That Was the Week that Was
Whew! What a week since I last been able to post to this blog. A lot has happened including:
I.
The United States announced that it would not seek a seat on the new United Nations Human Rights Council. The U.S., with the loyal support of Israel, Marshal Islands and Palau had voted against the creation of the new body, a replacement for the discredited old Human Rights Commission, on which often sat some of the worst human rights violators. The new Council, with beefed up powers, would exclude states with egregious human rights records. The Council had the support of Secretary General Kofi Annan and the overwhelming majority of member states. It had the fervent opposition of the administration's anointed bull in the china shop, Ambassador John Bolton. Bolton rightly feared that American violations at Abu Grab, Guantanamo, in Afghanistan and elsewhere might become the object of investigation, censure, and maybe even UN sanctions. The administration also faced the humiliating likelihood that the US would not only be defeated if it ran for a seat, it would be obliterated. So the State Department, making a silk purse from a cow’s ear, announced we would not seek a seat in the first year, but allow the commission to organize itself. Organize itself without input from “The Worlds Greatest Democracy.” This has to rank among the top diplomatic embarrassments of recent decades.
II.
Inspector Jarvet-oops, I mean Special Council Patrick Fitzgerald-let it be known in court filings that Vice President Cheney and President himself are implicated in the leaking of National Security documents in a concerted effort to discredit and destroy the reputation of Ambassador Joe Wilson. It turns out indicted weasel “Scooter” Libby (every time I write or say that name I picture my childhood dog, the noble dachshund Fritz, who used to get bone fragments stuck inside his anal sphincter and scooted across the living room rug on his ass to relieve the itch) is claiming that he was ordered to leak material by his boss Cheney which was “secretly” de-classified by the President. White House designated liar Scott McClellan was thrown to the wolves by his superiors, unable to refute or deny the plain facts, only to argue lamely that the President acted within his legal rights in declassifying the documents. The President himself shrugged it of with a virtual “so what” and claiming that he was only trying to “get the truth out” when in fact he was leaking information he knew to be false to discredit a man who was demonstrably telling the truth. The mind reels and the President’s approval ratings sag to pick-pocket range heading south toward child molester.
III.
Up on Capital Hill a widely heralded immigration compromise was announced in the Senate. The plan would have put undocumented workers in the country for more than 5 years onto a citizenship track (after extorting them for big fines and “back taxes”), created a temporary guest worker track for those in the country 2-years, required all others to return to their countries and re-apply for legal admission and beef up border security. The bi-partisan bill promptly fell apart when it could muster only 38 votes, all Democrats. Republican Senators, feeling the wrath of the xenophobic wing of the Party were threatened and began offering dozens of “toughening” amendments, many of which would have brought the measurer closer to the draconian bill passed by the House. Faced with multiple crippling amendments Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid refused to allow votes on more than four GOP amendments-a mirror of Republican restrictions placed on Democrats in bill after bill. On Sunday the President actually blamed Democrats-the only ones who had voted for the bill-for killing it!
Meanwhile, the astonishing mass movement of immigrants and their supporters grew geometrically and spread across the country with huge marches and demonstrations in cities small, medium and large. It was apparent that a new movement, perhaps on a par of significance with the push for public accommodations and voting rights in the South during the Civil Rights era, was not going away.
Popular opinion remained split, with widespread resentment of immigrants, particularly Mexicans, and a demand that “the law is the law” remained high. Yet not as high as many had expected. Poll results began to show majorities of Americans in favor of some kind of legalization process.
House Republicans, who are much further to the right than the mainstream press acknowledges, clung to their harsh measures, which would make illegal status a felony along with similar charges for anyone who would assist them in any way. The remained devoted to their fortified border fences and enamored of the reinforcement of the Border Patrol until it would resemble the quasi-military “border police” regiments so familiar in the old Soviet empire. House Republicans have virtually annihilated any moderates among them, let alone those old fashion liberal Republicans from New England, the upper Midwest and Northwest. But they remain split among those bought and paid for by industry and the hard core “social conservatives”-read fanatics. The fanatics have the upper hand in the House and have shown an almost gleeful willingness to throw their business buddies and even the President under the bus. They believe that immigration will be the ultimate “wedge issue” and are willing to ride it as the only way to save their asses in the tidal wave of anti-Republican sentiment about to hit them because of the war, repeated scandals, the budget deficit, and the Medicare drug fiasco. In fact some believe that immigration is the issue that can permanently peel away blue collar workers, most threatened by perceived job loss, from their traditional Democratic allegiances. They also note the deep strains between the immigrant movement and many blacks-witness the fighting in California high schools and the silence of many Black leaders in what is obviously a civil rights crusade-and can actually pick up real Black support, not just from window dressing opportunists. They may be right if Democrats, labor and the real Civil Rights movement don’t recognize the opportunity before them to unite with Hispanics and Asians to create a governing coalition that could last decades.
IV.
The guilty plea by lobbyist Jack Abramoff revealed the key roll of former Majority Whip Tom Delay’s senior staff and drew him and other key GOP leaders deeper into the flushing toilet of scandal. Delay, who recently survived a primary challenge and who had sworn to fight for his Midland, Texas Congressional seat and to eventually return to power in the House, was finally forced to withdraw his candidacy because he had become “a distraction.” Never one to bow out gracefully, with the solicitous assistance of Fox News sycophants, Delay was able to go on TV and blame his woes on those heartless, anti-Christian Democrats. On one hand most house Republicans were probably glad to see him go, on the other hand they missed his single minded viciousness and his ability to wield them into a united block (see the split among House Republicans on immigration.)
V.
The conviction of former Republican heavy hitter James Tobin is finally convicted in a bazaar scheme to block a Democratic turn-out-the-vote phone bank in advance of the 2002 elections. As scandals go these days, small potatoes except that phone logs revealed how tied into the White House the operation really was. The day of the jamming Tobin or his associates logged in a dozen calls to the White House political office. While the content of the calls cannot be determined, even on the eve of an election, this is an astonishing number from one small state and demonstrate intense White House interest. A crack, perhaps, in Karl Rove’s impenetrable armor.
VI.
Elections, election, elections, everywhere an election, none of them boding well for the President, his ambitions or his party. In Italy Bush’s most loyal Western European ally, Conservative Party media billionaire Silvio Berlusconi apparently will be out of office since his ruling coalition has narrowly lost majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Romano Prodi’s center-left coalition will almost surely be called to form a new government, which will expedite Italy’s withdrawal (already underway) from the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq. But the ever bellicose Berlusconi refuses to coned defeat. He disputes some election result, especially the key six Senate seats elected by Italians abroad and is holding out for a “Grand coalition” with his opponents similar to the one struck in Germany after that country’s indecisive elections earlier this year. A stubborn refusal to fade gracefully away may bring out crowds of demonstrators and threaten civil unrest.
In Peru Ollanta Humala, a left wing populist and former junior army officer is the leader in a three way race with 31% of the vote. He will apparently face former President Alan Garcia (24.4%) in a May run-off. A third candidate, Lourdes Flores has 23.3 percent vote with enough votes remaining to be counted to place the issue in doubt. The popular Humala, who also represents a continent wide rejection of the old European elite, is another of the anti-US who have been coming to power. If he wins he will join an increasing phalanx that already includes the presidents of Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia with moderate leftists and Bush critics leading Argentina and Chile. Columbia, always on the verge of multi-sided civil war, Uruguay and Paraguay may follow suit. Haiti in the Caribbean is finally settling into a left government. That leaves the President with an alienated ally, Mexico, increasingly estranged over immigration issues, and the weak states of Central America and the less significant island republics of the Caribbean as his only southern allies. When he came to power, a wave of democratic regimes were replacing old dictatorships and oligarchies and hopes ran high for a hemispheric free trade zone dominated by America. That dream lays shattered and Bush may have created a united continent in opposition to the US, willing even perhaps like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez to reach out the Iranians and the Muslim world for allies. Only foreign policy geniuses of the highest order could have accomplished that.
Closer to home, Democrat Francine Busby has piled up a substantial lead in an 18 candidate open field to replace the disgraced Congressman Randal Cunningham in California’s 50th Congretional District. The San Diego district is historically Republican. With 43% of the vote, Busby will apparently face former Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray (15.13%) in a June 6th run-off to finish Cunningham’s term. They will also be competing in their respective parties’ primaries for the fall election. Bilbray will undoubtedly also have to face competition from millionaire Eric Roach, who nearly spent his way into the run-off with 14.44% of the vote. It is a muddled situation with millions of dollars pouring into the district from both parties and their supporters. Busby looks to have a fair chance of winning the runoff and then will have to immediately brace for a bruising general election
Taken together, the results of these elections must remind Bush of why “things would be easier if I were a Dictator.”
VII.
And of course, to top everything off, the REALLY BIG story of the week centers on the President’s evident march to an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, possibly employing “bunker buster” tactical nuclear weapons. He gets to play of the deranged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who master-minded a media event/comic opera/pageant waving vials of supposed enriched uranium and declaring that Iran had joined the club of nuclear capable nation. While these two play chicken with one another, the rest of us try to sort out if either of them means business. This story deserves much further attention and will be the topic of my next epic entry.
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All in all it has been a very bad week for the President. One can almost hear the feet of clay crumbling. Yet it is precisely when cornered that sociopaths like the one running the country are the most dangerous. Hard to tell just where they will lash out or to what ends they might not go to regain the “national security” advantage by plunging this nation into yet more conflict. Maybe the only thing saving him these days is the still timid and disjointed Democratic response to all of his problems.
What was that ancient Chinese curse? “May you live in interesting times.”
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