Paranoia can be a lot of fun, actually, if you take it in the right spirit. Here's the professional paranoid's take on the Scooter Libby sentence-commutation "scandal".
The PP thinks this is a little parting gift from Bushco to the incoming Hunger Chancellor -- whoops, I mean the imminent Democratic administration, whether headed by a light-brown -- a very light-brown -- chap from the Midwest or a certain semi-female person (also from the Midwest, oddly enough).
The point of the gift is to enable the incoming administration to be even more outrageously reactionary and imperial than it would otherwise have been -- because, of course, that suits the donor class no matter what kind of ears the administration might have.
Here's how it works, according to the PP:
The Republicans know it's Brand-X's turn next time around. They're probably not even too upset about it. Opposition has its own pleasures and opportunities, and while some third-level bureaucrats may be turned out to wander for four or eight years in the well-padded wilderness of the private sector, they won't starve -- and really, even if they did, who cares about them anyway?
So the Donks get first place at the trough next time around. Well, okay, that's the game. But we -- and that means us pachyderms, and them donks -- really need to lower public expectations. The supposed opposition gets in, and if we both don't watch out together, people might expect something to change. Can't have that! So... let's do something that will make the second string team look good no matter what they do, or don't do. -- I've got it! A pardon! Brilliant! So outrageous, it'll lower the bar for the Hunger-Chancellors well below sea level!
It worked for Carter, didn't it? At least for one term. And come to think of it, what's wrong with that scenario?
Comments (5)
What? You mean, our expectations can get lower? Once you've scraped through the bottom of the barrel, dug through the mold below the bottom of the barrel, burrowed through the floorboards below that and the dirt below that and hit bedrock...what could possibly be lower?
Wait. Don't tell me. I don't want to know.
Posted by AlanSmithee | July 6, 2007 10:10 PM
Posted on July 6, 2007 22:10
On the other hand, maybe Bush and Co just think there's nothing so outrageous that the Dems won't swallow it. To me, the pardon is a taunt: "ok, I've pardonned him. Now what are you going to do about it?"
Posted by bobw | July 6, 2007 10:40 PM
Posted on July 6, 2007 22:40
bobw makes a good point. The pardon's subtext: Yeah, I'm a lame duck, yeah my approval rating is in single digits, yeah my own party is deserting me -- but y'all are such eunuchs that I can do any outrageous thing I like, and all you can do about it is piss and moan.
Posted by MJS | July 6, 2007 10:53 PM
Posted on July 6, 2007 22:53
Interesting, your characterization of the Democraps as "eunuchs".
Might I also point out, in the same vein, that the words "dickless" and "Democrats" both start with a "D"? Coincidence...?
Ha, ha, ha, hah-ha. But, seriously, folks...
I caught the headline in yesterday's USA Today, I think it was, reading something like Dems Lash Out On Libby Sentence, and found myself thinking "Hah, they're too goddamn' dickless to do anything else but 'lash out', the friggin' losers" -- and even then, finding myself becoming even more disgusted to see that with all the real issues needing attention, they can only get their Irish up over bullshitty little sideshows like the Plame/CIA Brouhaha and the Cooter...uhh, Scooter Libby Imbroglio.
Seriously, man; that shit's like the Washington version of the O.J. Simpson trial.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | July 7, 2007 1:29 AM
Posted on July 7, 2007 01:29
the old "pour-soi" distinction
between
a gang of ruthless heedless
oligarchs (Os)
and a college
of
solid establishmentarians (Es)
becomes useful here
the reality in any class cloven society
is a set of power hungry packs
each
self de-totalizing
in its awareness
each nullifying
its deeper class agency
each two eyed soul
at least one eye blind
about themselves
such a patch as
"for the nation"
or
"for the people"
help in this lop-sightedness
the result
each outfit
a mix
a solution of Es and Os
a "heterogenious -selectorate half "
that nicely
and loosely contains
both self awareness "frames"
at any one time
a certain slanting of its Os into Es
and if per chance
like here under
the red white and blue
you happen to have
an evolved institutional reflection
of same ....
a durable duopoly party structure .....
each party gets
moments of power and light
to play baby face in public
AND
be a heel to themselves
or a heel in public and a ....
and of course
also be both at once
and either in turn
or neither too
as to the totalization scoring ???
the verdict is a long time in coming down
partial and slave to no
precedent
Posted by op | July 7, 2007 7:46 AM
Posted on July 7, 2007 07:46