Stage show
Ahhhh...
(dim stage lights to 60%. cue Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn".)
If there's one word that seems to be on the lips of Republicans these past two days, it's "bipartisan." George Bush said yesterday,
(raise background spotlights 20%. swell music by 2db.)
That same Wednesday, the soon-to-be-irrelevant Bill Frist chimed in,
(raise background and foreground spots 15%. swell music by additional 3db.)
Why, even Ken Mehlman, appearing on MSNBC in the late hours of election night, waxed poetic to Chris Matthews about the need for "reaching across the aisle," and finding common ground on which America's challenges can be solved.
Ahhhh...
(stage abruptly goes black. music stops.)
Yeah, right!
(lights come up 100%. cue Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name Of...")
Hey, I don't mean to be nasty, or cast aspersions, or to kick anyone while he's down. Well, maybe I do. Five years of being accused of "treason" or "obstructionism" or "aiding the terrorists" or "being a Defeat-o-crat" or "wanting to lose the 'war on terror' " or "supporting Saddam" or "hating America" at each and every suggestion to openly debate the GOP agenda will do that to a person.
And where, I'd like to know, was that spirit of bipartisanship throughout the entire Bush presidency?
(swell music by 2db.)
During that same Ken Mehlman appearance (and if someone has video from that night, please let me know), a newly-ballsy Tweety finally told it like it is, interrupting the GOP Chairman twice, and pointing out that what Republicans mean by "bipartisanship" is, essentially, the Liberal side of the aisle capitulating and agreeing with their policies. And nothing more.
Shaking his head and chuckling derisively, Matthews pressed his point that 60% of the nation obviously opposed the Republican agenda, and asked - futilely, it turned out - if that didn't mean Republicans ought to start listening to the other side for a change. And Kenny boy (God bless 'im!) showed clearly the Conservative interpretation of "bipartisanship" by his very refusal to answer.
(music rises at song lyric, "Some of those who run forces / Are the same who burn crosses")
Think George Allen of Virginia would be opening his mind to alternative policy suggestions if he'd managed to assist the GOP in holding the Senate? Think the victorious, race-baiting Bob Corker of Tennessee will give serious consideration to the ideas of Harry Reid and Russ Feingold and Barack Obama once the new Congress begins its session?
Hey, believe me, I hope I'm wrong. But recent experience gives me no reason to think so.
Nor does the time I spent in my car yesterday, listening to those continuing voices of Conservative America, Limbaugh and Hannity (C'mon - I just had to). No signs of civility there, gang. No calls for national unity. No admissions that maybe, just maybe, this election should cause even a moment of reflection among the Republican ranks, or a hint of recognition that everything the former Ruling Party's touched has turned to shit.
Why, Rush went so far as to sneer at the very idea of bipartisan cooperation - tacitly encouraging his listeners to do the same. Par for the course, he denigrated the concept of open-mindedness as the worst kind of appeasement, even managing to take a swipe at Bill Clinton along the way.
(stage goes black except for severe white spotlight on narrator. music crests at lyric, "F#$% you / I won't do what you tell me...")
Make no mistake, kids. This sudden appearance of brotherhood and cooperation within the ranks of the GOP, appealing as it is, shouldn't fool anyone. It's a concocted stage show, designed to cast the bumblers who've put this nation behind the eight-ball in the best possible light - and to lay the groundwork for charges of Democratic intractability and ineptitude in 2008 ("We said we wanted to work together, but these Dems are just so darned uncooperative and closed-minded to our proven ideas. Bwah!").
If Conservatives are really sincere about bipartisanship, they'd better own up to what that word truly means. And I encourage Congressional Democrats to watch their backs and play it smart this time, never forgetting to remind the nation that the huge problems they're now trying to fix are a result of the Republicans' arrogant disdain for cooperation over 12 long years.
(music ends. fade to black.)
(dim stage lights to 60%. cue Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn".)
If there's one word that seems to be on the lips of Republicans these past two days, it's "bipartisan." George Bush said yesterday,
[that] he intended to "work with the new Congress in a bipartisan way" and invited leading Democrats to meet with him at the White House beginning on Thursday.Ahhhh...
(raise background spotlights 20%. swell music by 2db.)
That same Wednesday, the soon-to-be-irrelevant Bill Frist chimed in,
[issuing] a statement saying, "Washington must now work together in a bipartisan way - Republicans and Democrats - to outline the path to success in Iraq."Ahhhh...
(raise background and foreground spots 15%. swell music by additional 3db.)
Why, even Ken Mehlman, appearing on MSNBC in the late hours of election night, waxed poetic to Chris Matthews about the need for "reaching across the aisle," and finding common ground on which America's challenges can be solved.
Ahhhh...
(stage abruptly goes black. music stops.)
Yeah, right!
(lights come up 100%. cue Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name Of...")
Hey, I don't mean to be nasty, or cast aspersions, or to kick anyone while he's down. Well, maybe I do. Five years of being accused of "treason" or "obstructionism" or "aiding the terrorists" or "being a Defeat-o-crat" or "wanting to lose the 'war on terror' " or "supporting Saddam" or "hating America" at each and every suggestion to openly debate the GOP agenda will do that to a person.
And where, I'd like to know, was that spirit of bipartisanship throughout the entire Bush presidency?
(swell music by 2db.)
During that same Ken Mehlman appearance (and if someone has video from that night, please let me know), a newly-ballsy Tweety finally told it like it is, interrupting the GOP Chairman twice, and pointing out that what Republicans mean by "bipartisanship" is, essentially, the Liberal side of the aisle capitulating and agreeing with their policies. And nothing more.
Shaking his head and chuckling derisively, Matthews pressed his point that 60% of the nation obviously opposed the Republican agenda, and asked - futilely, it turned out - if that didn't mean Republicans ought to start listening to the other side for a change. And Kenny boy (God bless 'im!) showed clearly the Conservative interpretation of "bipartisanship" by his very refusal to answer.
(music rises at song lyric, "Some of those who run forces / Are the same who burn crosses")
Think George Allen of Virginia would be opening his mind to alternative policy suggestions if he'd managed to assist the GOP in holding the Senate? Think the victorious, race-baiting Bob Corker of Tennessee will give serious consideration to the ideas of Harry Reid and Russ Feingold and Barack Obama once the new Congress begins its session?
Hey, believe me, I hope I'm wrong. But recent experience gives me no reason to think so.
Nor does the time I spent in my car yesterday, listening to those continuing voices of Conservative America, Limbaugh and Hannity (C'mon - I just had to). No signs of civility there, gang. No calls for national unity. No admissions that maybe, just maybe, this election should cause even a moment of reflection among the Republican ranks, or a hint of recognition that everything the former Ruling Party's touched has turned to shit.
Why, Rush went so far as to sneer at the very idea of bipartisan cooperation - tacitly encouraging his listeners to do the same. Par for the course, he denigrated the concept of open-mindedness as the worst kind of appeasement, even managing to take a swipe at Bill Clinton along the way.
(stage goes black except for severe white spotlight on narrator. music crests at lyric, "F#$% you / I won't do what you tell me...")
Make no mistake, kids. This sudden appearance of brotherhood and cooperation within the ranks of the GOP, appealing as it is, shouldn't fool anyone. It's a concocted stage show, designed to cast the bumblers who've put this nation behind the eight-ball in the best possible light - and to lay the groundwork for charges of Democratic intractability and ineptitude in 2008 ("We said we wanted to work together, but these Dems are just so darned uncooperative and closed-minded to our proven ideas. Bwah!").
If Conservatives are really sincere about bipartisanship, they'd better own up to what that word truly means. And I encourage Congressional Democrats to watch their backs and play it smart this time, never forgetting to remind the nation that the huge problems they're now trying to fix are a result of the Republicans' arrogant disdain for cooperation over 12 long years.
(music ends. fade to black.)
posted by Bob P @ 8:17 AM
2 Comments:
Amen! Swell music, dim lights, end music.
My thoughts exactly, but you put them more cogently.
I, too, saw a portion of the interview with Mehlman & was riveted, so rarely does one see him BEFORE a camera. (His natural mileu seems to be slinking about behind dark curtains, pulling marionette strings & engaging in shadowy Rovian machinations.)
I wasn't disappointed by his performance; he was radiating the evil glow of insincerity all the while--smirking,lurking, & licking his chops from his corner perch in deep in the shadows, as it were.
I must be hopelessly naiive still. Some innocent part of me is STILL alarmed & outraged that assholes like him are the stage masters & line-scripters for the likes of Bush & Cheney.
Alas.
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