates into a cheesy “Alien” rip-off, you probably won’t care anyway.

Boyle regular Cillian Murphy stars as the brooder-in-chief, the crew’s egghead physicist, ‘Robert Capa’ (I’ve racked my mind over that one…why is a fictional nuclear physicist named after a famous war photographer? I invite your speculation. These are the types of things that keep me awake at night, folks.) To his credit, Murphy maintains a compelling presence, even though you suspect that he doesn’t have much more of a clue about what is going on in this film than the viewer does. Michelle Yeoh does an earnest turn as ‘Corazon’ a biologist who nurtures the onboard green houses, reminiscent of Bruce Dern in “Silent Running” (hmm…if Capa is the ship’s Brain, then I assume she is the Heart?)

Some have hailed this as a masterpiece. I am not one of them. Granted, it is handsomely mounted, with some nice set designs and impressive special effect work; but it lacks a cohesive story. It’s like someone reached into a hat full of interesting ideas, threw the scraps of paper up in the air, and just let them blow about the room while trying to follow them with a camera. For a story that flies so close to the Sun, “Sunshine” left me cold.

Is it hot in here, or is the world ending? When Worlds Collide, Last Night, The Day the Earth Caught Fire (personal fave!), Deep Impact. Just for campy fun: Meteor

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Well, At Least They Didn’t Call The CIA And US Army Upstarts

by tristero

When you act like you’re cuckoo, no one should be surprised when others act the same way. This would be funny if not for the fact that if this sheer idiocy doesn’t stop immediately, people in both countries who deserve to live long, happy, and peaceful lives will likely die horrible deaths. All because their governments are hellbent on proving to each other that they are the biggest assholes:

Iran’s parliament on Saturday approved a nonbinding resolution labeling the CIA and the U.S. Army “terrorist organizations,” in apparent response to a Senate resolution seeking to give a similar designation to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Oh, and for the benefit of the young’uns amongst us who don’t quite get the title of this post, quack here.

Deny The DNI

By digby

What in the hell are the Democrats going to do about DNI Michael McConnell? I understand that spooks, by nature and profession, are liars, but this fellow is not supposed to be political, and we are ostensibly in a democracy in which government employees — all government employees — work for the people. They are not allowed to lie to the people’s representatives, even if they think it’s for our own good.

McConnell’s position is supposed to be non-partisan and apolitical. And yet he is known to have consciously misled the congress, threatened them with “being responsible for American deaths” if they don’t do what he says and, it’s quite clear, strategized the FISA bill abortion last August with the White house, which is a big no-no. It’s a bad idea to trust anyone with the kind of power this man wields without strenuous oversight. It’s political malpractice to trust a man this manipulative and dishonest. He is a problem.

Here’s the latest example of his blatant (and disturbingly sloppy, which explains why our intelligence agencies can’t find water if they fall out of a boat) misleading of the congress:

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told Congress last week that a May wiretap that targeted Iraqi insurgents was delayed for 12 hours by attempts to comply with onerous surveillance laws, which slowed an effort to locate three U.S. soldiers who had been captured south of Baghdad.

But new details released this week portray a more complicated picture of the delay, which actually lasted about 9 1/2 hours and was caused primarily by legal wrangling between the Justice Department and intelligence officials over whether authorities had probable cause to begin the surveillance.

[…]

McConnell has been criticized by Democrats for selectively disclosing classified information and for claiming that “some Americans are going to die” because of public debate over surveillance laws. Earlier this month, McConnell retracted Senate testimony that the new intelligence legislation had helped lead to the capture of terrorism suspects in Germany.

Many Democrats and civil liberties advocates have complained that McConnell and other administration officials exaggerated or misrepresented the Iraq wiretapping episode to score political points, largely by playing down how bureaucratic problems contributed to the delay.

“The idea that this incident has something to do with these soldiers getting killed is just outrageous,” said Michael German, a former FBI counterterrorism agent who now works as policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is all internal bureaucracy. It has nothing to do with the law.”

It really was below the belt. McConnell owes the country an apology for that implication:

Administration officials began highlighting the Iraqi case as a problem in classified briefings with lawmakers over the summer, officials said. McConnell elaborated on the episode on Sept. 20 when he testified before the House intelligence committee. He said that it took “in the neighborhood of 12 hours” to obtain the emergency surveillance order.

“So we had U.S. soldiers who were captured in Iraq by insurgents, and for the 12 hours immediately following their captures, you weren’t able to listen to their communications,” asked Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M). “Is that correct?”

“That’s correct,” McConnell answered.

Except, that is a lie:

In fact, the timeline released this week shows that officials in Washington did not begin seeking the warrant until 10 a.m. on May 15 — more than 86 hours after the three soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division were reported captured. Authorities had already received approvals for other wiretaps in the case, the timeline shows.

Maj. Webster M. Wright III, public affairs officer for the 10th Mountain Division, said in an e-mail that he was unaware of the wiretap discussions that occurred in Washington.

“We were given everything at the tactical level that we asked for, to include extra troops, intel assets, aviation, CID investigators, analysts and [human intelligence] specialists,” Wright said.

This is why all this “trust us, we’re keeping the boogeyman rom killing you in your bed” is so dangerous. Michael McConnell has repeatedly lied to congress. You can’t trust liars. If they needed this power for legitimate reasons they would have no reason to make up scenarios to justify it. They can always go behind closed doors and share classified information with the people’s representatives who are authorized to receive it. Indeed, we expect them to o it. The only conclusion you can come to is that they are using this power for nefarious reasons.

Michael McConnell has given interviews that call his judgment into question. He is a proven liar. He has shown himself to be a tool of the Bush Administration. What in the world is this man doing in charge of some of the most delicate intelligence functions in the government? He had a reputation for rectitude before took the job. but he either became tainted by the Cheney/Addington paranoid vision or he was highly overrated. Either way, the congress should never take his word for anything. There’s something very wrong with him.

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They Like The Dark Ones

by digby

If you’re a racist, vote Republican:

In the transcript, translated from Spanish by The Washington Post, Bush said that Europeans were insensitive to “the suffering that Saddam Hussein has inflicted on the Iraqis” and added: “Maybe it’s because he’s dark-skinned, far away and Muslim– a lot of Europeans think he’s okay.”

Right. The Europeans are insensitive to the suffering of Iraqis because they’re “dark-skinned Muslim” lovers.( Of course that makes no sense because the suffering Iraqis are “dark-skinned Muslims” themselves but this is Junior we’re talking about,after all.)

It revealing that he characterizes Saddam as “dark-skinned” at all and further that he thinks the Europeans thought he was “okay” because of the fact. Apparently, he

Everyone says that Bush isn’t a racist. Whatever. But he has a little habit of letting his little white worldview slip every once in a while. My personal favorite is this one:

There’s a lot of people in the world who don’t believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren’t necessarily — are a different color than white can self-govern.

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The Outsiders

by digby

According to the AP, Move-On, the much loathed liberal grassroots group of nearly three and a half million members is being met with a similar group of grassroots conservative outsiders:

Outsiders Aim to Frame Political Debate

WASHINGTON — They raise millions of dollars, conduct provocative ad campaigns, work with a vast network of like-minded allies and have the power to frame the presidential election going forward as much as the candidates themselves.

That used to define only the liberal MoveOn.org, an organization of 3.3 million members that has raised $25 million in the past 18 months and is helping spearhead an anti-war coalition.

Now, a group of conservatives and Republicans with close ties to the White House have formed their own enterprise, Freedom’s Watch, landing on the political scene with a $15 million ad campaign to defend President Bush’s Iraq war strategy.

As such, Freedom’s Watch and MoveOn.org could be the left and right bookends not only on the war, but on a number of issues that will decide the 2008 elections and shape congressional debate beyond. Freedom’s Watch organizers said they are considering whether to create a political subgroup, like MoveOn has, that could directly play a role in elections.

Right. Book-ends.

When Blakeman speaks of “we,” he is referring to “friends, former administration people, party leaders, decision makers.” Unlike MoveOn, which has its roots in California’s Silicon Valley, Freedom’s Watch is clearly a Washington creature.

Many in its inner circle of strategists and donors are close to Vice President Dick Cheney or held high posts at the White House. Blakeman, whose 26-year-old nephew died when the World Trade Center collapsed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, was director of scheduling and appointments at the Bush White House.

Among those who brainstormed with him this summer was Mary Matalin, Cheney’s counselor until 2003 and still an adviser to the vice president. Ari Fleischer, the former White House spokesman, is a member of the Freedom’s Watch board.

The group’s donors include Mel Sembler, a friend of Cheney’s and longtime Republican fundraiser. Sembler was chairman of the legal defense fund for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff who was convicted of lying and obstruction of justice in the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s identity. Another donor is Kevin E. Moley, a former U.S. ambassador to international organizations in Geneva and a senior aide to Cheney during the 2000 presidential campaign.

The group organized itself as a nonprofit lobbying organization and, unlike political organizations that advocates for or against candidates, is not required to identify its donors. Still, when it launched its multimillion-dollar ad campaign on the war in August, Blakeman listed some of its supporters, several of them pro-Israel conservatives.

Besides Sembler and Moley, other donors are Sheldon Adelson, the chairman and chief executive of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., who recently launched a new conservative newspaper in Israel, and several former Bush fundraisers who landed ambassadorial posts. They include Moley and Sembler, who was ambassador to Italy, as well as Howard Leach, former ambassador to France, and Anthony Gioia, former ambassador to Malta

Only in the Village could someone characterize that group as being “outsiders.”

You just have to laugh.

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That’s The Way, Uh Huh, Uh Huh, I Like It, Uh Huh, Uh Huh

by tristero

If ever you want to know how to respond to the likes of David Brooks, I can’t think of anything better to recc’d than this letter by Drew Westen in response to Brooks’ review:

To the Editor:

My first response to David Brooks’s review of my book, “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation” (Aug. 26), was mild amusement. The review was playfully sarcastic, and I must admit my own appreciation for that genre. And how else could you respond to a review that argues for objectivity in politics after beginning with the words: “Between 2000 and 2006, a specter haunted the community of fundamentalist Democrats. Members of this community looked around and observed their moral and intellectual superiority.”

Then once the e-mail started pouring in, asking how I could possibly have made the arguments attributed to me, it became clear that Brooks had succeeded in inoculating thousands of potential readers against a book that some effective political communicators (e.g., President Clinton) had enthusiastically endorsed because of the ways it suggests Democrats talk about abortion, gays, guns, terrorism, taxes, race and a host of other issues that have cost them at the polls.

As summarized by Brooks, my central thesis is that Democrats should campaign using “crude emotional outbursts” and guttural noises, preferably interrupting debates by “barking” and “exploding” about their opponent’s history of drinking if he has one (or, better yet, if he doesn’t). He then wonders how I might explain Howard Dean’s failure to win the 2004 Democratic primaries against the more emotionally subdued John Kerry. (Of course, he wouldn’t have had to wonder if he’d simply gone to the index and looked under the entry “Dean, Howard.”)

Brooks never mentions that the book is a 400-page scientific and historical argument against precisely what he offers as a counterthesis, expressed in this rhetorical question: “Is it possible that substance has something to do with the political fortunes of parties? Could it be that Democrats won in the middle part of the 20th century because they were right about the big issues — the New Deal and the civil rights movement? Is it possible Republicans won in the latter part of the century because they were right about economic growth and the cold war? Is it possible Democrats are winning now because they were right about whether to go to war in Iraq?” This all sounds so, well, “fair and balanced” — until you think about it. Democrats’ stand on civil rights has cost them dearly since Richard Nixon discovered the race card in 1968. Al Gore lost despite an unrivaled period of prosperity and growth. And Democrats actually voted for the Iraq war resolution in 2002 (perhaps convinced by the objective arguments of none other than Mr. Brooks) and won in 2006 only when they started to talk passionately about Iraq.

But for Brooks, the “core problem with Westen’s book is that he doesn’t really make use of what we know about emotion.” As a professor of psychology and psychiatry who has been contributing to the scientific literature on emotion for over 20 years, I don’t know who exactly “we” is, but I have to hand it to him: he put that knowledge to pretty good use in leaving readers with a bad taste in their mouths about a book they hadn’t read. Which illustrates the central thesis of the book: that a little knowledge about emotion can go a long way in politics.

Drew Westen

Atlanta

I will say one thing about the Bush era. From Brady Kiesling’s deeply moving resignation letter to Colin Powell on the eve of the Bush/Iraq war- which should be in any collection of great American documents – to Dr. Westen’s wonderful letter, the Bush administration has inspired some truly wonderful writing in opposition to it.

Not Another One, Please

by digby

Joe Biden slammed Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani at Wednesday night’s debate, saying he is “the most uninformed person on American foreign policy now running for president.”

I don’t know why he said that:

MR. VANDEHEI: Mayor Giuliani, this question comes from Eric Taylor (sp) from California. He wants to know, what is the difference between a Sunni and a Shi’a Muslim?

MR. GIULIANI: The difference is the descendant of Mohammed. The Sunnis believe that Mohammed’s — the caliphate should be selected, and the Shi’ites believe that it should be by descent. And then, of course, there was a slaughter of Shi’ites in the early part of the history of Islam, and it has infected a lot of the history of Islam, which is really very unfortunate.

Of course,technically, he didn’t know he was talking about foreign policy. He thought he was speaking about religious history, a subject about which he thinks he knows a great deal:

GIULIANI: I honestly think we might have gotten tougher questions during the Fox interview, but they were substantive questions. During the MSNBC situation, we got some really good questions. But we also got some of the trick questions: Shia and Sunni.

You know, do I know the difference between Shia and Sunni? I felt like I was, you know, defending my doctoral thesis. It happens that I am a student of the history of religion.

HANNITY: Sure.

GIULIANI: So I knew the answer to that.

He thinks he’s an expert:

“I have very, very strong views on religion that come about from having wanted to be a priest when I was younger, having studied theology for four years in college,” he said. “It’s an area I know really, really well academically.

And the press agre:

Chris Cillizza:…Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani looked like he might stumble when asked to explain the difference between Sunni and Shia but wound up getting it exactly right…

Anonymous: You said that Mayor Giuliani aced the Sunni/Shia question. What event in history was he referring to when he said “and then of course there was a slaughter of Shiites in the early part of the history of Islam, and it has infected a lot of the history of Islam, which is really very unfortunate”?

Chris Cillizza: I don’t claim to be an expert on the history of the Sunni and Shia. In the coverage I watched following the debate, it appeared as though Giuliani was factually correct about the differences between the two groups. That was all I was referencing. And, from a political standpoint, I think Giuliani dodged a major bullet with that question. I wonder how many of the ten men on that stage last night could have come up with something approximating a right answer on that question.

This is how we get arrogant morons for president. We really can’t afford another one.

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The Despicable John McCain

by tristero

John McCain knows this isn’t true

A recent poll found that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. What do you think?

I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. But I say that in the broadest sense. The lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door doesn’t say, “I only welcome Christians.” We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses. But when they come here they know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles.

He’s lying. McCain has certainly read the Constitution and he knows it “established” nothing of the sort.

There is no reason to “engage” this trash with counter-arguments. McCain, in his desperate desire to pander to the absolute worst bottom-feeders in American political life, has stooped to the level of a Holocaust denier. Disgusting.

h/t Duncan

Show Me The Money

by digby

Why is this not a Democratic argument?

By year’s end, the cost for both conflicts since Sept. 11, 2001, is projected to reach more than $800 billion. Iraq alone has cost the United States more in inflation-adjusted dollars than the Gulf War and the Korean War and will probably surpass the Vietnam War by the end of next year, according to the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

From what I gather, instead of using this to persuade voters that Republicans are both economic and national security miscreants, the congress is going to pass Bush’s funding requests as fast as they can. I guess it’s unpatriotic to question the cost of the war or even ask just what in the hell they are spending on this money on. The new thinking seems to be that not only is there a prohibition about cutting the funds, they have to give the president a blank check and are not allowed to ask any questions. The Democrats are convinced that they have no say in national security matters. Or they actually agree with the Republicans.

But what’s really neat about this is that the failure of the war will be blamed on them anyway. It won’t matter that they rubber stamped every crackpot Iraq strategy and signed off on the most expensive war in history. (This week they even went on record helping Bush begin the drive to Iran!) This entire “war” has been a Vietnam mulligan from the get and the Right will very likely write this part as a slightly, shopworn sequel of the standard “how the hippies ruined everything” storyline

Rick Perlstein has written an important analysis of this phenomenon in this review of two important wing nut tomes on the Vietnam War. Although these books are in complete contradiction with one another, they are revered on the right for one reason: they posit that we would have “won” the war if only the left hadn’t ruined everything. The contradictory details in the two books are irrelevant since they come to the same conclusion.

As Rick points out, this is actually a psychological necessity on the part of a right wing that screws up everything it touches and is incapable of admitting its failure:

Conservatism’s cherished fantasy of American omnipotence has died once again, this time in the sands of Iraq, and the grieving process has begun. But conservatives mourn differently from you and me. They begin with denial, anger and bargaining, just like everyone else. And that’s where they stay–forever paralyzed by a petulant refusal to acknowledge their fantasy’s passing, a simple inability to process reality.

I’m not sure how it’s going to work this time, but so far they seem to quite successful in persuading the battered Dems that if they’ll just stop provoking them, the manly man won’t be forced to beat them up anymore. You know how well that always works out.

H/T to my old pal Kevin K from catch.com who is blogging again at a new (old) blog called Rumproast.

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