http://www.counterpunch.org/green07132007.html

July 13, 2007

In the Last Throes, Judiciously

http://www.counterpunch.org/green07132007.html

July 13, 2007

In the Last Throes, Judiciously

By DAVID MICHAEL GREEN



Imagine a burning building, with the people inside scrambling to find
the exits.

Now imagine that building located on the deck of a large ship,
isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, riddled with gaping holes
and sinking fast.

Keep that image in your mind, and add to it the tsunami that is fast
approaching the ship's location.

It will get there soon, but not before the Enola Gay, which is buzzing
overhead with a special delivery item in its payload.

Got that picture in your mind?

Welcome to the Republican Party, July 2007.

Or, the "Grand Old Party", as our regressive friends like to call it.

Old?

Sure --as old as greed itself.

Party?

Well, there ain't a lot of celebrating going on in its vicinity, but
if you mean a congregation of ever-narrowing numbers of people
aggregated around certain political ideas, however ridiculous they may
be, well then, sure, this is a party.

But grand?

Only in the scale of its current mess.

If you've got any political antennae at all, any sensitivity to the
moods and trends of American politics, you can't help but conclude
that it is all collapsing fast, and with it as well many of the
multiple enablers who have assisted in bringing us this ugliest of
disasters these last years.

It's all coming apart now, bursting its tawdry seams, and doing so not
only with a tremendous rapidity, but with even a tremendous increase
in the rate of rapidity.

What a week it has been.

The most obvious signs of implosion, of course, are the Republicans in
Congress who, one after another, are now ditching the president with
sunrise-like regularity.

It seemed like there was hardly a day this week when one or two more
didn't abandon the sinking ship of Bush's Iraq catastrophe.

Or should we say that you are "cutting and running", my dear GOP
friends?

Should we now question your patriotism?

Should we note that many of you are up for reelection next year and,
having seen what happened last go-round, are now "playing politics
with national security"?

If we were Karl Rove, George Bush or ***** Cheney, we would say those
things, of course.

If we were garden variety regressive fellow-travelers --much like,
well ... you, actually --we would.

If we were your attack dogs, like O'Reilly and Limbaugh, we most
certainly would.

But we needn't do any of those things, because you folks have spoken
for yourselves.

You backed an insanely incompetent buffoon for president, little
distinguishable from Caligula other than by the suit and tie where the
toga once resided.

You supported his administration's every move even when you saw that
it catered to the worst possible instincts of our country, and that it
represented the very antithesis of American constitutional government.
You stood by or piled on as its agents berated, vilified and destroyed
any and every true patriot who showed the greatest courage by
expressing the slightest objection to these toxic policies.

Now that you are seeking rescue from the burning building on the
aforementioned sinking ship awaiting the fire of the gods to be
quenched only by the great exhalation of Poseidon himself, you should
count yourself lucky --Mr. Voinovich, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Domenici, Mr.
Alexander, Ms. Snowe --if your
too-little-too-late-mealy-mouthed-half-baked attempts to undo the
tragedy you helped create in Iraq results only in the loss of your
seats in Congress.

How will you face the mothers of those who have lost so much more
--who have lost everything --for your astonishing lapse in judgement,
at best, and your raw political opportunism at (probable) worst, my
proud Republican friends?

___________________________________________________

Harry

http://www.counterpunch.org/green07132007.html

July 13, 2007

In the Last Throes, Judiciously

By DAVID MICHAEL GREEN

http://www.counterpunch.org/green07132007.html

July 13, 2007

In the Last Throes, Judiciously

By DAVID MICHAEL GREEN

Imagine a burning building, with the people inside scrambling to find
the exits.

Now imagine that building located on the deck of a large ship,
isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, riddled with gaping holes
and sinking fast.

Keep that image in your mind, and add to it the tsunami that is fast
approaching the ship's location.

It will get there soon, but not before the Enola Gay, which is buzzing
overhead with a special delivery item in its payload.

Got that picture in your mind?

Welcome to the Republican Party, July 2007.

Or, the "Grand Old Party", as our regressive friends like to call it.

Old?

Sure --as old as greed itself.

Party?

Well, there ain't a lot of celebrating going on in its vicinity, but
if you mean a congregation of ever-narrowing numbers of people
aggregated around certain political ideas, however ridiculous they may
be, well then, sure, this is a party.

But grand?

Only in the scale of its current mess.

If you've got any political antennae at all, any sensitivity to the
moods and trends of American politics, you can't help but conclude
that it is all collapsing fast, and with it as well many of the
multiple enablers who have assisted in bringing us this ugliest of
disasters these last years.

It's all coming apart now, bursting its tawdry seams, and doing so not
only with a tremendous rapidity, but with even a tremendous increase
in the rate of rapidity.

What a week it has been.

The most obvious signs of implosion, of course, are the Republicans in
Congress who, one after another, are now ditching the president with
sunrise-like regularity.

It seemed like there was hardly a day this week when one or two more
didn't abandon the sinking ship of Bush's Iraq catastrophe.

Or should we say that you are "cutting and running", my dear GOP
friends?

Should we now question your patriotism?

Should we note that many of you are up for reelection next year and,
having seen what happened last go-round, are now "playing politics
with national security"?

If we were Karl Rove, George Bush or ***** Cheney, we would say those
things, of course.

If we were garden variety regressive fellow-travelers --much like,
well ... you, actually --we would.

If we were your attack dogs, like O'Reilly and Limbaugh, we most
certainly would.

But we needn't do any of those things, because you folks have spoken
for yourselves.

You backed an insanely incompetent buffoon for president, little
distinguishable from Caligula other than by the suit and tie where the
toga once resided.

You supported his administration's every move even when you saw that
it catered to the worst possible instincts of our country, and that it
represented the very antithesis of American constitutional government.
You stood by or piled on as its agents berated, vilified and destroyed
any and every true patriot who showed the greatest courage by
expressing the slightest objection to these toxic policies.

Now that you are seeking rescue from the burning building on the
aforementioned sinking ship awaiting the fire of the gods to be
quenched only by the great exhalation of Poseidon himself, you should
count yourself lucky --Mr. Voinovich, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Domenici, Mr.
Alexander, Ms. Snowe --if your
too-little-too-late-mealy-mouthed-half-baked attempts to undo the
tragedy you helped create in Iraq results only in the loss of your
seats in Congress.

How will you face the mothers of those who have lost so much more
--who have lost everything --for your astonishing lapse in judgement,
at best, and your raw political opportunism at (probable) worst, my
proud Republican friends?