By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers
www.OpEdNews.com
"Shallow Throat" had not contacted me since months before the
November 2004 election. I figured that the high-level GOP mole, who
formerly had worked at the White House before moving to another
agency, was bummed out and needed time to reflect.
So receiving ST's coded calls was a good sign. We met in an obscure
diner in Rockville, Md. I could tell Shallow Throat was in bad
shape, since my conservative informant looked pale and depressed and
was back to wearing a wig and wraparound shades.
"I can't describe to you, Bernie, what the atmosphere is like inside
the Administration," said a nervous-sounding ST. "Publicly, they are
taking their electoral 'victory' as confirmation that they don't
have to give an inch, to anyone. It's full speed ahead domestically
and abroad. But privately, they are well aware of how tenuous the
situation could become for them in some areas, which is why they are
coming out of the chute with such full-bore speed and determination.
(Observe how they are trying to keep anyone from getting to the
truth of that electoral 'victory,' especially in Ohio.)
"They realize that, as is often the case for 're-elected'
administrations, there is only a brief window of opportunity in the
second term to get things done. So, it's tort and Social Security
'reform' and more Patriot Act laws domestically, and in foreign
policy it's on to getting their way with Syria and Iran."
"You look terrible," I said. "We can talk about their plans and
policies in a minute. I'm worried about you. How are you holding
up?"
INSIDE THE BUSH BUNKER
"Not too well. Like you, I figured that enough voters would have
seen through these ruthless, greedy, power-hungry bastards, and
they'd be gone by now. It wouldn't have mattered to me, an old-time
Republican, if the Democrats were now in power, making their own
mistakes. At least, we'd be working to undo the damage
Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Ashcroft and friends did to the country and the
world over the past four years.
"Instead, I'm still in the belly of a vicious, determined beast,
which is even more paranoid this time out. That's why they've made
sure the key players are totally loyal, hunkering down in the
political bunker with Bush and Cheney and Rove. Just look at the
ruthless, brazen criminals in that bunker: Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz at
Defense, Rice and Abrams at State, Gonzales at Justice, Goss at CIA,
Chertoff at Homeland Security, Hadley as National Security Adviser,
Negroponte the Intel Czar. They're all dirty, perfect candidates
someday for criminal prosecution.
"Anyway, I guess I'm answering your question by indirection about
how I'm doing. Things are terrible, and disloyalty is simply not
permitted. Nor are any concessions to the real world; it's
fantasyland, lies told to themselves that bear little relation to
reality. Instead, it's pretty much like 'You vill click heels and
follow orders, ja? Sieg heil!' If I were to get caught spilling my
guts to you -- and through you, to your liberal associates out there
-- God help me."
"I appreciate your courage in contcacting me," I said. "So you must
have something you really want to talk about."
"You bet. As usual, these Bush guys are over-reaching and, in their
arrogance, not covering their tracks very well. Even with the
Congress in their hands, most of the mass-media whoring for them,
and the courts effectively neutered, the Bushies are vulnerable on
several fronts. If the Democrats only can get their act together
and, working in tandem with a lot of disaffected Republican
moderates, take them on frontally, there might be hope.
"Certainly, Reid and Pelosi and Dean are showing some fighting
spirit and seem willing to battle the Bushies' more egregious,
extreme policies and judicial appointments. But they can't always
bring their troops along with them. Look at the capitulation on
Condi Rice; what on earth happened to Leahy, Biden, Obama,
Feinstein, Clinton, Feingold and the other so-called "liberals"?
"Look at the shameful Democrat votes on Bush's bill to curtail
class-action suits. They just caved. Disgraceful! You're either an
Opposition Party or you're not; you don't play patty-cake with these
Bush guys -- they'll eat you alive, crush you and grind up your
bones. You'd have thought the Dems might have learned that painful
lesson by now.
"The Republicans have clear splits inside the party -- especially,
for example, on Bush's Social Security plan -- but their public face
is one of unity and support for their President. The Democrats need
to develop that kind of party discipline behind their leaders. The
only thing that ever makes the Bush folks back off is facing a
concerted, determined opposition -- especially if it includes a good
many moderate Republicans acting in concert with your Democrat
friends."
WHERE DEMS SHOULD ATTACK
"Look," I replied, "the Democrats can't battle the Bush
Administration on every issue, lest they be attacked as total
'obstructionists.' They have to pick and choose judiciously the
issues on which to fight. Which ones would you suggest they make
their stands on?"
"Just follow Rove's lead; he's revealed publicly those issues the
Administration will push for in these first two years of their
second term. Domestically, major 'reform' of Social Security and
tort law, and re-nominating the extremist judges who were turned
down last time; and, in foreign policy, continuing the neo-con
strategy of politically restructuring the Islamic Middle East, by
threats and suasion if possible, by military means if necessary.
(Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter says Bush already has
approved plans for attacking Iran in early-Summer.)
"The Administration is vulnerable in each of those domestic areas.
Not even most Republicans agree with the Bush plan on Social
Security; they'll mouth the party spin, but they don't want to risk
their re-election chances, and many believe this Social Security
plan is reckless nonsense. If the Democrats hang firm together, and
if they can slice off a few more Republicans from supporting the
Bush plan, Rove&Co. will go down to a flaming and embarrassing
defeat. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
"Tort reform will be a bit harder, since the public understands
Social Security and the dangerous and prohibitively expensive
fiddling the Bush Administration wants to do with it. But tort
'reform' -- trying to shield greedy corporations and malpracticing
doctors from being awarded big bucks by juries for their crimes --
is much more complex, and so there isn't that Democrat cohesion on
the issue, as was the case on the bill restricting the filing of
successful class-action suits.
"Tort 'reform' could be made into a major populist campaign against
the Bush Administration if the Democrat leadership can frame the
debate properly -- ordinary people need these lawsuits and awards to
keep the powerful honest -- and maintain party discipline behind
them.
"Gonzales will carry on Ashcroft's legacy of expanding central
goverment power over peoples' lives, by trying to push through
Patriot Act 2 bills that further shred the Constitution and the Bill
of Rights. Plus, Gonzales is the same guy who approves of torture
and dictatorial rule by the President. The Dems can stand up and
fight on these moves; even a good many Republicans, from the right
and the center, believe that Patriot Act 1 went too far in certain
areas, so maybe a Dem/Libertarian/GOP alliance can be made to fight
the worst of the new bills."
RESISTING BUSH'S MIDEAST WARS
"What about the war, or wars, issue?" I asked. "Even though the
public still indicates it thinks the war in Iraq isn't worth it, the
Bushies have taken heart, asserting that the recent Iraq elections
proves it's morally right that U.S. troops should be there. Are you
suggesting that the American people might not go along with similar
military adventures in Iran and Syria?"
"Given the over-stretched mission of U.S. forces these days, and
their inability to keep and recruit enough troops, and the
opposition of the country to a military draft, it seems clear that
the Bush Administration doesn't want to have to invade another
country -- and that they couldn't depend on the American populace to
support such action if they did.
"But the Bush neo-cons are not averse to stirring up opposition
internally to the Iranian mullahs and to young Assad in Syria, and
to inserting covert-ops demolition and assassination squads into
those countries, and to bombing key installations from the air --
or, in the case of Iran's nuclear plants, if the political heat in
this country gets too intense, the neo-cons would encourage the
Israelis to bomb those sites. Bush&Co. are bound and determined to
get and protect that oil, to control the geopolitical direction of
that region for years to come, and to provide Israel some breathing
room from retaliatory attacks.
"But all that will come at a high price in treasure spent and
American lives lost, and there is bound to be (and Iraq is the
perfect example) constant and unremitting incompetence from Rumsfeld
in nation-building -- thus ensuring that more and more terrorists
will join the anti-American fight.
"That future scenario can be laid out by the Dems, and they'll find
a good many Republicans of similar mind. Bush is spending $300
billion of our tax dollars (that's Billion, with a capital B!) for
nation-building in Iraq & Afghanistan -- starving our treasury and
social programs of much-needed funds -- and the result may well be
an Islamist government more friendly to Iran than to America. Good
organizing points for a possible political alliance."
FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL
"Any other areas of Bush Administration vulnerability?" I asked.
"Follow the money. On environmental issues, the greedy polluters
have been given permission to pillage and plunder our natural
resources, national parks, our air and water. In Iraq and
Afghanistan, at least $9 billion (Billion!) has simply disappeared
-- no doubt into corrupt corporate pockets -- with nobody in the
Administration seeming to care in the slightest. Somebody stole that
money; make them, and those crooks in charge, accountable. Those are
our taxes, damn it!
"And there's the way our tax monies have been used by the Bushies to
buy favorable media coverage -- payola for rightwing pundits and
journalists, creating phony "news reports," etc. Follow that cash
trail and see where it comes from and where it winds up.
"And then, of course, there's the 'Jeff Gannon' scandal. Someone
high up in the Administration, either in Scott McClellan's office or
even higher -- and you know who I mean -- moved 'Jeff Gannon' (real
name James Guckert) into the White House press corps, fed him
scoops, enlisted him in dirty-tricks against Dem candidates, and
made sure he was always there to throw puffball questions to
McClellan and Bush.
"Apparently, this non-journalist GOP propagandist -- and given his
night-job as a paid male escort for gay men, a potential national
security risk -- received his credentials without having been vetted
by the FBI and Secret Service. He even was given access to the White
House press room before Talon News, his ostensible employer, even
existed. Who made all that happen for him?
"I'm not sure Guckert was receiving subsidies directly from the
White House -- it probably was more subtle, his salary and bonuses
coming from cutaway Republican outfits like GOPUSA & Talon News,
financed by wealthy Texas GOP operatives. Guckert, a true believer,
probably did it for ideological reasons and for the White House
press-pass prestige. But I'd try to see if there was a money trail
there anyway; there often is. (Who paid Guckert when he was sliming
Daschle in South Dakota, for example? Who was Guckert working for
when he got involved in the Valerie Plame scandal?)
MOLTO DESTRUCTO POLITICS
"The Bushies aren't averse to playing molto destructo against
Democrats; give them a taste of their own medicine. Stick to the
high ground, but don't let them get away with a thing. If Pelosi and
Reid and Dean want to play politics against this crew, they're going
to have to mix it up in the streets; when they win a few victories
(Social Security, denying extremist judges, etc.), the playing field
will be a bit more level, and more rank-and-file Dem trying to
shield greedy corporations and malpracticing doctors, for example,
from being awarded big bucks by juries for their crimes ocrats, and
moderate Republicans, will find they can have spines, too."
"But face it. There aren't going to be very many victories at first.
These guys are in control and they're going to run their juggernaut
over anything and anybody that gets in the way -- a hallmark of
their take-the-money-and-power-and-run brand of old-fashioned
machine politics. But in their brazen arrogance and greed and thirst
for power, they are making, and will continue to make, big mistakes,
to leave traceable tracks, to overreach one too many times. At that
point, they're ripe for the plucking. Go get 'em."
And with that, Shallow Throat slid out of the booth, adjusted the
shades, and headed out of the diner. ST seemed happier on the way
out. Ditto for me.#
Bernard Weiner, playwright, poet and Ph.D. in
government/international relations, has created many other
conversations with the "Shallow Throat" character (available at The
Crisis Papers ( www.crisispapers.org/weinerpubs.htm ), which he
co-edits.
