Look Who's Talking

I wonder, Bush, are you celebrating the "victory" of the approval of the budget, with your Cheney dashing back from half the world away to cast the tie-breaking vote, in a pathetic pretense at reducing the deficit by slicing out $40 billion slated for medical care for the poor and student aid? Noble work, Bush! Or are you fuming over the rejection of your military spending plan on account of the cynical inclusion of your Arctic oil drilling obsession--presumbly with the thought that the Democracts would never dare to oppose a military spending bill in time of war? Are you fretting over your federal judge's resignation from the surveillance court because of his discomfort with your (probably illegal) initiative approving secret spying on American citizens without judicial oversight, as required by law? And the rumored mutiny of three others of his brethren?

Well, we do know that you're mad about the Senate's demurral over the renewal of your Patriot Act. "This obstruction is inexcusable," you ranted on. And your Republicans are screaming bloody murder over the Democrats proposal for a three-month extension, to soberly consider what, in the Act, is needed for "homeland security", and what is simply intolerable overreaaching on the part of your administration. Fair enough, I would have thought. But it does, of course, offer you the irresistible opportunity to tar your opponents once again with the unpatriotic brush.

But anyway, Bush, beyond all that, there's trouble for your henchmen brewing on the near horizon. Just look who's beginning to talk, in hopes of some kind of a plea deal for himself--maybe to reduce the number of years he'll be required to spend in the federal clink. It's Jack Abramoff, king of the K Street lobbyists. The bosom buddy of your Delay, the fundraising tsar, who saw to it that so many of your friends enjoyed the benefit of extravagant junkets supported by the fruits of American Indian gaming. I heard you try to pre-empt the danger, Bush, by dismissing the man as "an equal money dispenser" on the news last night. Well, no. Two-thirds of the money he dispensed went to Republican causes, and one-third to Democrats. The one-third, it seems likely, a necessary compensation to avoid the appearance of partisanship and, for a lobbyist, also a necessary means to buy support even from the other side, when needed.

My hope is that Abramaoff will be induced to spill the beans on the whole corporate, show-me-the-money lobbying system that nowadays calls the shots in our so-called democracy. The stink could be powerful enough to raise the roof in the halls of Congress. It could expose the history of means by which your Republicans acquired, and conspired to hold onto near-absolute power in our three branches of government. If the American people can be induced to pay attention for more than a few moments, the Abramoff debacle could prove the start of a real revolution in the way our nation's business is done. It could pave the way to cleaning out some of the steaming, redolent excrement that's piling up in the back yards of our stables.

So, keep talking, Jack. Let it all hang out. We need to hear this stuff, from the mouth of a staunch Republican. Maybe then we'll begin to see through the smoke and mirrors to the corruption that has been rotting the core of American democracy for decades. Oh, and Bush, excuse the intolerable mix of metaphors. I got carried away. Again.