NYT: Frank Rich - Message: I Care About the Black Folks

[Pirate Smile]

Message: I Care About the Black Folks

By FRANK RICH
Published: September 18, 2005

ONCE Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again. He is forever Professor Marvel, blowhard and snake-oil salesman. Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to endure in the American psyche as long as L. Frank Baum's mythic tornado, has similarly unmasked George W. Bush.

The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of "compassionate conservatism," the lack of concern for the "underprivileged" his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action.

In the chaos unleashed by Katrina, these plot strands coalesced into a single tragic epic played out in real time on television. The narrative is just too powerful to be undone now by the administration's desperate recycling of its greatest hits: a return Sunshine Boys tour by the surrogate empathizers Clinton and Bush I, another round of prayers at the Washington National Cathedral, another ludicrously overhyped prime-time address flecked with speechwriters' "poetry" and framed by a picturesque backdrop. Reruns never eclipse a riveting new show.

Nor can the president's acceptance of "responsibility" for the disaster dislodge what came before. Mr. Bush didn't cough up his modified-limited mea culpa until he'd seen his whole administration flash before his eyes. His admission that some of the buck may stop with him (about a dime's worth, in Truman dollars) came two weeks after the levees burst and five years after he promised to usher in a new post-Clinton "culture of responsibility." It came only after the plan to heap all the blame on the indeed blameworthy local Democrats failed to lift Mr. Bush's own record-low poll numbers. It came only after America's highest-rated TV news anchor, Brian Williams, started talking about Katrina the way Walter Cronkite once did about Vietnam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/opinion/18rich.html?ex=1284696000&en=64a2f63f0c39dc70&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

I'll miss you, Frank, but I'm not paying $50. :-(

[NYCGirl]

1. WOW! Just wow! NT

[Melodybe]

19. This is the best line, even though every word is brilliant

WHEN there's money on the line, cronies always come first in this White House, no matter how great the human suffering.

Big kick for Frank and this thread is totally nominated.

Everyone should read that article and send it out.

[babylonsister]

2. He speaks for me and writes a helluva lot better! nt

[Mike_The_Computer]

3. Awesome. Still, why DO so many Americans think of Bush as "The Wizard?"

And how relentlessly, unbelievably, obstinately STUPID can so many Americans be? I still don't get how so many can be suckered by a flim-flam fratboy. It's so obvious to DUers and so many others that this jackass should never have been anything more than a failure in the private sector.

[Kahuna]

9. Welcome to DU Mike!!!

:hi:

[babylonsister]

16. Me too, Mike. Newyawker makes me DU it!

Welcome to DU! :toast:

[newswolf56]

4. When a diatribe of this caliber comes from the voice of the oligarchy...

(which is ultimately what The New York Times is), change is truly in the wind: shades of the dawn of the New Deal.

Note especially this: "It's up to Democrats, though they show scant signs of realizing it, to step into the vacuum and propose an alternative to a fiscally disastrous conservatism that prizes pork over compassion."

Seems that John Edwards -- and John Edwards alone -- is the only Democrat up to the task, whether intellectually, psychologically or morally.

[rocktivity]

8. No wonder Rich is being banished into the NYT online subscription service

:headbang:
rocknation

[babylonsister]

12. The entire paper is. $50 online, or no more NYTs, starting

in October. I hope someone posts some articles. If not, I'll miss them. Especially Rich.

[fryguy]

14. btw, its free for daily subscribers - n/t

[Pirate Smile]

15. I'll miss Rich, Krugman, and Dowd.

[dejavuredux]

20. Rich, Krugman and Dowd...

have all played the role of Toto very well, pulling aside Rove's curtain of deceit on a regular basis, but now they're being placed behind a $50 curtain of their own, a barrier most people cannot or will not overcome.

[Pirate Smile]

26. You are right. Welcome to DU, dejavuredux!

:hi:

[bklyncowgirl]

23. Check your local library--many subscribe to Proquest's NYT online

They get the articles up there in html format almost immediately. It's free if you have a library card--or some mine use a password system.

Not only do they have the current stuff but the historical NYT as well going back to the 1850s in PDF.

It is absolutely cool and assuming you live in an area where your library has purchased it, it's your tax dollars at work so enjoy.

[Pirate Smile]

27. Cool. Thanks for the info! I'll have to check it out.

[scarletlib]

22. Hopefully you are right.

Frank was removed from the editorial pages during the run up to our invasion of Iraq and thereafter. They put him back in Arts and Entertainment but even there he generally managed to skewer bushco every other week or so.

Putting him back on the editorial pages as was done a few months ago may be a signal that the 'powers that be' are indeed turning against bushco.

[Waistdeep]

5. My God

This is one of the most blistering critiques of the Bush administration that I have ever seen in the mainstream media.

Read the whole article. It's very refreshing.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. I had to forward this to everyone I know. Thanks for posting.

[rocktivity]

7. "...(T)he Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again."

Once Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again. He is forever Professor Marvel, blowhard and snake-oil salesman. Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to endure in the American psyche as long as L. Frank Baum's mythic tornado, has similarly unmasked George W. Bush.

I was flipping channels one day when I came across the climax of a Nightmare On Elm Street movie. The damsel in distress is about to be vanquished by the monster Freddie Kruger, but she has a moment of truth: realizing that the nightmare is nothing more than that--a nightmare. So she vanquishes him by saying something along the lines of, "It's over, Freddie; I get it now. This is all a dream--none of this is real. YOU CAN'T SCARE ME ANYMORE BECAUSE YOU AREN'T REAL TO ME ANYMORE."

I feel the same way about Bush's response to Katrina and his NOLA rebuilding plan: both are as unreal as Freddy is, and once you accept that, you don't have to fear criticizing them. He's made absolutely no mention of the environmental impact Katrina will have on rebuilding NOLA, and attempting to finance it as well as the rebuilding of Iraq by cutting current goverment spending is insane, to put it politely!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Olney Blue]

10. Even Larva gets zinged!

Taking responsibility, as opposed to paying lip service to doing so, is not in this administration's gene pool. It was particularly shameful that Laura Bush was sent among the storm's dispossessed to try to scapegoat the news media for her husband's ineptitude. When she complained of seeing "a lot of the same footage over and over that isn't necessarily representative of what really happened," the first lady sounded just like Donald Rumsfeld shirking responsibility for the looting of Baghdad.

[hippiegranny]

30. Larva!

OMG! The perfect name for that glassy eyed zombie! If that was a typo, it was a Freudian Slip Extraordinaire!

[babylonsister]

11. Kick!

[fryguy]

13. bravo Frank!

nominated and kicked

[gristy]

17. Come on Frank, tell me how you really feel.

Yowza

If the era of Great Society big government is over, the era of big government for special interests is proving a fiasco. Especially when it's presided over by a self-styled C.E.O. with a consistent three-decade record of running private and public enterprises alike into a ditch.

[bleever]

18. Wow. It really is an "Emperor's New Clothes" moment.

What a world; what a world.

:)

[Patsy Stone]

25. I do believe, bleeve,

this is it.

I also adore the phrase, "Rovian stagecraft". :hi:

[OETKB]

21. Some Cold Water

Mr. Rich's voice is only new found. Remember he supported the war in Iraq at one time.

However,I am in total agreement with his scathing commentary of this administration, but take issue with his emphasis on making the democratic party the tool to bring about our proper turnaround in national policy. It is the media that has the primary responsibility to be a bulwark against a wayward government. He didn't seem to advocate for more on the ground people reporting. So I'm holding my praise for the moment.

[GCP]

24. Frank is the main reason I decided to shell out the subscription money

He's been consistently anti-Bush for a long time. He's better than Dowd and as good as Krugman.
Bravo, Frank, keep up the good work.

[Tin Man]

28. Frank Rich delivers the goods yet again!

I think Rich's closing paragraph is worthy of special consideration:

What comes next? Having turned the page on Mr. Bush, the country hungers for a vision that is something other than either liberal boilerplate or Rovian stagecraft. At this point, merely plain old competence, integrity and heart might do.

A winning recipe for 2006 & 2008?

[Theres-a]

29. Kick

[madmark]

31. Its well written and concise, the call for "just plain old competence"

is dead on.

[Nothing Without Hope]

32. I LOVE his last line, it's so very true:

What comes next? Having turned the page on Mr. Bush, the country hungers for a vision that is something other than either liberal boilerplate or Rovian stagecraft. At this point, merely plain old competence, integrity and heart might do.

Think I'll use it for my sig line for a while - I like to rotate favorites, and this is a new one. The Dem leaders had better realize the truth of this, or they are OUT.