Just Another Thursday

I'm not quite sure how I should feel about Harriet Miers' withdrawal. In the short run, it's good news in the sense that anything that makes W look like a dope and a crony coddler (e.g., his bathroom mirror) is good news. My general rule of thumb is that in the absence of outright victory for the forces of good and light, I'll take whatever is entertaining or exposes the enemy to ridicule. But even on those lesser grounds, this is not really good news. Bill Frist played the role of Barry Goldwater to Richard Nixon, telling the president that the votes weren't there and that the nomination was hurting the party. Had Bush done his usual number - hunker down, breathe defiance and stick to his position (clenched jaw, tiny eyes narrowed) - we would have been treated to lengthy and probably ugly hearings, juicy revelations, and bitter recriminations - all food for my childish hunger for schadenfreude. Instead, somebody (probably Cheney) dropped the dime on Miers and got her to step aside before things got fun. Damn. (And props to Charles Krauthammer for figuring out the exit strategy two weeks ago.)

The timing on this is intriguing, too; evidently the Bushies decided to get all of the bad news out on the same day - the embarrassment of Miers and the pending indictments of Karl Rove, I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Dick Cheney, and Jeb, Neil, Jenna, Laura, and the Barbara Bushes senior and junior. Again, although these will provide us a certain amount of smug entertainment (especially if Joe Wilson finally gets his wish to see "Karl Rove frog-marched out of the West Wing in handcuffs"), it's not really good news. Every day we hear how low Bush's approval ratings have dropped. So what? He's got the presidency and both houses of Congress and a "do over" to nominate a genuine idealogue of real judicial skills to the Supreme Court to shift the dismantling of the 20th century protection for civil liberties into high gear. Bush never has to stand for election again, Tom Delay et al. have successfully gerrymandered congressional districts to protect Republican majorities for decades, and Dick Cheney has no desire to be president. If I were them, I'd say this is "no lose" time: move as fast and as far as possible to enact the corporate conservative agenda. They don't even need legislative approval for much of it; witness the rewriting of regulations within the Interior Department and the lifting of minimum wage requirements (surprisingly, reversed this morning) for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast.

So, if you're small-minded and bitter like me, enjoy your last view of Harriet Miers as she disappears down the memory hole of history; raise a glass to Patrick Fitzgerald and say "vaya con dios" to Turd Blossom and Scooter. But stand by, because the worst is coming.

And let's get back to the real news: the grim mark of 2,000 dead Americans in the hopeless, endless, pointless mess in Iraq. Read Bob Herbert's column in today's Times - "Driving Blind While the Deaths Pile Up" - and then read Victor Davis Hanson's shameless attempt to minimize this atrocity by foolish and inaccurate historical analogies.

The phrase of the day is Herbert's: "mindless Washington weasels."