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Declintonize Wes

Chris Andersen's comment on my "Gropinator" post below points out, quite correctly, that Ah-nuld had the help of many GOP insiders in his successful portrayal of an outsider and that it is possible to accomodate both the hacks and the enthusiastic amateurs in a political campaign. Obviously, General Clark needs some pros around to remind him to do little things like register as a Democrat. My concern is that by taking on so many of the Clinton retreads in key positions, the General is giving the Republicans unnecesary ammunition for the charge that he is simply a puppet for a disgraced--properly so--former president and his wife, the first-term junior senator from New York.

posted by Jerry Bowles 5:52 PM

Paging General Anthony Zinni

A couple of weeks ago he was calling out the Bush administration for jacking the intel on Saddam’s WMD. Now the former Centcom honcho is heading for Islamabad as a consultant to promote a $5 billion telecommunications deal for a multinational company. Why put a chicken in every pot when you can put a cell phone in every Islamic terrorist breeding madrassah school. Deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, assistant secretary of state Christina Rocca and General John Abazaid were just over there helping to run interference for this and other megabuck deals.

posted by Groom 3:40 PM

Say It Isn't So, Wes

It's worse than I thought--Clinton lackey Eli Segal.

posted by Jerry Bowles 3:19 PM

The Gropinator and the General

It's hard to decide whether to just throw up one's hands and say "Forget it, Jake, it's California" or to try to divine some larger message out of the Ah-nuld zeitgeist. If Californians want an over-the-hill action toy whose neck is larger than his IQ as governor that's their business and anyway there was still a Minnesota, last time I checked, despite Jesse Ventura, so how much damage can he do before the real election?

On the bigger picture front, the Schwarzenegger victory suggests to me that voters are really fed up with professional politicians and their retainers. There is a lot of unhappiness out there about the direction of the country. You and I know who and what's driving it; many Republicans are still in denial.

It also suggests to me that General Clark should be wary of assembling a large team of business-as-usual Gore-Clinton retreads to run his campaign. A lot of the energy behind the Dean campaign comes from its genuine appeal to people who think politics is a load of crap but have been radicalized by the Bush administration's criminal incompetence. These people are put off by the DLC types and the Mark Fabiani's of the world. The lesson of Ah-nuld is that it's better to be perceived as an "outsider," even from the movies by way of Austria, than as just another political hack. The general needs to get on top of the staff thing immediately.

posted by Jerry Bowles 2:04 PM

We Wuz Robbed

Rats. Krugman didn't win.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10:47 AM

Is This the End of Rummy?

As Groom points out below, some of Lord Rummy's "friends" in high places may be setting him up to be the fall guy for the administration's failed Iraq adventure. Rumsfeld told the FT yesterday that he had not been told by Shrub or the National Security Council that the White House was planning to restructure the handling of postwar Iraq before the press got the word. He went on to say that the new "Iraq Stabilization Group," which will be run by Condoleezza Rice, sounds pretty much like what she was supposed to be doing all along and he can't imagine why she made such a big deal out of it by going to the media. Condi, who seems a bit truth-challenged at times, said specifically that Rumsfeld had a hand in creating the new plan. Frankly, I think Condi is unwittingly setting herself up to take the fall.

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:07 AM

Executive hubris

“I don’t know whether we are going to find out… there are a lot of senior administration officials…” president George W. Bush

Even before the deadline to turn in all relevant documents- and they all weren’t turned in- the election-jacking, born again White House went public to exculpate Goebbels-in-residence Karl Rove from any wrongdoing in “leakgate” as either an authorizer or a leaker. Ditto Lord Cheney and deputy NSC director Elliot "I used to be a liberal Democrat" Abrams. Clearly, el todopoderoso Shrubby, via mouthpiece McClellan, was offering a guiding light that Elder Ashcroft at Justice and “Dial M” at the Hoover Building should follow when ministering their in-house “investigation.” Never mind that Rove to Novak has been a passing and catching duo as successful as Johnny Unitas to Raymond Berry for over a decade now. It’s time to end the charade and start the full court press for a special counsel.

Soft landing for Lord Rummy?

Across the pond, the cousins at the Guardian are wondering if Rummy and Wolfi are on borrowed time at the Pentagon. I can see the election-year musical chairs game playing out now… Condi to the Pentagon. Contra-thug Eliot Abrams running the NSC. Wolfi as the top talent-scout for Benador & Associates and Rummy out to one of his vacation homes in Taos, New Mexico where he can work on his memoirs and investigate the “Taos hum.”

posted by Groom 6:19 AM