I couldn't believe it. "Shallow Throat" actually was smiling when we met on the hiking trail along the old C&0 Canal near Bethesda.
The high-ranking GOP mole in the Bush Administration had spent so many of our previous meetings ( www.crisispapers.org/weinerpubs.htm#shallow ) glum and paranoid, so I didn't know what to expect this time, even with the lighthearted demeanor.
"You wouldn't believe the mood in the White House and in many of the other departments," said Shallow Throat, giggling. "It's doom and gloom. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of crooks and liars. I walk around the corridors of power wearing a large grin inside.
"Their days are numbered. And they know it, too. They've read the election returns from November and see the handwriting on the wall. Rumsfeld is gone (perhaps to face civil lawsuits), and Bush and Cheney and Rove and Rice and Hadley and Gonzales and the rest of the bunker crew are going down and the only question is when.
"The citizens in November delivered their No Confidence verdict on this crew of incompetent, corrupt, arrogant powermongers. Not surprisingly, the Democrats, so locked into their timid victim mode, seem unsure what to do with their victory."
"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Reid and Pelosi are standing up tall these days, along with most of the incoming chairmen of the importantcommittees -- Conyers, Waxman, Leahy, et al. They're not going to roll over anymore."
WHO'S IN CONTROL OF WAR POWER?
"Look, I'm as happy as you are that the GOP is no longer in charge of the Legislative branch of government," said ST. "The mantle of momentum and far-right-conservative 'inevitability' is no longer around the shoulders of those mean-spirited, corrupted White House officials and members of Congress. But you're forgetting two important things:
"One, Bush&Co. still control the levers of war and the Justice Department and much of the court system, including the Supreme Court, and they intend to use them all. And why not? Their approval numbers are so low, they figure they have nothing to lose by continuing their stop-me-if-you-can approach.
"Second, your 'principled' Democrats are coming perilously close to falling into the spiderweb trap Karl Rove has set for them."
"I'm a bit lost here," I replied, "not sure I understand that last comment. What trap are you talking about?"
"Just use your noodle, my naive progressive friend," said Shallow Throat. "What is dragging down the Bush Administration and was responsible for the huge GOP defeat in November?"
"The war in Iraq?" I answered.
ROPING DEMOCRATS TO THE "SURGE"
"Bingo! You got it on the first try. So here the Republicans are being destroyed by the war they started, and if they don't want to lose the White House and Congress again in 2008 they've got to find a way to get that albatross from around their necks and, at least partially, also around the necks of the Democrats, thus wiping out the war as an issue.
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).
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