Going Down

Progressive talk radio is a difficult concept. Often an inept attempt to grab the right-wing’s sharpest weapon and turn it against them, at its best it functions on the same snake-belly level as right-wing talk radio—argumentative, vitriolic, intolerant, and childish. Invariably, the first fifteen minutes of a show are spent beating one sound-byte to death, followed by 105 minutes of continuing to batter it long after it has breathed its last. Only from the left-wing point of view. Fifteen minutes is usually the limit of my endurance for it.

Today, I tolerated almost three hours of the stuff. It was, unsurprisingly, inane. Al Franken spent 45 minutes asking questions of a guest, and then answering them himself. Randi Rhodes…was Randi Rhodes. ‘Nuf said. Ed Schultz was no shining star, either. But his topic of the day was the “leaker-in-chief.” He got after Bush pretty good about the Scooter Libby/presidentially authorized leak story. Kept playing sound bytes of Bush and Scott McClellan making their honorable declarations that any leakers of classified information in the Bush White House would soon NOT be part of the Bush White House. Interspersed with clips from various rock songs jangling, “Lies! Liar! Liar!” And one particularly funny John Kerry quip that Bush has spent the last three years looking for himself. It was mildly entertaining. And pretty much hit the nail on the head.

In my bemused mind, this harangue connected with the piece I read this morning about Bush’s poll numbers continuing to tank, and the country’s approval ratings of Congress going down the toilet. The American people, especially the ones who for whatever inane reason authorized Mr. Bush to sabotage the country for another four years, are finally beginning to get it about the Bush Administration. Can anyone name one positive achievement of this government? What thing—anything—has Bush accomplished, that didn’t turn out was either never actually accomplished in the first place, or was eventually discovered to have been built upon cloak and dagger theatrics, “Clintonesque” tweaking of semantics, sins of omission, or outright lies?

This latest twist could be the final cannonball through the hull of the George W. Bush ship of state. And, God, it’s been a long time coming. But in the end, any organization ruled by the kind of negative ethic that dominates today’s Republican party, and the Bush Administration in particular, is bound to go down. The tighter the hold, the dirtier the dealings, the higher the stack of lies, the more likely it is that when the foundation cracks, someone will get thrown to the wolves—like Scooter Libby. Powerful players in that kind of high-stakes intrigue do not like to lose. Faced with their own crash and burn, they often opt for revenge—they sing like virtuoso canaries. It happened to Nixon. Obviously, Bush is not immune.

It has been pure torture for some of us to watch the Texas cartel’s inexplicable rise. It will be pure ecstasy to witness its spectacular fall. I’m going to grab a lawn chair, some sunscreen, and a margarita, sit back and enjoy the hell out of this show.

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