Nipping &Tucking on Both Coasts-Maureen Dowd+ Interesting Libby Correction

[kpete]

Op-Ed Columnist
Nipping and Tucking on Both Coasts

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: March 8, 2006

There is a crash of ideologies between the country's two most self-regarding and fantasy-spinning power centers. The Bush crowd cringes away from gay cowboys spooning, gay authors flouncing, transgender babes exploring and George the Dashing Clooneying in movies about the glories of free speech and the dangers of oilmen influencing policy.

But as I looked around Vanity Fair's slinky Oscar party on Sunday night, it struck me that the bellicose Bushies do share a presentation aesthetic with Tinseltown's trompe l'oeil beauties: you see no furrowed brows, no regretful winces, no unflattering wrinkles, no admissions of imperfection, no qualms about puffing up what you really have, no visible signs of hard lessons learned, and no desire to confront reality in the mirror.

Who ever thought Dick Cheney and Mamie Van Doren would have so much in common?

The White House is constantly trying to do laser resurfacing on its Iraq policy, to sandblast away the damage from its own mistakes. But its veneer may be beyond repair.

In Hollywood terms, we've reached an Indiana Jones crisis moment in our parlous protectorate. The cave is collapsing, the snakes are encroaching, the vehicles are exploding, the crushing ball is rolling down on us. The public has stopped buying the administration's sugary spin. The Washington Post reported yesterday that 80 percent of Americans — cutting across party lines — say sectarian violence makes civil war in Iraq likely. More than a third call it "very likely." Half also think the U.S. should begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, the poll found, and two-thirds say the president has no clear plan for Iraq.

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Correction

My column of Feb. 18 said that Scooter Libby testified that "superiors" had authorized him to leak classified information about Valerie Plame. Rather, Mr. Libby testified that "superiors" had authorized him to leak classified information from an intelligence report to rebut critics and justify the Iraq war, not information about Valerie Plame.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/03/08/opinion/08dowd.html?hp
also at:http://edstrong.blog-city.com/maureen_dowd_once_upon_a_time_in_america.htm

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. I'd compare the Bush administration to Michael Jackson

If we are doing nip and tuck analogies

[necso]

2. Terrific piece,

from the opening "crash" to the concluding "story line for America". -- Hollywood or politics, it's all about creating and selling the image, hiding or harrowing reality so that it cannot bear its contradictory witness.

But the sun still rises in the east, and the earth still turns -- and real substance still matters above all else.

...And real beauty still lies within.