The Genesis Mechanic

For twenty years, the New Conservatives have worked very, very hard not to compete in the political marketplace, but to napalm that marketplace. Not to debate issues, but to slander and delegitimize the very idea that anyone should be allowed to have an opinion different from theirs. To call any dissent treason (as long as they were inside the White House looking out) and, like the Genesis Device in the only really decent Trek movie ever made, to completely displace the world as we know it with their One Party/Christopath/Authoritarian Reality.

So how is it that Matthew Dowd failed to notice this?

Now, as the nose of that ship slide beneath the waves and the deep thunder of its hull cracking becomes clearly audible, suddenly a whole crop of Party of God aparatchiks are shopping for forgivingness, tolerance and understanding; traits that if I remember correctly, the New Conservatives routinely mocked as the personification of treasonous, pussified gutlessness, oh, about 24 hours a day, every day, week in week out for, say, the last 20 years.

So when one reads the scratched-on-a-Titanic-cocktail-napkin “mea culpa”s these last rats off the sinking Administration are trying to pass off as genuine Letters of Transit as they try to slither off into their next high-paying gig...

(h/t Pachacutec at HuffPo)

Ex-Aide Says He’s Lost Faith in Bush
By JIM RUTENBERG
AUSTIN, Tex., March 29 — In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush’s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal.

A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.

Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.
In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.

“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,” he said. He added, “I think he’s become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in.”
In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle to break so publicly with him.

He said his decision to step forward had not come easily. But, he said, his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s presidency is so great that he feels a sense of duty to go public given his role in helping Mr. Bush gain and keep power.

Mr. Dowd, a crucial part of a team that cast Senator John Kerry as a flip-flopper who could not be trusted with national security during wartime, said he had even written but never submitted an op-ed article titled “Kerry Was Right,” arguing that Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 presidential candidate, was correct in calling last year for a withdrawal from Iraq.

And then when they decide to double-down on the crocodile tears, Go Long and press-gang God into their line-up.

“I’m a big believer that in part what we’re called to do — to me, by God; other people call it karma — is to restore balance when things didn’t turn out the way they should have,” Mr. Dowd said. “Just being quiet is not an option when I was so publicly advocating an election.

And then you match their words up against what they were really all about, what they happily abetted all this time. How damaged, undeveloped and cripplingly prepubescent the hearts and souls of Bush’s hired guns really are...

…
“It’s almost like you fall in love,” he said. “I was frustrated about Washington, the inability for people to get stuff done and bridge divides. And this guy’s personality — he cared about education and taking a different stand on immigration.”

Mr. Dowd established himself as an expert at interpreting polls, giving Karl Rove, the president’s closest political adviser, and the rest of the Bush team guidance as they set out to woo voters, slash opponents and exploit divisions between Democratic-leaning states and Republican-leaning ones.

In television interviews in 2004, Mr. Dowd said that Mr. Kerry’s campaign was proposing “a weak defense,” and that the voters “trust this president more than they trust Senator Kerry on Iraq.”
…

“When you fall in love like that,” he said, “and then you notice some things that don’t exactly go the way you thought, what do you do? Like in a relationship, you say ‘No no, no, it’ll be different.’ ”

One realizes what an old story this is. That it is, in fact, the very oldest of stories.

Now I wasn’t gonna be nasty, but since Mr. Dowd had to go and drag God into it...

Genesis 3

1 Now the Bush was more gladhandy than any Shrub of the field which the ROVE God had made. And he said unto the Dowd, Yea, hath the Founders said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the Dowd said unto the Bush, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden – the Tree of Fascism -- the Founders hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye lose the Nation.

4 And the Bush said unto the Dowd, Nah. Seriously, it’s totally cool:

5 For the Founders didst know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as the Founders, transcending mere rights and due processes, means and ends, and dwelling on the plain of Pure Good fighting Pure Evil.

6 And when the Dowd saw that the raw, unfettered power of the Tree won elections, toppled nations, muzzled the press and kept opposition gagged and terrorized, he took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto the Moderates with him; and they did eat.

7 And the eyes of them all were opened, and they knew that they were filthy, lying fucknozzles; and they spun lies and bigotry and think-tanks and media together, and made themselves a New Reality.

8 And they heard the voice of the Founders walking in the Nation in the heat of the War they had used the fruit of the Tree to manufacture: and Dowd and the Moderates hid themselves from the presence of the Founders by Turning Rush Up Louder.

9 And the Founders called unto the Moderates, and said unto them, What in the Fuck have you done with our Constitution?

10 And the Moderates said, we heard thy voice in the Nation, and since we are naturally nekkid little cowards, we hid ourselves behind the Flag and called the Dirty Hippies nasty names.

11 And the Founders said, Who told thee that thou wast nekkid little cowards? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the Moderates, being nekkid little cowards, said, Dowd made us do it! It wasn’t our fault. We’re weak and stupid! There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. We swear to You it wasn’t our faaaaault.

13 And the Founders said unto the Dowd, What is this that thou hast done? And the Dowd said, The Bush beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And the Founders said unto The Bush, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all Administrations. History shall judge you to have been the Worst President Evah. The Future shall call you Traitor and Failure , and you shall be set below every hack Alderman and corrupt Mayor in the land; upon thy belly shalt thou crawl out of office, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And We will put enmity between thee and the Goldwater Conservatives, and between thy seed and their seed; they will never vote for another Bush again, and the Bushes will grow crazier and stupider and more of a national embarrassment with each passing generation.

16 Unto the Dowd he said, We will greatly multiply thy sorrow and ruin thy resume; in sorrow thou shalt make a buck; ultimately you shalt wear a Hat of Paper and spend your declining years welcoming hillbillies to WalMart.

17 And unto the Moderates They said, Because thou art nekkid little cowards and hast hearkened unto the voice of liars like the Dowd, and hast eaten of the tree, of which We Very Clearly commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is are you dumbasses; in sorrow shalt thou listen to the Dirty Hippies saying “we told you so”.

18 Shut The Fuck Up with your imbecile opinions is what you will surely do all the days of thy life while other, smarter people clean up your messes or I will lay such a smiting on you;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat crow, till thou return unto the dumpster of History; for out of it wast thou taken: for poo thou art, and unto poo shalt thou return. 

Amen