Today's Political Rant
- Wade
Friends...
It's hard to believe, but eleven years ago I likely was traveling throughout Austin, pounding campaign signs into front yards. I served on the campaign of one Rob Leighton, a resident who was vying for the state House seat for Minnesota's District 27B. Yard sign distribution was only part of my portfolio; I attended rallies, wrote letters to the editor of the local paper, and became a key lackey in my county's DFL party machine. I even got the honor of transporting Paul and Sheila Wellstone from the Austin airport to the Mower County DFL convention in April of '94. "I could do this someday," I thought.
I thought wrong. College experiences taught me that, for me, politics were best left in the theoretical world; Socrates, Rousseau, and Mill were acceptable in ways that Gingrich, Limbaugh, and even Clinton never would be. At least once a week I'm reminded of how happy I am that I chose a career that has nothing to do with my Political Science major. The latest example? Read this. (Then come back.) It's the Strib's op-ed piece on the Karl Rove story, but it does a pretty decent job of giving the background of the story.
Tuesday night's "The Daily Show" did a decent job of dicing up the current administration's response, which shouldn't be a surprise. It showed lots of clips from late 2003 on this topic, ranging from Scott McClellan calling reporters ridiculous for insinuating Rove was the source of the leak to Rove himself denying the claim. Shrub himself was shown saying no one on his staff would ever do such a heinous, awful thing.
Aaaah. The art of the backpedal. See McClellan's dance here. And last night I heard a clip on NPR of Bush claiming it was irresponsible to comment on the subject while the investigation was underway. Funny, that didn't seem to stop him from commenting two years ago when Rove hadn't been fingered as the culprit.
The frustration for me... Okay, Bill Clinton did a lot of things wrong, and, although it probably doesn't keep him up at night, I'm still mad at him. But these right-wing nutjobs flew COMPLETELY OFF THEIR AXIS when Clinton acknowledged the entire Lewinsky ordeal. Outrage. Disgust. Armageddon. How dare he. Now, one of the President's closest advisers is caught leaking the name of a covert CIA operations officer to the press, and it's too early to comment. What's more... provided you have a strong stomach, now read this:
Republican officials hinted Wednesday that Sen. Norm Coleman could play a leading role in responding to Democrats' attacks against White House aide Karl Rove.
The Minnesota Republican downplayed a report in the Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, that he has been designated by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to be one of Rove's "principal defenders in Congress."
Yessir. Our (although he's from New York) own right-wing nutjob (although he used to be a liberal) is leading the defense. Defense? How in the world do you defend this? The only possible option I can think of is insanity, but that's probably because I watch a lot of "Law & Order." That Vincent D'Onofrio sure is sexy. Um... oh yeah. I wonder what the GOP is saying about this. Are they backing away, realizing what Rove did is almost treasonous? Let's turn to the head of their congressional campaign committee:
"The extreme left is once again attempting to define the modern Democratic Party by rabid partisan attacks, character assassination and endless negativity,'' said Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y.
Are... are you kidding me?
This... this all makes me sick. Opportunistic, holier-than-thou partisanship. And blind defense of inarguably illegal behavior. And, unhappy as I am to acknowledge it, the same thing would be going on if the parties were reversed.
And this is why I'm happy being an IT bobo.
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