How Karl Rove Got His Groove Back -- And Other Sordid Tales of the White House Betraying America
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
In an unprecedented media moment, long before most
Americans were awake, the White House released the news that one of those
mild-mannered looking
right wing ideological perverts would be Bush's second Supreme Court
nominee, just four days after his first nominee announced she was "withdrawing."
News of Mr. Scalito's appointment hit the wires on a Monday morning
so early that the squirrels were still sleeping in Camp David. Normally,
rumors fly
before a Supreme Court nomination, but it's not confirmed as a nomination until
the President presents the candidate at a press event.
Why, the rather unusual before-dawn announcement of Scalito (who believes it
is okay to strip search a 10-year-old girl and that a married woman must receive
the permission of her husband before receiving an abortion -- among other medieval
opinions)? Because Karl Rove wanted to suck TreasonGate out of the Monday morning
headlines.
Karl Rove, like Goebbels, is a master of propaganda -- and a key component
of crisis management propaganda is timing. If Monday, October 31, began with
another wave of TreasonGate headlines, it could spell further erosion for a
White House that not only daily betrays a nation, but is totally and utterly
incompetent. (Any person not caught up in the national state of right wing
hysteria is suicidal if they support this administration, because the WH's
bungling ineptitude daily threatens our national security and economic well-being.)
So Scalito was "rolled out" early, before he was probably even out of bed,
to divert the press from Friday's indictment (that was really a door opening
onto the entire conspiracy behind lying America into war).
It was also no accident that the GOP Neo-Confederacy controlled Congress suddenly
decided to honor a black woman who became a heroine by defying the Confederacy
fifty years ago. Yes, Rosa Parks (although she dearly deserved the honor) lying
in state in the Capitol allowed Rove the opportunity to have photos in Monday's
papers of Bush, yet again, with black children. We also saw Bush and Laura
walking hand-in-hand as they viewed Parks' casket. What an insult to Parks'
bravery against dorks like Bush that she was used as a Rovian prop to help
spin the White House out of TreasonGate.
And what more did "Official A" in TreasonGate have up his sleeve? Well, how
about announcing the forced withdrawal (excuse us, "voluntary resignation" at
gunpoint) of Harriet Miers on the morning before the Libby indictment. This
knocked the wind out of the momentum of pre-indictment coverage.
All these Rovian "touches" are aimed at making TreasonGate seem less important.
They create factoids that give the appearance that Bush is "Presidential" and
acting like a President. They reroute the media from covering the betrayal
of a nation by offering alternative "stories" that diminish the impact of "Hurricane
TreasonGate." (And by the way, almost unnoticed by the media was the fact that
FEMA failed again when the latest hurricane hit Florida. The incompetence of
the Bush Administration is no longer news, we guess.)
It's hard to imagine how the Democratic leadership in Congress also gets diverted
and loses their sense of context, along with the media, but they do. Except
for some outspoken members of the House and a couple of senators, the Democratic
leadership still enables Bush and makes him appear legitimate, despite the
fact that he, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove are a continuing threat to the national
security of our nation and to our own personal lives. That is because the Busheviks
are hideous failures at virtually everything they undertake, except enriching
the already wealthy.
They haven't conducted a war on terror; they've conducted a propaganda war.
It is the only thing that they do half efficiently.
The only enemies that the Busheviks have effectively attacked are American
patriots -- like Joe Wilson, Richard Clarke, Sibel Edmonds and Bunnatine Greenhouse.
In fact, last week Rove went after Poppy Bush's pal, Brent Scowcroft, because
he dared to criticize "Baby Doc" Bush in a New Yorker interview. One Republican
insider described the e-mail Rovian message point smears against Scowcroft
as so disgusting that he couldn't finish reading them.
Yes, those Republicans who wondered what would happen to the traitorous Bush
presidency if Rove were indicted can rest assured that President Rove is still
on duty -- along with his co-President, Dick Cheney.
Now, we will see a daily focus on how the battle over Scalito's nomination
is a "partisan" fight -- and oh how the media loves a Supreme Court judicial
battle! It's people who cherish the Constitution and the 21st Century (us)
vs. the Philistines (them).
Voila, TreasonGate virtually disappears from the front pages. Karl, made it
go away by riding the press cycles and knowing that a gladiator show trumps
a discreet, no-leaks prosecutor.
All we can hope for is that the Democrats in the Senate will suddenly rise
up in outrage and stand up for America's national security by finally saying
what they have been too timid to articulate: this White House is a threat to
the lives and safety of the American people.
But don't count on the wimpy Senate Dems suddenly finding (like the lion in
the Wizard of Oz) courage, unless you believe in miracles.
More likely, our only hope is that "Official A" is brought to justice as the
Libby case further unfolds. But "Official A" has a plan to prevent that too.
Just keep watching for the next diversion -- and a right wing Republican federal
bench that protects its own by dismissing cases on technicalities.
Meanwhile, lock up your ten-year-old daughter and put on your chastity belt.
The Dems in the Senate are going to lose sight of TreasonGate and lose the
battle over Scalito. Like an undernourished kid constantly intimidated by the
town bully, the Senate Democrats keep telling us that they are keeping their
powder dry for the "next" fight.
But, they don't understand how to control the media message or how to street
fight.
Rove understands both -- and he's our President.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Afternote: It's Tuesday morning and President Karl Rove and his Co-President,
Dick Cheney, are still in office. No, it's not a Halloween prank. It's
the dangerous sordid reality.
As Maureen Dowd noted in her Sunday column, "This administration's grand schemes
always end up as the opposite. Officials say they're promoting national security
when they're hurting it; they say they're squelching terrorists when they're
breeding them; they say they're bringing stability to Iraq when the country's
imploding."
And the Democrats in the Senate are afraid to take the Busheviks on about national
security? Hey, Harry Reid and the rest of you, our lives are at stake!
What are you waiting for?