Revelatory Moments

It isn’t often that both our lesser and greater evil parties reveal their deepest natures within just a few days of each other.

The Democrats went first. They got retired army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez to deliver their ‘rebuttal’ to George Bush’s Saturday (November 24) radio address. Sanchez ran the Cheney/Bush Iraq operation between 2003 and 2004. He was the one in charge when the (known) “abuses” of prisoners occurred at Abu Ghraib and other locations, and there is good reason to think that he not only knew what was going on, but even ordered it indirectly. Yet he was the one chosen to pontificate on the anti-torture provisions of the Geneva Conventions and to echo the Democrats’ line about “supporting the troops.” Getting Sanchez to speak for the Democrats exceeds the usual opportunism of National Security wannabes. It reveals the true depth of the Democrats’ Pelosiism.

[Pelosiism, as I’ve explained before, is the Clintonism of our era. Pelosiites parade their “progressivism” while doing Cheney’s and Bush’s work for them – not just out of cowardice or bad strategizing, but because, as Clintonites, they are of one mind with Cheney and Bush.]

Then, not to be outdone, the Republicans showed what they’re about when Trent Lott decided he’d quit the Senate before the New Year – presumably to evade a law that goes into effect January 1 requiring Senators to wait at least two years after leaving office before they can go to work collecting millions as lobbyists. [Lott is the Senate Minority Whip. He used to be the Minority Leader, but he had to step down in the furor over his remarks praising Strom Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat campaign]. Turning political connections into gold is the stuff of modern politics. But this is qualitatively more crass. Lott has finally done one thing memorably well; he’s brought sleaziness and corruption to a new level. No Bush named George, not even Dick Cheney in his prime, could have illustrated the Republican essence better.

I confess that every time Cheney’s ticker falters, as it did again last weekend, I half expect him to seize the opportunity for a good excuse, and go the way of Trent Lott. But then I realize that this is wishful thinking on my part-- because he’s already made his zillions, and because he probably feels he still has responsibilities he can’t shirk looking out for the folks who will soon be stuffing Trent Lott’s pockets. Besides, he can’t resign because almost all the rats have already fled the sinking ship, so there’s no one else left to mind the Bush boy. Condoleezza used to be the designated nanny, but after Annapolis she’ll be too busy trying, again in vain, to mend her “legacy.” [If only Stanford had let her kill, maybe she’d have gotten it out of her system years ago, and would then have left the Palestinians (and Iraqis and Afghanis and all the others – including, especially, back in the summer of 2006 during the Israeli aggression, the Lebanese) in peace.]