The Incredible Shrinking Governator

I.

If some idiot with a blog could see this fiasco coming two years ago, why couldn’t the world’s most powerful military — and its most expensive and sophisticated intelligence agency — see it as well?

Dining With the Devil

II.

Intentional Irony?

Finally, there’s always the chance the past few months have been a fluke — a case of lingering denial by voters who don’t want to accept just how badly Bush has fucked up.

Invisible Means of Support

High Value Detainees

So, while my conscience won’t allow me to gloat over the sight of the Cheney administration hopelessly impaled on its own Iraq lies, and I’m far too pessimistic to take much comfort in Shrub’s falling poll numbers, I have absolutely no objections whatsoever to savoring the public humiliation (and, with luck, multiple felony convictions) of Duke Cunningham, conservative asshole extraordinaire.

The Duke in Stir

Next on Fox News: Liberals conspire to poison military water supply; smuggle plutonium to bin Ladin; sacrifice disabled Christian babies to Allah.

Looking for a Scapegoat II

How Do You Say “Fox News” in Farsi?

But the neocons are even more fanatical about this than their paleo cousins. I really think they would prefer to see Iraq sink into complete chaos, and pay the price of another 1,700 American deaths, rather than pass even nominal military control to the United Nations.

Dreaming of Blue Helmets

Rally Effect

I’ve heard military guys refer to this as the "fuck up and move up" school of personnel management. Which I guess we can modify to "fuck up, help cover the Defense Secretary’s ass from potential criminal charges, and then move up."

Rewarding Failure

“Some people say Baker’s reckless charges have severely damaged Spc. Baker’s morale and crippled his ability to extract information from Al Qaeda prisoners — information that could save American lives,” reported Fox News personality Brit Hume. “They’re demanding that Baker retract his allegations and offer a full apology to Spc. Baker.”

Slander

But the American people apparently missed all those
White House warnings about "generational commitments." Too busy watching the Michael Jackson trial, I guess. But what happens if (or, more likely, when) the voters decide that one generation of dead and maimed American soldiers is one too many? What if they don’t want to go to Tehran?

Going to Tehran

Lyndon Baines Bush

There appear to be enough "top Al Qaeda aides" in Iraq to fill Shea Stadium. Zarqawi’s inner circle alone would probably take up the entire upper deck. This is not only bad news, but bad storytelling.

Form Over Substance

.. if the pink tutu Democrats see that the hearings are not a bad way to get their preening mugs on the tube, they might be more inclined to show up, giving the hearings a little more heft, if only through weight of numbers. Which might draw more media coverage.

Getting Traction

Second Opinion

If it Quacks Like a Duck . . .

.. And these are just the things we know about. What happens on the remoter flyspecks in the American archipelago (much less the affiliated islands of our Saudi or Egyptian or Pakistani “allies” in the war against terrorism) remains largely a closed book. We know prisoners have died in American custody, some appear to have been brutalized before they died. We don’t know how many were murdered. ..

Truth and Consequences

.. since the antiwar movement has been effectively blacked out in the media and is rarely visible in the streets, it certainly can’t be rationally blamed for failure in Iraq – which means it almost certainly will be blamed, and not just by Tom Friedman.

Looking for a Scapegoat

Danger Ahead