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| Bernard Weiner |
This Crisis Papers essay was originally published on December 28, 2006.
I couldn't believe it. "Shallow Throat" actually was smiling when we met on the hiking trail along the old C&0 Canal near Bethesda.
The high-ranking GOP mole in the Bush Administration had spent so many of our previous meetings glum and paranoid, so I didn't know what to expect this time, even with the lighthearted demeanor.
"You wouldn't believe the mood in the White House and in many of the other departments," said Shallow Throat, giggling. "It's doom and gloom. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of crooks and liars. I walk around the corridors of power wearing a large grin inside.
"Their days are numbered. And they know it, too. They've read the election returns from November and see the handwriting on the wall. Rumsfeld is gone (perhaps to face civil lawsuits), and Bush and Cheney and Rove and Rice and Hadley and Gonzales and the rest of the bunker crew are going down and the only question is when.
"The citizens in November delivered their No Confidence verdict on this crew of incompetent, corrupt, arrogant power-mongers. Not surprisingly, the Democrats, so locked into their timid victim mode, seem unsure what to do with their victory."
"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Reid and Pelosi are standing up tall these days, along with most of the incoming chairmen of the important committees -- Conyers, Waxman, Leahy, et al. They're not going to roll over anymore."
WHO'S IN CONTROL OF WAR POWER?
"Look, I'm as happy as you are that the GOP is no longer in charge of the Legislative branch of government," said ST. "The mantle of momentum and far-right-conservative 'inevitability' is no longer around the shoulders of those mean-spirited, corrupted White House officials and members of Congress. But you're forgetting two important things:
"One, Bush&Co. still control the levers of war and the Justice Department and much of the court system, including the Supreme Court, and they intend to use them all. And why not? Their approval numbers are so low, they figure they have nothing to lose by continuing their stop-me-if-you-can approach.
"Second, your 'principled' Democrats are coming perilously close to falling into the spider web trap Karl Rove has set for them."
"I'm a bit lost here," I replied, "not sure I understand that last comment. What trap are you talking about?"
"Just use your noodle, my naive progressive friend," said Shallow Throat. "What is dragging down the Bush Administration and was responsible for the huge GOP defeat in November?"
"The war in Iraq?" I answered.
ROPING DEMOCRATS TO THE "SURGE"
"Bingo! You got it on the first try. So here the Republicans are being destroyed by the war they started, and if they don't want to lose the White House and Congress again in 2008 they've got to find a way to get that albatross from around their necks and, at least partially, also around the necks of the Democrats, thus wiping out the war as an issue.
"Bush and Cheney will not, repeat NOT, have the official defeat in Iraq happen on their watch. Bush's shaky ego cannot handle yet another 'loser' label. They've got to postpone the inevitable until after the 2008 election, so that a new President will have the defeat happen on his watch. So they come up with the cockamamie idea of 'surging' more troops into Baghdad as a so-called 'temporary' measure -- as if more troops will wipe away all their misdeeds and will calm the anti-U.S. waters in Iraq. Plus --"
"Uh, you were going to explain the 'trap' you say the Democrats are walking into," I interjected.
"Right. The point is that the only way the Administration's escalation of the war can possibly work for them is if the Democrats can be lured into signing onto the plan. Harry Reid at first said he could accept the 'surge' if it really was temporary, just lasting a few months. And Sylvestre Reyes, Pelosi's pick to head the House Intelligence Committee, bought into the idea as well. Rove's plan was working."
"But Reid backed away quickly from his initial comments once he heard the uproar from his base," I countered. "And Reyes, not the brightest light bulb, will do whatever Pelosi tells him to do."
"The point is that your Democrat friends are behaving as if they can't believe the electorate put them in charge of Congress. The Democrats still seem to be afraid of doing anything major on Iraq, lest they be termed 'unpatriotic' if they don't 'support the troops.' They seem to be ignoring the fact that the voters swept away the Republicans precisely to get our young soldiers the hell out of that civil-war rat hole as quickly as is practicable. Every time one of Bush's 'emergency' funding bills for the war comes up -- for another hundred billion dollars -- your liberals fall all over themselves to jump on the war bandwagon. Money is their lever -- use it!"
STEPPING OUT FOR REAL CHANGE
"So what would you have the Democrats do?" I asked.
"The first thing your liberal friends are going to have to realize," said ST, "is that these Bush guys are not going to leave the premises voluntarily. They are correctly frightened of future jail terms, for one thing, and they'll fight to the death to stay in power. You're either going to have to impeach them or cause them such problems governing that the powers-that-be in the Republican party demand they resign. I think Pelosi and Reid, despite their public expressions, understand that.
"Impeachment won't fly immediately, but if the investigations into Administration policies in Iraq and elsewhere are handled correctly and fairly, the tumblers will click into place, perhaps as early as the Spring, and the American people will come to understand the enormity of Bush&Co.'s policy crimes -- in Iraq, on torture, on domestic spying, on energy and so on -- and realize that impeachment is the necessary and proper Constitutional remedy for removing them.
"In the meantime, the Democrats can, through the power of the purse strings, demand that monies for the Iraq War be used for bringing the troops home, not escalating the conflict. And certainly not for starting a new war by bombing Iran, or encouraging the Israelis to do it for them, both of which scenarios are being planned as we speak."
"What you're asking the Democrats to do is to step way out there, way beyond the normal parameters of political behavior, and the American people in general may not accept that."
DRIVING A STAKE THROUGH THE HEART
"Damn it, this is not politics as usual; these guys have been taking America down an imperialist, near-fascist road. You know it, I know it, and the American people suspect that this crew is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. The way Bush&Co. have been behaving is endangering us all, our economy, our Constitutional protections, our nation's standing and ability to move successfully in the world, killing and maiming tens of thousands of our own troops, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, and in so doing helping attract a new generation of suicide jihadists eager to attack America.
"If you want to get the U.S. back on a reasonable course, we all are going to have to 'step way out there,' to use your phrase -- the Democrats, we traditional conservatives, the media. We simply have to pry their fingers off the levers of power, and the only way to do that is to force them out of their bunker, shine the light of truth on them, and then evict them. A political stake-through-the-heart approach. Do you think your Democrat friends are up to the task? I seriously wonder."
"Yes," I said, "I do believe they can do it, if our activist base remains strong, and if the Democrats in Congress stay sharply focused in their investigations; if that happens, we can bring the Republicans and Independents along who voted for Bush in '04 but abandoned the Republicans as too extremist in '06.
"To get to impeachment or resignation, we need a united front of revulsion and commitment. I think Pelosi and Reid are smart and are determined to get the country back on course. But they will be facing extreme pressures to ease up, to back away from confrontation, to go along to get along. We have to keep their feet to the fire and constantly remind them who won the election and why."
"I admire your optimism, and I shared it right after the November election," said Shallow Throat. "But I've seen these Democrats cave so easily and so often before, I'm thinking that maybe the best we can hope for during these next two years is mild opposition, the Dems acting mainly as a brake on the most extreme policies and nominations but not helping create the conditions to remove these guys from power and thus save thousands of lives. Instead, the Democrats may more or less abandon the field as they look forward to 2008 -- in effect, with blood on their hands, enabling the worst aspects of CheneyBush policy. Then, if history is any guide, the Dems will tear each other apart, opening the door to another generation of GOP extremists in the White House."
And with that, a much more somber Shallow Throat said goodbye and turned off a path that, I couldn't help noting, diverged in a yellow wood.
-- BW
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