Driven to Distraction

The President has a real pal in Karl Rove -- a man whose view of the American people can be fairly summarized as "There's a sucker born every minute".

When Joe Wilson pointed out that the President was lying to support his case for an invasion of Iraq, Karl distracted us all with his smear of the man and his wife. Although the White House admitted later they should never have used the uranium hoax in the State of the Union speech (and famously blamed George Tenet for the screw-up), Rove and Scooter Libby made sure that Wilson paid for his disloyalty (to Bush, not to America).

Did the big distraction work? Guess so -- nobody seems to recall that the uranium story was completely bogus, but we all know that Valerie Plame used to be a secret CIA operative -- don't we?

And who do you think turned the last election from its focus on the war to a non-debate about gay marriage?

When the Downing Street Memo came out, Rove distracted us all with his partisan attacks on the patriotism and character of liberal Americans. Everyone reacted, and the DSM scare subsided. George Bush sighed in relief and thanked God for Karl Rove.

Did you notice how hurried the Roberts nomination seemed to be? Why did the President have to push this process so hard? Do you think maybe he needed to change the subject?

These guys know they don't have to persuade you of their point of view. They don't have to answer all the questions or respond to all the charges. They just have to stall when they get in trouble. Raise a distraction. Stall some more. And it will all pass over. The people are suckers.

No need to fool all the people all the time -- just wait them out and they will forget. Lincoln would be amazed at the progress of the GOP under Rove and Bush.

Meanwhile the war continues. And people seem to forget how we got there.

Even those who are against this war seem to have focused on whether we can get Karl Rove -- on anything. We'll settle for conspiracy or obstruction of justice, even if we have to wreck what's left of freedom of the press to do it. And while our eyes are on Karl and his lawyer, the war goes on.

Rove will get off, and may even keep his job. The war will continue. And the people will continue to be distracted and befuddled.

And the man who lied to us all to start a war in which tens of thousands have lost their lives?

He sighs and thanks God for Karl Rove.

| +Save/Share | |