Kryptonite For Karl
Karl Rove, Republican political strategist, is on the spot this year. He has to be faster than a speeding Diebold pull-it, more powerful than a Democratic groundswell locomotive, and able to heap tall Republican tales in a single mound.
The expectations of him are high:
Republican strategists are hoping that voter confidence in Bush’s handling of terrorism will help their party retain control of Congress. “The Bush administration lives or dies, in terms of national security, on the claim that they have indeed made America safer,” said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. “This is at the heart of the Republican rationale for continued control of government.”
There’s only one problem that Karl has to fix - the growing realization of the public that the Republican security reputation is a fabrication:
A newly disclosed intelligence assessment that contradicts President Bush’s claim that the war in Iraq has made America safer also casts doubt on the Republican campaign strategy for the November elections. The assessment came in a report known as a National Intelligence Estimate, which reflects the consensus view of 16 government intelligence services, including the CIA. [Goldford] called the report “kryptonite for Superman,” referring to the substance that disabled the comic book hero.
For those who have been paying attention to Bush Adminstration activities across their time in office, it is becoming clear that their hold on power is slipping.
For one thing, celebrities who in the past brayed loudly about their support for the Republicans are beginning to reverse their positions:
‘I’m A Democrat’, Insists Willis
2006-09-24
BRUCE WILLIS has dismissed his “Hollywood Republican” reputation, insisting his political beliefs go far deeper. He says, “I’m always being accused of being a Hollywood Republican - but I’m not! “I have just as many Democratic ideas as Republican ones. If they could build three fewer bombs every month and give the money to foster care, that would be great.” Confusion over the movie hardman’s politics was sparked when he reportedly backed the war in Iraq, and even made an appearance with US President GEORGE W BUSH at the White House. But now he’s keen to be seen as a staunch Democrat, according to the New York Daily News.
For another thing, some of their media lapdogs have slipped their leads and are running about loose, barking loudly about how they were fooled like everyone else:
Chris Mathews: “Rove Loves The Fact That The Iraq War Has Gotten Boring For The American People”…
September 21, 2006
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews blasted the media for not covering the Iraq war. Matthews said that while people are still fighting and dying the Iraq, war “has been taken off television, and Bush must love it.” Matthews said that most of the media was sold a bill of goods by the Bush administration, but that he’s been “a voice out there against this bullshit war from the beginning.” He added that Cheney was “totally wrong” about Iraq but still “talks like God on television, and we are supposed to believe every word.”
The ‘Voice of the Wyoming Terror God’ approach to opinion management isn’t working very well if the recent polling is any indication:
Americans Regard Iraq War as Ineffective
Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
Source: Bloomberg / Los Angeles Times
September 23, 2006
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,517 American adults, conducted from Sept. 16 to Sept. 19, 2006. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
Many adults in the United States question their government’s decision to launch the coalition effort, according to a poll by Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times. 60 per cent of respondents believe the war in Iraq is diverting resources that could be used in other ways to fight terrorism, while 77 per cent of respondents think it is possible to support the troops fighting in Iraq and still criticize Bush’s policies.
This Angus Reid poll took place prior to the revelation that the American intelligence agencies have reported that not only are Bush Administration anti-terror initiatives not working, they are actually making the terror problem worse. But then, what else can we expect from the kakistocracy which brought the American people Diebold, Katrina, and Afghanistan, and which can’t find the domestic anthrax terrorist?
[A] prominent anthrax expert, Louisiana State University Professor Martin Hugh Jones, said it appears that the FBI’s probe is stalled. Much-ballyhooed forensic testing that authorities hoped would pinpoint the exact laboratory that produced the strain of anthrax used in the attacks has not panned out.
“I’ve not heard or seen anything from the FBI
to indicate any forensic success in their investigations,” Jones said.
To be fair to the FBI, with many of their resources directed toward politically-charged terror crimes, it would be difficult to conduct the anthrax investigation with what resources remain available - considering how large the anthrax suspect list now is:
Douglas Beecher, an FBI microbiologist, wrote recently in a trade magazine for microbiologists [that] contrary to a widely held theory among anthrax experts, the killer needed no sophisticated equipment or intimate knowledge to produce the anthrax mailed to two U.S. congressmen. Beecher also wrote that previous theories “may misguide research and preparedness efforts and generally distract from the magnitude of hazards posed by simple spore preparations.”
What this means in Red State American is that almost anyone can be the suspect:
Rutgers University biologist Richard H. Ebright, who has closely followed the anthrax investigation, said that Beecher’s writings broaden the pool of potential suspects. “The FBI statement contradicts assertions that the attacks required the resources of a large state program and supports the view that the attacks could have been perpetrated by an individual or small group,” he said. Jones said the article indicates that “with the right commercially available equipment one can readily produce a good product involving essentially individual spores.” Jones estimates that it would cost $20,000 or so to buy the proper equipment.
There are few people that couldn’t come up with $20,000 if they were dedicated to a cause and willing to sacrifice everything for it. But Professor Jones points out that the evidence is self-limits the field of suspects to those with greater access to high-technology:
Jones said that the highly refined powder discovered in the Daschle/Leahy letters, which was ground so small that it literally flew off microscopes when experts tried to examine it, would be extremely difficult to produce outside of a controlled laboratory setting and probably was produced by an expert in handling the dangerous germ. “There would be too many quality control issues if someone were making this in their basement,” Jones said.
So this throws the spotlight back on the FBI, which should be thinking along these deductive lines. One wonders why the people’s watchdogs in Congress aren’t all over this anthrax investigation issue, except that they are too busy attempting to score points against each other by touting their respective positions:
“I think it’s obvious that the difficulties we’ve experienced in Iraq have certainly emboldened” terrorist groups, Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on the CBS News program Face the Nation. [Read: Stay the course, no matter what the obstacles]
“Even capturing the remaining top Al Qaeda leadership isn’t going to prevent copycat cells, and it isn’t going to change a failed policy in Iraq,” Representative Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN’s Late Edition. “This administration is trying to change the subject. I don’t think voters are going to buy that.” [Read: Vote for us in November - we AREN’T the GOP!]
The issues over why the Republicans don’t deserve to win in Novenber couldn’t be more clear:
Iraq Made Terrorism Worse and Republicans Don’t Care
A. Alexander, Progressive Daily Beacon
September 25th, 2006
For the past few decades and most especially in the last two elections and at the start of this, the third since 9/11, Republicans have sold themselves as the only political party capable of “keeping America safe”.
Too, today’s Republican Party and the Bush administration have perfected incompetence to an art form, while at the same time mastering the use of spin such that they can make failure after failure — Iraq, Afghanistan, tax-cuts, deficits, and Katrina — appear to be successes.
All of these tactics, of course, have been to their political benefit and to the detriment of the American people and the United States. Understanding then, that the Republican Party and administration are less concerned with policy success and doing right by the American people, and more with being able to maintain political power … it is easier to put into context their reaction to the National Intelligence Estimate. That reaction, of course, was not one of concern about the security of the nation or the safety of the American people, but rather frantic and calculated spin.
Are Republicans and the administration
at all interested in protecting the American people,
or is their only interest
in protecting their political fortunes?
The Republican response to the National Intelligence Estimate is quite damning, the only thing they wish to keep safe is their hold on power. Their first and last concern was to protect their political fortunes and defend the President’s war through their masterful command of spin.
But as this next article indicates, that strategy needs reworking:
Philly suburbs shift toward Democrats
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
Sep 24, 2006
Growing disenchantment over the Iraq war is proving the great equalizer in many areas, blurring traditional social and demographic distinctions that made it easy to paint sections of the electoral map red or blue.
Take the well-off Philadelphia suburbs, bastions of sidewalk cafes and million-dollar-plus homes. The wealthy Philadelphia suburbs historically have been a Republican stronghold, but recent shifts in voter registration and voting patterns have moved the region toward the Democrats. The Associated Press-Ipsos poll last week found that trust for Democrats to handle the economy is higher in the Northeast than any other region in the country. In addition, voters in the Northeast trust Democrats and Republicans equally to handle the situation in Iraq.
When asked which issues they care about, a prevailing number said they had serious concerns about the war and the economy. Gas prices and the deficit were also a worry; global warming and stem-cell research were mentioned. Frequently, voters said the quality of education is a concern.
Something needs to be done soon, for the window of opportunity is closing:
Whether the registration shift coupled with unhappiness with the president, the war and the country’s direction translates into Democratic wins in three GOP-held seats and the competitive Senate race is the million-dollar question. The most recent AP-Ipsos poll found that in the Northeast, support for Democratic candidates among registered voters dropped from 60 percent last month to 49 percent this month.
As the Great American Philosopher Yogi Berra used to proclaim, “It ain’t over until the Diebold machine drops off line!” (or something like that).
Whatever the wisdom, there is still time for the Democrats to rise to the defense of their nation. All they need to do is keep their eyes on the screwball pitches coming at them:
This is the Smoking Gun
BuzzFlash Editorial
09/24/2006
Message to Dems: Don’t Get Defensive, Distracted or Lose Focus.
This is THE smoking gun. This is [provided courtesy of] Bush’s own 16 revamped intelligence agencies who have concluded that the Iraq War has expanded terrorism.
Congress will be won or lost based on the ability of the Democrats to bring truth to power on this intelligence finding by ALL of the top 16 Bush spy agencies.
Thousands upon Thousands of American and Iraq lives destroyed. Billions of dollars wasted.
The Dems have a patriotic responsibility to get this information through the pro-Bush media filter to every hamlet in America. The Dems need to be focused, aggressive, and unrelenting in getting this finding out. The Dems cannot let Rove divert attention — which he is already doing — or spin this into a political tit for tat — which the media is arleady doing. They cannot become defensive or distracted by the magician of the dark arts (Rove) in the White House.
The future of America,
our national security and democracy,
is at stake.
Now - if only we had a party to really offer opposition to the Republicans …
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