Thursday :: Apr 21, 2005

Bloody, Bold, and Resolute


by dj moonbat

I continue to watch the slow-motion blow-ups of Tom DeLay's and John Bolton's political careers with both delight and apprehension. Part of it is pure schadenfreude; both DeLay and Bolton rank among the biggest jerks in American politics (and they're ugly, to boot).

But there's more; oh, there's more. As I noted yesterday, DeLay's attempts to divert attention from his impending legal difficulties by attacking the judiciary are growing increasingly crazy. Now that Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist have gotten their subpoenas, DeLay's counterattack will almost certainly grow even more intense, like a wounded, rabid badger who found a stash of PCP.

Similarly, though Bolton is now clearly damaged goods after the unexpected parliamentary betrayal by George Voinovich and Lincoln Chafee, we can see today that Bush refuses to budge:

Bush didn't mention Republicans or Democrats but said "sometimes politics gets in the way of doing the people’s business” — for a delay in a committee vote on Bolton’s nomination.
“John’s distinguished career and service to our nation demonstrates that he is the right man at the right time for this important assignment,” Bush said. “I urge the Senate to put aside politics and confirm John Bolton to the United Nations.”

The Decembrist's Mark Schmitt notes that we're witnessing the moment that all command-and-control structures experience, when their own internal discipline makes it impossible for them to find solutions to their external crises:

A command-control system like the White House-led Republican congressional system can be absolutely formidable for a certain period of time. But when it breaks down, it breaks down completely. The collapse is sudden, and total. Signals get crossed, backs get stabbed, the suddenly leaderless pawns in the system start acting for themselves, with no system or structure to coordinate their individual impulses. . .
The Rove/DeLay/Frist system doesn't have any means for correcting its mistakes -- look at the blank, lost looks on the faces of Senators Lugar and Chafee yesterday when they just had no idea what to do with a nomination that had fallen apart and couldn't fulfill their promises.

There is certainly a lot of truth in Schmitt's analysis, but it's a bit sterile, too. Though Bush and the modern GOP have reaped extraordinary rewards from an iron-disciplined command-and-control system, they also benefitted from sheer obstinacy and viciousness. They've been lucky with Bush; somehow, that faux-cowboy smirk of his distracts about half of America from the vicious, mean underbelly of the party.

Tom DeLay and Bolton have no such appeal. They're mean, they're petty, and they constantly use the system to benefit themselves and their cronies. They didn't get where they are by backing down, either, so they'll go down with guns blazing; they don't know any other way. The longer it takes, the better; America needs to get a good, long look at what they've been voting for.

dj moonbat :: 8:48 AM :: Comments (14) :: Digg It!