Ode To Dick (BBA V)
In yet another instance of "how could I pass up a title like that":
Compared to George W., Richard Nixon had an all consuming passion for the truth. The Watergate transcripts are basically a desperate attempt by Nixon to keep his lies straight. He was genuinely concerned about what lies he had told to whom; painstakingly repositioning aides and agencies inside his web of plausible deniability lest his actions be found out.
Today's misdeeds make the Huston Plan look like an exercise in progressive government. Having to defend something like the Downing Street Memo would've dissolved RN in a puddle of vindictive jowl sweat. Yet the media never dares trouble our unconcerned Caesar for an explanation.
[Jerry and Joe Long, "Ode To Dick", The Huffington Post, 2 June 2005.]
About Nixon we can look back, almost with nostalgia, and discover several things in the "well, at least he did…" good kind-of stuff category — but whatever will we say about W?
I vividly remembering suffering through the Reagan dark ages, the first presidency in my memory when we thought: how could it get any worse? The answer, of course, was Bush the First. So, we suffered through the first Bush administration, thankfully avoiding re-election, thinking: how could it get any worse? Right! Bush the Second. Four years of wondering how it could possibly get any worse — re-election! Can anyone imagine anything good that we'll have to say about this administration in 25 years, or is its purpose merely to top the list of Top-Ten Worst Presidencies?
And so, this past week, we got to re-live some of the Watergate excitement with the rather ho-hum revelation about the identity of Deep Throat. At least I'm old enough to remember why one might have cared, once. Rather in the way that no one particularly noticed or cared that the "American Family Association" — one of our foremost wacky fundamentalist organizations — finally ended its 9-year-old boycott of Disney, did anyone truly care who "Deep Throat" was, and does it really matter?
At one time it seemed a matter of supreme importance, of course, but not because his identity amounted to a hill of beans. It was the information that mattered, not its source. Rather, his anonymity taunted the right-wing politicoes who needed someone to blame for a situation that they had created themselves. As continues to be the case, they regretted that they had been caught in the coverup, not that they had done it. Now maybe they can get some closure at last by pointing and yelling "traitor", except that after this much time Deep Throat has largely become a folk hero. It's a modern reactionary paradox, very much like celebrating the Supreme Court's decision Brown v Board of Education of Kansas by rallying against "activist judges" (as many Repubican lawmakers did on the recent anniversary). It's a good thing that reactionaries have no sense of irony, otherwise they'd probably explode.
And the resonance with the Downing Street Memo? It's that whole Watergate gestalt, and how it all began with a "third-rate burglary". On the whole, the Memo is a smallish thing, its revelations nothing really that we didn't already know. However, it is tangible, it's message is clear, and it's allegations are specific; it may or may not be the smoking gun, but there's a whiff of creosote in the air.
[This continues my series of posts concerning the pre-Iraq-war actions of the US administration, aimed at increasing awareness of those activities, as part of the Big Brass Alliance (or BBA) and it's support of AfterDowningStreet.org. For more information from me, see my first posting on The Downing Street Memo: "Worth Remembering"]
on Sunday, 5 June 2005 at 17.05
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Big Brass Blogswarm – Weekend
I know it's the weekend, but we need to keep the pressure up on the media.
on Monday, 6 June 2005 at 19.11
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As they said, Dick Nixon before he dicks you. Thanks It has been added to the blogswarm aggregate for today . E mail me again or drop links to new posts in comments over my way. Many voices make a wondrous sound.
To the castle bear, to the castle!