Stupid Is as Stupid Does.

Hey Kids! Guess which Party wants to put a little army of Michael Browns in charge of a bunch of these?

Sometimes I talk, sometimes listen, and sometimes I get to point to someone or something that deserves some attention.

This little gem came to my attention as I was looking for a whole other bit of info. And as provisional and diluted as it may turn out to be, it is nonetheless a sweet little win for the good guys, and a model of how the party out of power can pick a battle at the right moment on the right ground and hit their opponents where they’re vulnerable.

Because even when you’re outside looking in, you can meet weakness with strength if you’re smart about it.

Here’s the story (emphasis added by me).

Senate Dems block Bush/GOP insider nominees for TVA
Submitted by R. Neal on Sat, 2006/02/18 - 9:26am.
In huge news that is not getting any coverage, Senate Democrats have taken a stand against White House cronyism and one-party GOP government.

A while back, Sen. Bill Frist ushered through legislation to expand the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors and appoint a first-ever CEO to oversee operations. The intent was to run the giant federal utility more like a business and less like a government within a government with no elected officials.

The problem is that all six new Bush nominees are unqualified GOP insiders with little or no utility experience. And the current chairman, Bill Baxter, who was recently appointed to that post by Bush, is already a generous Bush/GOP supporter.

But the fact that they aren't qualified isn't what got the Senate Dem's panties in a bunch. This Knoxville News Sentinel exclusive article (registration required) explains:

Senate Democrats Friday blocked approval of six nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors and said President Bush and Senate Republicans are "trying to stack" the nine-member board just with Republicans.

The six were denied a final Senate vote under an open-ended procedural move that could extend beyond the current recess and well past the Senate's next series of votes starting Feb. 28.

"All we're asking for is a guarantee of one Democratic nominee, and to date they have been unwilling to provide those assurances," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

It's not a filibuster of a Bush Supreme Court Nominee, but it's pretty huge, and a nice battle for Senate Dems to pick.

Why?

TVA is one of the nation's largest electric utilities. It is a quasi-federal agency that operates in seven Southern states. It serves more than 8 million people and generates approx. $7 billion in revenues. It operates a system of hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, and fossil fuel facilities including 11 coal-fired power plants. Their operations have a significant impact on the diverse economy of the Tennessee Valley and surrounding states.

They are a huge consumer of coal and natural gas. They are also one of the worst polluters in the South. Their coal-fired power plants are some of the dirtiest in the nation, and they have a long history fighting EPA regulation of coal fired power plant emissions.
…

And does it surprise anyone, anywhere that the Bush White House wants another passel of unqualified Party stooges to run this?

Go read the rest and thank Mr. Neal for limning a news item that is, in so many sad ways, the story of the Bush Administration.

Just another scary, pathetic case of the Republican’s incredibly aggressive Affirmative Action Program for Rich Incompetents, carried out by the Party of Personal Responsibility that swore we had nothing to worry about with a dimwit Preznit, because he’d appoint competent managers to make sure the wheels didn’t come off the Ship of State, so to speak.

But of course as we’ve learned from NASA to the Department of Energy to FEMA to Homeland Security – from the lies that brought us to grief in Iraq, to the catastrophic incompetence of that brought us to such tears with Katrina that we didn’t even notice how badly the same people botched the response to Hurricane Rita – everywhere they go and everything they touch, the phrase that pays is “Stupid Is as Stupid Does.”

Remember, this is the Party whose loony core believes – really, fervently believes – that all Bad Things come from the government, and so the government needs to be liquidated. Creatures bred out of a hellbrew belief system of paranoia, worship of Bizarro Anti Gee-Sys, black helicopters, gun fetishism and hysterical fear of everything that isn’t Just Like Them. A fever swamp of anti-government delusion out of which shambled the likes of Timothy McVeigh.

So keep in mind that the methodical destruction of the government – department by department – isn’t an accident; it’s the whole idea.

Katrina wasn’t a fuckup; Katrina is their vision of Heaven. A callous, “root, hog or die” Libertarian Utopia where they get to play their malicious Randite social experiments out with real human beings, and where those that can’t get out of the way of disaster deserve whatever they get.

Which is why, at every turn, these criminals and criminally inept men can be relied on to do one and only one thing: put lackeys and lickspittles in charge of vitally important government programs.

Let them loot the place and let Gresham's W. Bush’s Law – "Bad hacks with White House contacts will always drive out the good professionals" – take its course.

Let their buddies pick up a fat, government paycheck while they jerk off into their Domenico Vacca stripped silk socks until something blows up or blows down or melts into the Earth’s mantle, which is when the only skill at which the GOP actually excels -- lying -- kicks into action. The Spin Machine roars to life hosing everything in a 100 mile radius down with whitewash, and calling anyone a traitor who calls the administration out appointing yet another unqualified contributor’s idiot son to a position where American lives are endangered.

Well to be fair, it is usually poor Americans, and brown Americans, and no one in the corridors of power give an ounce of diseased anal leakage about them.

And now their plot to put a cadre of Brownies in charge of the safety and upkeep of vital national resources and prime terrorist targets like nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams, power grids has been foiled.

It isn’t a clean win, and the motives of the Dems are in no way pristine, but a quiet victory in a stained, partisan dress is still a victory.

And these days, I’ll take my wins where I can find them and with a smile.