Kos on the commanding heights
Well, the regular communicants of Daily Kos don't see it that way. I'm lurking, under deep, deep cover -- disguised as a security guard, actually -- at their "first-annual" convention in Las Vegas. It's Day Two (Day One was reported at yesterday.) and -- we've all been there -- Day Two has a slightly bleak, morning-after quality. (We'll get back to the CIA in a minute.)
Day One was undoubtedly exciting: all these folks who knew each other only under screen names finally meeting in the flesh -- fairly prepossessing flesh in some cases, less so in others. I hope there were at least a few hookups, though as a journalist, I personally would have declined embedding (not that it was offered, dammit).
Day Two has had the slightly tentative, halting air of a post-coital breakfast. Perhaps that's why the Kosniks turned from each other's now-known, and suddenly too-familiar faces, to the safer ground of celebrity-worship. The first celebrity made available for the purpose was Ambassador Joseph Wilson, husband of "outed" CIA agent Valerie Plame and whistle-blower on the Niger yellowcake story.
Wilson is a classic FSO type. He's well-spoken, he knows how to play gravitas in the left hand and levity in the right simultaneously, and he seems to be profoundly comfortable in his own skin, without a shred of Kos' conscious and showy arriviste self-assurance. Wilson's Paderewski coiffure says that he is a man of culture as well as a man of the world, and if ever I saw a coiffure that wasn't lying, it's Wilson's.
The Kosniks ate him up. Standing ovations, big belly laughs at every donnish little witticism -- he's the guy they'd all like to be. And when he dropped the tidbit that his Frau had the best score with an AK-47 on the CIA rifle range, I feel sure a lot of 'em crossed the line from wanting to be him to wanting to do him. Or her. I felt a little frisson myself, to tell the truth. (For her, of course. Ahem.)
Wilson repeatedly referred to the "national security" of the United States, and flirted with accusing the administration of treason -- an accusation made explicit by one of his fellow panelists, another ex-CIA guy, Larry Johnson, who has been breaking blogsphere lances left and right on Plame's behalf ever since she became a household name. Johnson was apparently a bud of Valerie's in the Agency, lucky dog.
Now "treason" and "national security," it seems to me, are expressions that ought to send any Lefty running for cover. But it didn't have that effect on the Kosniks. They loved it. They were delighted to be on the same side as this orotund, world-weary vieux-prepster Foreign Service dude, and the furious, carpet-chewing, traitor-hunting Johnson.
History notoriously repeats itself, and I couldn't help thinking that what the Kosniks are feeling today, as they are stroked by politicians and patricians, must have been a lot like what the chastened, newly anti-communist liberals of the late Forties felt -- the Hubert Humphries and the Sidney Hooks -- as they came in from the cold, damp and shivering, and were handed a cheering Martini by Dean Acheson. Of course the famous line, "first time as tragedy, second time as farce" comes irresistibly to mind.
Speaking of Martinis, they were laid on, abundantly, at a reception given by Virginia governor and presidential hopeful Mark Warner, which rounded out the day. Warner, or somebody, spent some serious money on this bash. It was held at the top of a Space Needlish tower, apparently something of a local attraction -- such an important structure that the blazer thugs put you through an airport search routine before they let you on the elevator. And I suppose in fact if Osama wanted to strike at the heart of America, he could do worse.
Warner's Martinis were handed around on little trays -- plastic glasses, though, a chintzy touch -- and there was a profusion and variety of food that outshone a Great Neck wedding. All in all, it made General Wesley Clark's little soiree the previous night look pretty shabby.
Warner worked the room with wolf-like intensity -- he even cornered me, while I was trying to get a picture of him, and gave my hand a manly pump, gazing deep into my eyes. I was still thinking about Valerie Plame, though, so Warner didn't make as much of an impression as he might have.
The Kosniks were in seventh heaven. You could tell by the excited voices, the drawn-up, self-important stances, the handshaking and backslapping. They thought they'd arrived. They thought they were in.
You can't grow up in a little Protestant church down South, like I did, without having the Scriptures come to mind occasionally. What came to my mind up in that Space Needle, as I looked down at the streetlights stretching out into desert darkness, and heard the giddy voices of the Kosniks raised in illusory triumph behind me, was a bit from Luke's gospel:
| And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan. |
Comments
Found you this morning on counterpunch! Like your writing style.......! Posted your article on scoop.epluribusmedia.org. Come give us a look-see...you might like what you read!
Posted by: avahome | June 10, 2006 02:13 PM
former gubner
of the sovereign
state
of virginia
mark warner looks close to being
future inmate
of whispering pines sanitorium
Posted by: jsp | June 10, 2006 02:36 PM
What in the name of Morris Ankrum...that's not Mark Warner! That's one of the lesser Baldwins. Daniel maybe.
Posted by: AlanSmithee | June 10, 2006 05:05 PM
A very good read. On the money, as they say...;)
LOL they banned me way last year. I think for possessing a spine. Or a mind I chose not to waste...
Posted by: Marisacat | June 10, 2006 10:00 PM
Most excellent deep cover(age)! I am hooked on your blog and consider it the best thing to come out of YearlyKos thus far. Arthur Gilroy over at Booman posted about your series and I can't get enough. Michael, you are a seriously gifted writer and I love both your politics and your analysis. What I love most of all, however, is the orgasmic cerebral massage I get from reading what you write. Don't ever stop!
Posted by: Evolving Peace | June 10, 2006 11:36 PM
Michael, if you're not already in this loop, I would love to see you (deep) cover it:
From Pachacutec: "I’ve also just talked with a bunch of people from Drinking Liberally who are really excited about collaborating with us on the development of our Roots Project network. This is all happening at an impromptu, informal gathering of netroots people that includes Atrios, Jane, Jennifer Nix, Matt Stoller, Chris Bowers, Ian Walsh, Matt Singer, Mike Stark, Matt O., Bob Geiger, Sterling Newberry, Simon Rosenberg, Tom Tomorrow and a whole bunch more people from other sites and progressive activist organizations whose names I have not yet memorized. For me, this is the ultimate little gathering for movement development, and the stuff some of us are cooking up is far, far bigger than anything I can describe in a Late Nite post."
MyDD is in the mix, yet I am intrigued by the notable exclusion of frontpage Kositanians (I love this moniker - so very apt).
Posted by: Evolving Peace | June 11, 2006 12:03 AM
I certainly agree with you about the CIA being a nasty organization.
But outing Valerie Plame was done to intimidate people within the CIA, to provent disgrunted individuals from this admittedly nasty organization from becoming whistle blowers.
I don't know much about Warner at all except that he's a right-wing democrat who made his fortune buying up cell phone contracts, probably a better choice than Hillary if they want to go that right-wing route (and they do) since he can probably deliver Virginia, not someone I'd vote for.
Posted by: Stanley Rogouski | June 11, 2006 10:26 AM
Dang good piece a work.
I excerpted it at Washblog this morning.
Posted by: Arthur Ruger, Curmudgeon | June 11, 2006 11:14 AM
my guess the rival cults are planning a consortium
to destroy kosery
through a direct
demolishment
of marcoco puff
it has its precendence among
strong donk party support cliques
taking one at random..
various klan klaverns
did this
in the mid 20's
to destroy
the over grown nationally
too pprominent
indiana outfit...
as i recall reading
they nailed
its peerless leader
for graft animal cruelty
and sneaking across the ohio river
to watch matinee movies from the colored balcony
Posted by: js paine | June 11, 2006 01:45 PM
Great reporting on the Kos convention. The Kos serves to rally Dems around whoever they run. Very naive liberals.
GREAT pic of Warner! You managed to capture the real guy between grins!
Posted by: Jaded Prol | June 11, 2006 03:10 PM
That's not Mark Warner, that Yves Montand! But where's the cigarette dangling in existential ennui from his lips?
I guess this makes it official, Daily Kos is now a theme park. Even if I was still posting there (Armando had me banned for giving some of his obscenity-laced insult comments troll ratings), I wouldn't have considered going to this cult-like gathering. Thanks for having the stomach to endure for out sakes.
Posted by: JJB | June 12, 2006 10:29 AM
I really don't understand how these liberals and progressives think. The idea that electing Democrats will bring about real change is total nonsense. Why don't they do something useful like protesting the war or organizing a real movement?
Posted by: Mehdizadeh | June 12, 2006 03:21 PM
Stanley Rogouski: "But outing Valerie Plame was done to intimidate people within the CIA, to provent disgrunted individuals from this admittedly nasty organization from becoming whistle blowers."
True, true, but I can't help thinking here of the defense so many liberals made of Bush's aggression in Iraq: even if the motives weren't the best, the result (removing Saddam from power) was good. In this case, we have one less CIA thug who hopefully won't get to use her AK-47 skills on real people any more.
Great writing, Michael; thanks. I came to this site through RedStateSon's blog.
Posted by: Duncan | June 12, 2006 09:13 PM
You have got the punchy writing style. Now you only need something to say.
Followed you over from Counterpunch
Posted by: TheBorealAvenger | June 13, 2006 02:39 PM
Now the hopeful Democrats hope they can return us to the blissful era of Clinton through the election of Kerry or Hillary, both of whom are business-as-usual insiders, with a twist to please everybody--they think. Still bashing Nader and the Green Party, ignoring their messages, the Democrats are set for another round of self-destructioon.
Posted by: Mike Havenar | June 21, 2006 10:20 AM
I guesds you missed my party -- it was competing with Warner's for a couple hours, but mine started before and ended later -- far later, as the last person left at 2:55am.
Too bad -- I'd love to have read your perception of the MLW/Booman/EuroTrib party, which was, it sounds to me, the antithesis of the Warner shindig.
Posted by: Maryscott OConnor | July 2, 2006 09:10 PM
M O'C -- Sorry I missed yours, though the Warner thing was a marvel. Still, an antithesis would have been encouraging.
Posted by: MJS | July 2, 2006 09:57 PM