LION

Senator Kennedy,

You're Boston Irish...

What else do you need to kick anything's ass?

Who is this again?

INTERVENTION

The day after George W. Bush’s final State of the Union Speech, I was speaking with a friend and asked her what she thought about it. She responded that she felt sorry for him. I almost spat blood but I contained myself and simply asked, “Why?”

The response was, “I just feel like he screwed things up so badly.” I could agree with that but it seemed that implicit in the two statements was the sense that Bush had intended to do great good but had been either inept or simply unlucky.

I chose not to argue this point even though my opinion was that he either knew exactly what he was doing or was swayed by others who did. Either way, I felt no pity--no sense of “There but for the grace …” which I often feel for people who have come to difficult moments. I also didn’t argue because this friend, a Republican, had shown similar compassion for Democrats and Republicans for the entire time I have known her. Every part of me wanted to argue that this was a different situation and this man wasn’t worthy of anybody’s pity. But I also didn’t feel that I had adequate evidence to convince her on that day nor did I want to disturb the new era of good feeling I was experiencing with my Republican friends during this time. The election season had started and it seemed that all around me were entering into a period of honest discussion about the difficulties facing our country. And implicit in these discussions was the sense that both sides cared about this nation.

The evidence I needed to rebuke my friend presented itself to me this morning just after I woke up. The first voice I heard on the television was of George W. Bush. The first image I saw was of that same creature standing before the Israeli Knesset making a speech in celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of that country. The words I should have heard should have been a celebration of a people who faced complete extermination only to form a strong country that has survived into its seventh decade. Instead, I heard a base, cynical, Rovian political speech, complete with a strawman tactic, asserting that anyone who would look to diplomacy in dealing with Iran or other enemies of Israel was equivalent to an appeaser of Nazis. Implicit in this speech was an attack on Barack Obama. It didn’t matter that Bush’s own Secretary of Defense was quoted in this morning’s Washington Post as saying that we need to negotiate with the Iranians. It doesn’t matter that his Secretary of State has said the same thing over the past few weeks. It doesn’t matter that his administration negotiated with the leader of Libya even though he has been an avowed enemy to Israel and has been involved in many terrorist acts including the blowing up of an airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland with American college students aboard. It doesn’t matter that his administration is in constant contact with the government of North Korea a government he listed along with Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as the “Axis of evil.” It doesn’t matter that this hypocrite committed treason today for the purpose of scoring a few political points and protecting his despicable legacy. It doesn’t matter because in George W. Bush’s tree lizard-sized mind he is living some very remedial version of the Arthurian legend where he and his country are one. How can he commit treason against himself?

This morning I knew that any good feeling I have extended toward any Republican does not reach out to George W. Bush. It is also being slowly drawn back from anybody who would continue to support him after this day and that includes John McCain and Joe Lieberman.

In retrospect all that we ever needed to know about Bush can be seen in a short clip from the 2000 campaign. The moment occurs during a commercial break on the Letterman show. Bush is looking at his glasses, he notices they are smudged. A segment producer is leaning over Letterman’s desk completely unaware of the candidate to her left. He glances, indifferently, and reaches out to use what appears to be either the woman’s shirt or scarf as his glass cleaner. He never asks or even acknowledges her. When I watched the clip again about an hour ago, I was reminded of a scene from Showtime’s “The Tudors” where a commoner goes down on his hands and knees and Henry VIII nonchalantly steps on his back to climb upon his horse.

Certainly this clip was not enough to vote against him at the time. Nor does it even constitute a slap to the head now as if we should have known. But as the bodies continue to pile up and the wounded come home, as the lies and denials continue to spew forth, as the phones continue to be tapped and the detainees continue to be tortured, as the generals continue to be fired and the bill for the war escalates, as we remember how he squandered a huge surplus just after he took office as a way to score political points for the congressional elections—a surplus which could have been used on our infrastructure or simply saved for an emergency such as the 9/11 attacks which he was warned about on 8/6, as he danced at his daughter’s wedding never thinking about how “romantic” it would be to send them to a honeymoon in Afghanistan, it kind of makes me wish that we all could have been otherworldly perceptive about that first impression.

Years ago, I asked that same friend I mentioned above, why are you Republican? The response was that “Democrats believe that the government solves all our problems. Republicans believe that government complicates things and is the last resort.” This sounded reasonable to me although it didn’t sway me from being a Democrat. I had a feeling I was with the right party for me even if I couldn’t voice it at the time. I knew it had something to do with social issues but I also knew that my response would be far more convoluted and thus less succinct and decisive.
The era of Bush the Dictator has finally given me my succinct answer: Democrats believe that the government is the people. Republicans believe in pure power.

The truth is the Bush administration believes in this. But since they have hijacked the Republican Party, they have made it over in their image and they insist that all including John McCain abide by their design.

The more I think about it today, I am so very glad the Democratic primary has gone on so long. In it’s best moments it has shown that smart people can be very different and disagree but still come together for a good beyond any individual. At its worst…well …it has resembled George W. Bush.

I pray we choose the better and I believe we will. Today, when I decided to write this, I still had some other things to do. But when I turned on the computer I read what Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Rahm Emanuel, Harry Reid, and Joe Biden said. All of them had very different approaches unique to who they are but implicit in those statements was the realization that Bush and his administration are nothing but a group of thugs and bullies. And the only way to deal with such monsters is to punch them in their mouths every time they open them. Not to appease them.

Meanwhile, I read McCain and Lieberman’s responses. They read like the memos handed out daily at Fox News. Meanwhile, Bush, like the punk he has always been went running behind his aides and press secretary who said the equivalent of, “Oh, he didn’t mean Obama. Where did you get that idea?”

Oh, yes he did. And we will not put up with these scare tactics any more.

These past eight years have been a constant sometimes losing battle to contain my contempt…disgust…revulsion…heavens, give me the word!…against this nothing who has occupied our White House for the past eight years and, but for the luck of the stupidest impeachment of all time preceding his reign, and the much challenged good will of the American people, should be dragged out of the presidential mansion on January 20, 2009 in chains to stand trial for crimes, foreign and domestic, against humanity. I will try to contain it no more, forever.

As this election season has dragged on, I have often contemplated re-registering as an independent. But as I read the responses by my fellow Democrats both elected and private I find that, at least today, I am very proud to be a member of this imperfect, quarreling group of misfits who love their country.

I wonder how my Republican friends feel.

J.A.L.