What wine goes with Rodent?

A little BoBolais Nouveau perhaps?

I love me some internets, both snap-bean fresh off the vine and the stuff that’s been aging in oak casks for, say, six years.

First we sample a few sips of the BoBolais Nouveau, from today's NYT.
Practically still warm from the sun…

Turning Tide for Bolton By DAVID BROOKS

…over the past two weeks John Bolton's confirmation prospects have gotten stronger. What happened?
On April 19, Bolton's nomination was knocked off-track by Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing. They made powerful presentations against Bolton, which clearly spooked several Republicans. So investigators were dispatched to interview dozens of Bolton's colleagues to get a deeper view of his conduct.
The interview transcripts suggest that Bolton could behave in a "fairly blunt manner" and that some people felt "undue pressure" to conform to his views, as John Wolf, a former assistant secretary of state, testified.
But they also reveal that Bolton has a professional sense of limits. He'd push his views, and push hard.
…
The speeches he gave on controversial subjects were generally cleared. Nobody was fired because of him. Nobody's career was damaged.
…
So when he challenged Bolton, Bolton would bend on most matters, but not on policy.
…
That's because Bolton's job was to stand up for the president's policies.
The momentum has shifted on the Bolton nomination because John Bolton turns out to be a more complicated figure than earlier portrayed. It's become clear that earlier tales of him chasing women down hallways are unreliable. It's become clear that while he's abrasive, he is professional. If Senator George Voinovich reads these transcripts before he votes, I'm sure Bolton will be confirmed.

Before we commence to eatin', let's state for the record that nobody is ever going to knock Bill Clinton for being weak on policy matters. In addition to being many other things, he was, hands-down The Uber Wonk when it came to such things. He knew what he wanted in detail to ten significant digits and in Washington rumors are still whispered about “grown men pullin’ their own heads off” in fear of having to go down into the “conversation pit” and talk policy with Big Dog.

Also, no one can argue that –- six years ago -– the public had any taste for Impeachment whatsoever. After seven-years and seventy-million dollars spent on the relentless, obsessive Republican Ahab-ing of Bill Clinton (to the point where, for example, even whispering that we maybe should kinda go after Osama Bin Laden, caused the entire Right Wing Political and Media Chorus to bury any consideration under the deafening shrieks of “No War For Monica!” and “Wag The Dog!”) everyone was finally, heartily sick of it…except the Right Wing who had become so deeply invested in and unhinged by hatred that ever more their rhetoric began sounding like the ranting of Lucifer swearing eternal War on Heaven.

Or if you prefer, Ricardo Montalban dining on the scenery at the end of "Star Trek II":
“From hells heart I spit at thee. For hates sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

And for you youngsters out there just joining the party, no, this is not an exaggeration. The leaders of the Republican Lynch Mob were just exactly that fucking nuts. And, no, they never recovered. In fact rather than sober up and get over it, they’ve spent the last six years steeping in the Crazy Juice.

So impeachment was not about policy. And as was also the case with Clinton, as BoBo says about Bolton, “Nobody was fired because of him. Nobody's career was damaged” and no one can argue that Clinton did not have “a professional sense of limits.”

So these are BoBo’s simpering but pretty unambiguous tenets:

1. Personal matters (say, how you treat women) and ogerish behavior are irrelevant, and that if Bob “Grabbyhands” Crane were still alive and still a pervert and beat his underlings like rented mules…it would not matter as long as he lined up with the President’s policy.

2. Even if the way you go about pimping policy (especially in a professional capacity where diplomatic skills are, um, the whole fucking job description) are as ruinous and simplistic as “Hulk! SMASH!”, the President should always be deferred to.

Always. Always. Always.

I mean, the election is over, right? The people have spoken and alla that good stuff, right?

So, we’re all clear on where BoBo stands on these issues. I mean, after all, I gotta think that he wouldn’t go printing such stuff on the good, gray pages of the New York Times if he didn’t feel pretty strongly about them.

And given his clarity of principle, how do you think BoBo was feeling about William Jefferson Clinton on the days leading up to the Impeachment vote? Do you think maybe he was outraged by this nakedly partisan congressional intrusion into a matter as settled as the outcome of the 1996 Presidential elections? Did he awake from his Quisling stupor and leap voluably into the fray against those who wanted to topple a President over what were essentially personal matters between consenting adults?

Or was he the ever-reliable, ever-bonelessly-malleable stooge for the Ultra Right Wing…desperately trying to re-frame the argument around Culture Issues so that with any luck you wouldn’t notice the Coup d'Etat taking place inches from your nose?

Hey, why not pile into the Way-Back machine and actually find out? Put down the BoBolais Nouveau and sample a little of the vintage wine.

Let’s see…what goes well with rodent?

Something darker, perhaps? A deep red, with top notes of wingnut apologist, ass-smooching fundy Secret Santa, water-bearer…and not a hint of journalism.

Set the dial for 1999. The date is February 8th. The place is “The News Hour.” The emphsis…added by me.

“…I'm not sure the votes matter, whether it's 48 or 49, but the spin matters. You know, we had an event that happened, you know, two years ago in the White House. And there's been a pile of discourse put on top of it and then discourse, and discourse, and discourse, and a big ball of discourse, of which today is the last. But what we're fighting about are fundamental issues about America, fundamental issues about how women are treated in the workplace, fundamental issues of what we expect from our politicians, his personal, the political. These are the issues which are the core of the so-called culture war that has taken place since the 1960s."

In other words, BoBo believes that Impeachment was really an honorable fight over the very issues that BoBo now courageously urges us to ignore.

David Brooks:
Craven Accommodation Then.
Craven Accommodation Now.
Craven Accommodation Forever.