Wednesday, November 17, 2004
L'Etat, C'est Moi
It's said that if something happens once its an accident, and if it happens twice it's a trend. If it happens three times, maybe you've really got something.
1. The nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general is said to be an attempt to burnish his credentials with conservatives, who don't find him conservative enough, so that he can be bumped to the Supreme Court eventually.
2. Arlen Specter is apparently going to get to be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee after all, despite the furor over his insufficiently conservative credentials to head the panel that must sign off on Bush's judicial appointments.
3. The nomination of Margaret Spellings to succeed Rod Paige as education secretary is reportedly causing some consternation among conservatives who think she's soft on vouchers and school privatization.
So the conventional wisdom of only a week ago--that Bush II was going to be the Unqualified Triumph of the Wingnuts--may no longer be operative. They're still waiting for the perfect nominee to set their hearts aflutter, and they'll most likely get one someday. For now, they'll come to accept Gonzales, Spellings, and Spector eventually (Specter especially, whose dissent from the conservative line will now be limited to jumping two feet in the air when he's told to jump instead of three.) But the mere fact that they have to settle for less than they hoped, only two weeks after supposedly giving Bush his spendable political capital, has to harsh their victory buzz.
A telling fact in what's really going on here is the frequent use of the word "confidante" to describe three high-profile nominees--Gonzales, Spellings, and Condoleezza Rice. Combined with news that "disloyal" CIA agents are being purged from the agency and the likelihood of a similar purge coming to the State Department, the second Bush term is starting to look like a cult of personality--which isn't much of a surprise. We were told repeatedly during the campaign that only the reelection of Bush could save us from Insensate Evil; we were told repeatedly that God chose him to be president; so why shouldn't the man, and the needs of the man, become more important than those of the office or even the party? Never mind enshrining theocracy in law; never mind even preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution. If you want a federal gig now, you'd better be focused on the preservation, protection, and defense of George W. Bush.
And by the way: about that meme that says "moral values" voters decided the election for Bush--guess who's responsible for pushing it? That's right--liberals and the media, at least according to this post at Real Clear Politics, which gives a share of the blame to the religious right itself. The post does make a good point, however, that I've seen made elsewhere--the moral values meme comes from the responses to a single question in one exit poll. This post is the first attempt I've seen, however, to blame its propagation on somebody other than the wingnuts.
Elsewhere: It's not often that we can combine Recommended Reading and Quote of the Day, but today we can: "The Republican Party is the party of 'fuck'. The Democratic Party should become the party of 'shit.'" That story (which is actually a pretty good piece of analysis) and the bit about the moral values myth both came to my attention via the Daou Report, a website compiling blog posts from left, right, and center. Peter Daou worked for John Kerry, and used to compile a similar digest for the campaign each day. His guy's loss is clearly a blog reader's (and writer's) gain.
It's said that if something happens once its an accident, and if it happens twice it's a trend. If it happens three times, maybe you've really got something.
1. The nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general is said to be an attempt to burnish his credentials with conservatives, who don't find him conservative enough, so that he can be bumped to the Supreme Court eventually.
2. Arlen Specter is apparently going to get to be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee after all, despite the furor over his insufficiently conservative credentials to head the panel that must sign off on Bush's judicial appointments.
3. The nomination of Margaret Spellings to succeed Rod Paige as education secretary is reportedly causing some consternation among conservatives who think she's soft on vouchers and school privatization.
So the conventional wisdom of only a week ago--that Bush II was going to be the Unqualified Triumph of the Wingnuts--may no longer be operative. They're still waiting for the perfect nominee to set their hearts aflutter, and they'll most likely get one someday. For now, they'll come to accept Gonzales, Spellings, and Spector eventually (Specter especially, whose dissent from the conservative line will now be limited to jumping two feet in the air when he's told to jump instead of three.) But the mere fact that they have to settle for less than they hoped, only two weeks after supposedly giving Bush his spendable political capital, has to harsh their victory buzz.
A telling fact in what's really going on here is the frequent use of the word "confidante" to describe three high-profile nominees--Gonzales, Spellings, and Condoleezza Rice. Combined with news that "disloyal" CIA agents are being purged from the agency and the likelihood of a similar purge coming to the State Department, the second Bush term is starting to look like a cult of personality--which isn't much of a surprise. We were told repeatedly during the campaign that only the reelection of Bush could save us from Insensate Evil; we were told repeatedly that God chose him to be president; so why shouldn't the man, and the needs of the man, become more important than those of the office or even the party? Never mind enshrining theocracy in law; never mind even preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution. If you want a federal gig now, you'd better be focused on the preservation, protection, and defense of George W. Bush.
And by the way: about that meme that says "moral values" voters decided the election for Bush--guess who's responsible for pushing it? That's right--liberals and the media, at least according to this post at Real Clear Politics, which gives a share of the blame to the religious right itself. The post does make a good point, however, that I've seen made elsewhere--the moral values meme comes from the responses to a single question in one exit poll. This post is the first attempt I've seen, however, to blame its propagation on somebody other than the wingnuts.
Elsewhere: It's not often that we can combine Recommended Reading and Quote of the Day, but today we can: "The Republican Party is the party of 'fuck'. The Democratic Party should become the party of 'shit.'" That story (which is actually a pretty good piece of analysis) and the bit about the moral values myth both came to my attention via the Daou Report, a website compiling blog posts from left, right, and center. Peter Daou worked for John Kerry, and used to compile a similar digest for the campaign each day. His guy's loss is clearly a blog reader's (and writer's) gain.
