Dragging Down Their Malignant Dreams of Empire

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D

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 17:40:17 -0400

Dragging Down Their Malignant Dreams of Empire

 

 

 

Just some words of encouragement, to remind us that we do make a

difference.

 

Dragging Down Their Malignant Dreams of Empire

 

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/09/con05357.html

 

Score one for the blogs

 

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

by John Steinberg

 

The Left Coaster quotes herd animal WaPo, which, mirabile dictu, is

following the herd now tugging at Bush's entrails:

 

(A) growing number of Republicans inside and out of the White

House have noticed an administration less sure-footed and slower to

react to the political environment surrounding them.

 

A top Republican close to the White House since the earliest days

said the absence of a " reelection target " and pressure from first lady

Laura Bush and others to soften his second-term tone conspired to

temper Bush's swagger well before Katrina hit. " A reelection campaign

was always the driving principle to force them to get things

together, " said the GOP operative, who would speak candidly about Bush

only if his name was not used. He said the " brilliance of this team "

was always overstated. " Part of the reason they looked so good is

Democrats were so discombobulated. " Since the election, this official

said, White House aides reported that Laura Bush was among those

counseling Bush to change his cowboy image during the final four years.

 

William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, said the

psychological turnabout started with the failed Social Security

campaign, billed as the number one domestic priority six months ago.

" The negative effect of the Social Security [campaign] is

underestimated, " Kristol said. " Once you make that kind of mistake,

people tend to be less deferential to your decisions. " This coincided

with a growing number of Republicans losing faith in Bush's war plan,

as Republicans such as Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Lindsey O. Graham

(S.C.) openly questioned the president's strategy.

 

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/005541.php

 

When I talk with friends who do not spend large slugs of time in our

corner of the blogosphere, I find myself having to explain and justify

what we do. Beyond talking to ourselves, it is not always obvious what

we accomplish.

 

The WaPo won't come right out and say it, natch, but to me, this is

pretty dramatic evidence that what we did made a difference. The Bush

plan to destroy Social Security required that they be given free reign

to once again define black as white and have carte blanche to control

the terminology and tenor of the debate. As with the invasion of Iraq,

these criminals can get what they want only by using language and

visuals in a giant game of 3-card monte.

 

But this time they failed. The left hemiblogosphere was relentless in

hammering the MSM every time they parroted White House talking points

and used misleading or false statistics. Stars like Josh Marshall did

important work in holding the feet of every individual Senator and

Congressperson to the fire -- if they so much as waffled, we all knew

about it, and the feedback loop was very effective in helping Harry

Reid keep the Dems in Congress in line.

 

And as the Rovians are now admitting, those small deflections started

an unraveling that is spreading to everything else this cancerous

cabal touches. Individually, I am a gnat on the ass of an elephant.

Together with a multitude of other pests, we are dragging down their

malignant dreams of empire.

 

John Steinberg