Best omen in months
George Bush has been abandoned by the powers that be. A month ago I would have thought it impossible, but now I have seen as dramatic an indication of this sea change as I could imagine, short of a Halliburton press release to that effect.
How do I know this? Check it out:
Bob Woodward's credibility as a reporter was flushed, decomposed and composted years ago. As a scoop, his words are meaningless. As Kremlinology, however, these words are seismic in import.
Neutral observers diss the Bush administration all the time, and their criticism never seems to register. "Water is wet!" "Rocks are hard!" Bob Woodward, on the other hand, is not a neutral observer. Bob Woodward is the ultimate access whore. Remember that in November of last year, when Plamegate shrapnel was hitting him like Dick Cheney birdshot, he said that "I was trying to protect my sources. That's Job No. 1 in a case like this." For Woodward, protecting sources outweighs the obligation to his reader. It outweighs his obligation to his employer. It even outweighs his obligation to tell the truth.
That's the essential context here: Bob Woodward doesn't write a shopping list unless his sources give permission. So when Bob criticizes President Bush, it can mean only one thing: the folks Bob considers even more important and powerful have blessed his betrayal.
When I criticize Dubya, it is evidence only of a fool barking at the moon. When Bob Woodward says it, it is overwhelming evidence that something fundamental has changed in our political universe.
The end of the reign of error is finally in sight.
How do I know this? Check it out:
The greatest threat to America's democracy is not terrorism but governmental secrecy, said Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward, whose reporting 35 years ago pierced the veil of secrecy behind Richard Nixon's presidency.
Although a massive, coordinated attack on the country, making 9-11 look like a "footnote," is still possible, the nation faces a greater threat from the federal government's current secrecy drive, Woodward told an audience in San Antonio on Tuesday.
"Democracies die in darkness," Woodward told the 500-person crowd of mostly business and community leaders as part of Trinity University's policy maker breakfast series, a 25-year tradition.
The Bush administration, which gave Woodward remarkable access for his two books on the administration's war on terror, "Bush At War," in 2002 and "Plan of Attack," in 2004, has cloaked its decision-making in "an immense amount of secrecy," he said, "too much, in my view."
Bob Woodward's credibility as a reporter was flushed, decomposed and composted years ago. As a scoop, his words are meaningless. As Kremlinology, however, these words are seismic in import.
Neutral observers diss the Bush administration all the time, and their criticism never seems to register. "Water is wet!" "Rocks are hard!" Bob Woodward, on the other hand, is not a neutral observer. Bob Woodward is the ultimate access whore. Remember that in November of last year, when Plamegate shrapnel was hitting him like Dick Cheney birdshot, he said that "I was trying to protect my sources. That's Job No. 1 in a case like this." For Woodward, protecting sources outweighs the obligation to his reader. It outweighs his obligation to his employer. It even outweighs his obligation to tell the truth.
That's the essential context here: Bob Woodward doesn't write a shopping list unless his sources give permission. So when Bob criticizes President Bush, it can mean only one thing: the folks Bob considers even more important and powerful have blessed his betrayal.
When I criticize Dubya, it is evidence only of a fool barking at the moon. When Bob Woodward says it, it is overwhelming evidence that something fundamental has changed in our political universe.
The end of the reign of error is finally in sight.
posted by bluememe at 2/22/2006
2 Comments:
The end of the reign of error is finally in sight.
To be replaced by the 2.0 model?
The folks who pull the strings behind the scenes are not going to walk away from the sacking of this nation and the rest of the world that easily. I think we are only going to see a new batch of goons pop out from the clown car we used to call the Republican Party. Our troubles are far, far from over.
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