American Politics Journal -- He Knew

He Knew
by Dave "Doctor" Gonzo

May 16, 2002 -- New York (APJP) -- Two days ago, most of the big mouths on what passes for cable "news" were busy spinning the GOP's latest mega-blunder: the ill-considered misuse of a certain photograph.

The Doc has no doubt that you know which one.

These self-important loudmouths - along with George II's minions in press conferences and various politically themed web sites and online bulletin boards (the vast majority of which seem under standing orders to prop up the floundering legitimacy of Junior's Cadre)-- were openly deflecting and dissembling as they discussed the Republican National Committee's astounding, boneheaded decision to use a photo of the Texas Dauphin taken on September 11th of last year as he was making a telephone call from aboard Air Force One. The picture is being marketed by Republicans as part of a "trifecta" of photographs, in an effort to prompt a flood of incoming soft money before the spigot is closed (or a workable loophole or two is engineered, as inevitably seems to happen).

The Doc's reaction to PictureGate was a little different: had anyone -- the press, the RNC, the handlers of His Exalted Shrubbitude -- bothered to take a careful look at the photo? It didn't exactly scream "strong, calm and focused leadership in time of national crisis".

Instead, a caption for the photo ran through The Doc's head: "Unca Dick! Unca Karl! I'm scared! I'm confused! Whuddo I do now?"

As it turns out, The Doc wasn't the only person on the planet to which the thought occurred.

Here we all stand, two days later -- and matters look even worse than foto toon master Kevin Cunningham or The Doc could've imagined.

Just how bad does it look, you ask?

How about an unflattering shot of the Pretend-ident next to 900-point white type on a black background on the front page of Rupert "Real 'Merican" Murdoch's New York Post proclaiming:

BUSH KNEW

It doesn't get much worse than that.

The cold, hard fact is that in August of last year, the First Dimwit was told that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda crime-and-terror-network-meets-proto-Muslim-death-cult might hijack American airplanes -- but nobody in his misadministration bothered to alert anyone on Congress.

All three of the national cable TV news outlets have been jabber-jawing about the story, and buying on face value the White House spin: Dim Son, National Security Isolationist Condi Rice, and U.S. intelligence got "only very general" information and "did not know" that Osama's minions were planning to turn passenger planes as guided missiles.

Sorry, Smirk. The Doc doesn't buy it for one New York minute.

Flash back to 1993: hard-line Islamic heretics bomb the garage underneath the World Trade Center. It was not exactly a state secret that the Twin Towers remained the wet dream target for Middle East extremists.

Then fast forward to one of the most famous terrorists events of the 1990s, one that began on Christmas Eve 1994: members of the Armed Islamic Group commandeer an Air France jet, fly it to Marseilles, and have it fully refueled so they can crash it into the Eiffel Tower. Fortunately, French commandos thwarted the hijackers.

And you're telling The Doc that your best minds could not put two and two together?

Word crossed the wire about an hour ago that His Illustrious Incompetence spoke to his Republican confederates in Congress to explicitly tell them that questions and calls for investigation "have a partisan smell."

Well, golly, Mister Texas Two-Step, that makes no less a politician than Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, must have jumped parties. He was all over CNN this morning demanding answers from you and your circle of national security geniuses.

And Shelby isn't the only Republican who is steamed. The Doc spoke this morning with a Republican staffer for New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who told him there are a lot of people in City Hall who want some straight, un-Fleischered answers -- for the city, for the families of some 3000 people who died last September 11th, and for cops and firemen who lean Republican in a Democrat town.

Big players who would normally dance to your buddy Karl Rove's fiddle are singing a different tune. They're being a bit more subtle about it than the vast majority of Democrats who know damn well that your pals stole the presidency for you and whose trust and respect you will never command -- but when you listen carefully between the words, you can hear it loud and clear.

The whole mess just doesn't pass the smell test - and you've started to lose their trust.

'Nuff said.