The Clout's In The Cradle

"He`s just dumb as a rock. If his name were Richard M. Camper, he`d be working in the post office."

-- Rob Warden, editor of Chicago Lawyer,

writing about Hizzoner Richard M Daley in 1989 (?)

Anyone who has spent more than airport layover time in Chicago knows that politics, power and privileged in my former home are dynastic.  As you or I might leave a stamp collection or our car to the kids, in the Daley family, clout is bequeathed.  Same with the Jackson family.  And the Mells.  And the Madigans.  And the Strogers,  And the so forths.  And the so ons.  

Of course, like any other kind of inherited wealth, the blood tends to run thin by the third generation. (or, to quote Jack Donaghy) --

We are an immigrant nation! The first generation works their fingers to the bone making things, the next generation goes to college and innovates new ideas, the third generation... snowboards and takes improv classes.

-- but to this day, if you crack open a copy of Mike Royko's indispensable "Boss" you will be amazed at how little the last names of the key players have changed.

Chicago is so proficient at the art of clout that we had an Alderman -- Isaac Carothers Jr. -- who was convicted and did a two year bit for virtually the same crime his father -- Isaac Carothers Sr. -- committed when he was an Alderman. When last seen, former-alderman and ex-offender Isaac the Younger was... wait for it... kicking around the idea of running for a seat on the Cook County board!

Back before I figured out that almost no one was interested in the subject, I used to write a lot about this particular aspect of Chicago/Illinois politics.

Hell, I used to write song parodies about it:

And so, with apologies to Harry Chapin...

3...2..1...

Rat's In The Boodle

A child arrived just the other day,

Not on the clout list, but dat's ok,

But there were plans to hatch and bribes to pay,

He learned to cheat while I was away

He was scamming 'fore I knew it and as he grew

He'd say "I'm going to be like you Dad,

An Al-der-man just like you."

Chorus :

Another rat's in the boodle,

Just like Silver Shovel

Nobody'd believe dis shit

If you put it in a novel,

"When you gonna run son?" "I don't know when."

"We'll get together then,

We'll get you on da clout list then."

My son turned ten just the other night

Showed him how to rig a vote up good 'n tight.

Will you teach me good and bad?

I said, "Not today,

I got thumbs to bend." He said, "Dat's OK."

And he walked away, but his smile never dimmed

Said, "I'm going to be like him, yeah.

An Al-der-man just like him."

Chorus :

Another rat's in the boodle,

Just like Silver Shovel

Nobody'd believe dis shit

If you put it in a novel,

"When you gonna run son?" "I don't know when."

"We'll get together then,

We'll get you on da clout list then."

He got into office just the other day,

Another Daley-man, and I just had to say,

"Son, I'm proud of you, now about my bail..."

He shook his head (looks like I stay in jail)

"What I'd really like, dad, is your sucker list.

I'm in need of some ducats dat won't be missed."

Chorus :

Another rat's in the boodle,

Just like Silver Shovel

Nobody'd believe dis shit

If you put it in a novel,

"When you gonna run son?" "I don't know when."

"We'll get together then,

We'll get you on da clout list then."

I've since made parole, but now my son's been popped

I called him up to see how he copped

"I'd like to see you, if you don't mind."

He said, "Don't say nuthin weird 'cause they bugged this line.

Let's just say my new "job's" a hassle and da "kids" have da "flu"

But it's sure nice talking you Dad, it's been real nice talking to you."

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me

He'd grown up just like me,

An Al-der-man just like me.

Chorus :

Another rat's in the boodle,

Just like Silver Shovel

Nobody'd believe dis shit

If you put it in a novel,

"When you gonna run son?" "I don't know when."

"We'll get together then,

We'll get you on da clout list then."

So, as longtime readers know, I am a great believer that Clout, in all of its many mutations and variations, rules our world.  And when you've worked long enough within whispering distance of its global headquarters you get so you expect to see it everywhere you look, and you are rarely disappointed. So imagine my complete lack of surprise at seeing this in The Daily Beast:

Get Elected, Get Your Kids Rich: Washington Is Spoiled Rotten

A governor’s daughter is made CEO without a MBA. A senator’s son starts a hedge fund right out of college. Democrats have joined Republicans in the new nepotism.

Joe Manchin’s daughter Heather was looking for a job. The now-senator and one-time governor of West Virginia was only a state level rep when he ran into Milan Pushkar—the head of Mylan Inc., a Fortune 500 pharmaceuticals company—at a West Virginia University basketball game [1]. Heather was hired for an entry-level position at the company soon after. Records show Mylan benefitted from millions of dollars worth of corporate tax breaks in the state during Manchin’s gubernatorial tenure. [2] And these days, after stints as Mylan’s director of government relations and strategic development, Heather Bresch (née Manchin) is the company’s CEO, one of Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business [3]. All this without even an MBA—a 2008 investigation found that Bresch did not actually earn her degree from WVU as claimed. Officials had altered her official records and covered up for it, perhaps motivated by Mylan’s lucrative relationship with the University—co-founder Pushkar (Bresch’s business world fairy godfather) donated over $20 million [4] and had the football field named after him. [5]

Connected children of political families catching a break is something we Americans are plenty used to—there would be no Kennedy or Bush dynasties without the public’s acceptance that some people just raise their kids up all square-jawed and rolled shirtsleeves, ready to run for office. But the nexus of private business and politics is always one that’s skated over lightly in high school civics classes. Perhaps that’s why there was so much consternation over the recent revelations that Wall Street banks had hired the children of prominent Chinese politicians with hopes of currying favor with those who wield power over business decisions in the rising economic superpower. The hiring of so-called “Chinese Princelings” has been a widespread one in the banking community; JPMorgan Chase had a “Sons and Daughters” program [6] that separated applications of Chinese elites’ children from the wider pool and held them to less rigorous standards. Documents have been uncovered indicating that the bank directly tracked the hiring of influencers’ children to the success of business deals.

...

OK, two corrections.

First, what in the name of Whispering Vic Reyes do you mean, "Democrats have joined Republicans in the new nepotism."  Democrats, especially big city party bosses, pioneered modern political nepotism and cronyism.  Historically this was part of the bargain the Democratic Party struck with its largely-working-class voters (and even many of its would-be reformers): the Party was given enormous political power that would otherwise have be wielded almost exclusivity by and for established monies interests and, in exchange, the hoi polloi got decent jobs, some material improvements to their communities and better opportunities for their kids.  Richard J. Daley was explicit about why, despite its obvious corruptions and often-overt racism, he was 100% loyal to the Democratic Party: because it was the only party that would have let someone like Richard J. Daley join and rise to a position of influence (can't find the exact quote I was looking for at this time.)  Sayeth Richard the First:

The Democratic Party is the party that opened its arms. We opened them to every nationality, every creed. We opened them to the immigrants. The Democratic Party is the party of the people.

This was something up with which the average voter is usually willing to put...right up until the rich dauphins of inherited privilege start yapping about "merit", sneering at our threadbare social safety net as a hammock for moochers, and lecturing the Great Unwashed on the subject of pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps.  Once that starts happening, it's time for the pitchforks and torches.

Second, seriously, how in the name of Victoria Davey "Tori" Spelling could anyone write an entire article about nepotism in politics and the media without mentioning the amazing career of Young Luke Russert?  That's like "Moby Dick" without the whale.

Empty Suit, Stuffed With Money

I did not mean today to become a book report on the state of the Chicago Political Insider's Club, but this story was too tasty to pass up.


From the invaluable Better Government Association:

Ex-City Colleges Chief Gets “A+” in Personal Finance
By Patrick Rehkamp/BGA

As graduation rates were bottoming out at the City Colleges of Chicago in 2009, then-Chancellor Wayne Watson was cashing out. Big time.

The Better Government Association previously reported Watson was paid more than $500,000 in unused sick and vacation time when he retired from the taxpayer-funded community-college system three years ago.

The BGA recently learned that Watson’s out-the-door compensation was richer than previously known, totaling as much as $800,000, according to public records and interviews.

On top of roughly $537,000 in sick- and vacation-day payouts, Watson also was given an exit bonus of $124,615, according to City Colleges records recently obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

What’s more, City Colleges is providing him with free health care coverage for life – costing the system more than $22,000 to date in premiums and reimbursements – and a life insurance policy that he was allowed to cash out for $112,602, records show.

Watson, now president of Chicago State University, wouldn’t say whether he exercised the right to convert the policy to cash. ...

But this much is known: the exit bonus was signed by the City Colleges’ then-board chairman, Jim Tyree, in July 2009, the month before Watson retired, records show.

Tyree died in March 2011. (At the time, he was a co-owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, and chairman and CEO of Mesirow Financial.)

None of the current City Colleges board members were with City Colleges at the time the bonus was agreed upon.

Terry Newman, a close friend of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, was the City Colleges’ board secretary at the time. Through a spokeswoman, Newman said "as he recalls there was no discussion about this or any negotiation about his payout . . . that would have been a discussion and negotiation between the chairman and chancellor."*

Regardless, compensation experts consulted by the BGA said such perks – an exit bonus and a life insurance payout – are relatively rare in the private sector, and are rarer still in the public realm.

"Normally it doesn’t happen that way," said Paul Dorf, managing director of Compensation Resources, Inc., a New Jersey-based consulting firm.

Meanwhile, after the BGA inquired earlier this year about Watson’s sick- and vacation-time payday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered a crackdown on the perk for non-union employees at city-related agencies.

Annual sick-day payouts at CSU were curtailed even earlier – but not before Watson took advantage of the allowance and cashed out $13,000 in unused sick time in 2011, school officials indicated. ...

*(The alert reader will note the name "Terry Newman" and note that it shows up later in this post.  Drawing a line between these two points will count for 1/3 of your final grade)

Understand, this is not happening during budget surplus, high-cotton times at the City of Chicago, when virtually no one would notice or care.  Ever since Chicago gummint revenues took a nosedive in 2007/2008, the city has been frantically cutting, consolidating, early retiring, selling off, selling out, privatizing, re-organizing, re-re-organizing and re-re-re-organizing itself to safe money.


Well...cutting, consolidating and so forth all of those parts of city gummint that are not safe and snugly behind the clout-shield.  Because in Chicago, clout rules all things, 



which is why even as Da Mare mourned publicly about how sad-sad-sad it was that he had to slash the guts out of anything that was not clout-protected, behind closed doors he was cooking up one last scheme to sell off taxpayer assets for enough dough to prop up his bloated administration just long enough to take a victory lap, pass Go, cash in some of his political chips and dance away into legend.


It was not a pretty sight, with stories like (from the Chicago Reader)...

As Mayor Daley cashes in, ousted teacher gets cut off


By Ben Joravsky @joravben


Mayor Daley's had a great run over the last few weeks.


Since leaving office May 16, he has, let's see, landed a gig at the University of Chicago, where he'll have to "coordinate" a handful of lectures in exchange for a reported $100,000 a year.


That would be the same University of Chicago that last year was part of a development team receiving the OK for a $20 million handout from the mayor's good old tax increment financing honeypot to help build a hotel, retail, and office complex in blighted (ha, ha, ha) Hyde Park.


Daley also got a gig as a lawyer for Katten Muchin Rosenman, the firm that employs his best friend, Terry Newman, and racked up more than a million bucks in legal fees from advising the city on such privatization schemes as the parking meter lease deal.


Thanks a lot for that one, fellows.


Then there's the company the ex-mayor's reportedly launching with his son, Patrick, which will be seeking overseas investors for deals in Chicago. Not to mention his speaking engagements and prospective book deals.


As my colleague Mick Dumke put it, they're all steps in Daley's "ongoing privatization of himself."


Oh, wait, can't forget his pension—about $184,000 a year.


To paraphrase the great Johnnie Taylor, it might have been cheaper to keep him around.


In contrast, consider the case of Anthony Skokna, 56, who was unceremoniously dumped from his job as a history teacher at Marshall High School, just about two years shy of claiming any of his pension. He's been applying for jobs all over town, but no one will hire him, most likely because he's too old.


Before he went to Marshall, Skokna taught for eight years at a couple of Catholic high schools in Chicago. He says he might have closed out his career in the Catholic schools but he had a growing family (eight kids) and needed a higher-paying job. In the fall of 1992, he started at Marshall. "The city was so short of teachers, they hired a bunch of us," he says. "Different than today."


Actually, not so different. That teacher shortage was in part induced by a pension buyout plan the central office cooked up to induce hundreds of older teachers into retiring so they could be could be replaced with younger ones (like Skokna) who made less money.


If this were a novel, it would be called ironic.
...

...and this...

Arbitrator OKs CTA layoffs starting Sunday
February 3, 2010 6:09 PM

Labor unions at the CTA lost a challenge to the transit agency's plans to lay off more than 1,100 employees starting Sunday as part of major service cuts to reduce a budget deficit.

An arbitrator's ruling today against the unions means that the cuts -- an 18 percent reduction in bus service and 9 percent for trains -- will be implemented, barring any developments to erase a $95.6 million deficit that remains for 2010, transit officials said.

CTA management has introduced more than $200 million in internal cuts and other cost savings, and it said the unions must agree to salary and other concessions to help erase the rest of the deficit and stave off the service cuts. The unions representing CTA bus and rail workers have so far refused, saying they made concessions in the past.

...and this.

Fitch downgrades Chicago bonds

Posted by Greg H. at 10/28/2010 3:48 PM CDT on Chicago Business
Chicago's bond rating has suffered another hit, this one from Fitch Ratings.

The New York-based firm on Thursday lowered its rating on $7 billion in outstanding general-obligation city debt to AA- from AA, particularly citing the city's increasing reliance on one-time revenues to fix its budget.

"While the economy remains broad and diverse, the city's financial position has weakened," Fitch wrote. Revenues have been hurt by high unemployment and above-average home foreclosures, while the city has reduced reserves from around $2 billion a couple of years ago to a projected $790 million by December.

Fitch applauded layoffs and other payroll trims implemented by outgoing Mayor Richard M. Daley, but added, "The ability to make further expenditure cuts to personnel is extremely limited" due to union contracts.

"Rising costs for public safety and the continued slow economic recovery will severely limit the city's ability to achieve structural balance without working (politically difficult) structural solutions," it said 

...and this...

Chicago Community College Budget Calls for Hundreds of Layoffs
Alex Keefe Jul. 29, 2010

Hundreds of non-teaching staff members could be laid off under the new budget proposal for Chicago's community college system.

Next year's budget for City Colleges of Chicago could fund 311 fewer positions, some through attrition.

But that could include 225 non-teacher layoffs.

Chancellor Cheryl Hyman they would affect administrators, as the district tries to consolidate some workers from its seven colleges.

...and this...

New Chicago Public Schools Budget: Layoffs, Furlough Days, And Larger Class Sizes To Make Ends Meet 

Chicago Sun-Times | Fran Spielman | 04/16/09

About 1,200 city school workers will receive layoff notices this week, and principals will begin sharing the budget pain via pay freezes and six furlough days, as Chicago Public Schools officials move today to plug their remaining $370 million deficit.

...and this....

Standard & Poor's lowers Chicago bonds

(Crain's) — The city of Chicago's general obligation bonds took a hit by Standard & Poor's, which lowered its long-term debt rating, citing ongoing budget strife.

The ratings agency assigned Chicago's general obligation debt an A+ rating, down one notch from AA-. It gave the same A+ rating — also lowered from AA- — to nearly $804 million in general obligation refunding and taxable project bonds.

S&P said in its report that the new rating "reflects our view of the city's ongoing structural imbalance and heavy reliance on non-recurring revenues to bridge its 2011 budget gap, including the use of most of its remaining reserves from the sale of its parking meters."

...and this...

Daley To Union: 1,600 City Lay Offs Unless Concessions Made

Chicago Sun-Times:

Mayor Daley will be forced to lay off up to 1,600 city employees -- none sworn police officers or firefighters -- unless organized labor agrees to another round of givebacks to wipe out a potential $300 million shortfall, union leaders were told this week.

...showing up with depressing regularity.


And just in case you thought the Machine stopped rolling just because it changed drivers, this is how Mare Rahm handles things (from yours truly, a year ago):

... 

Having already laid off thousands and still facing a $720 million deficit, the Completely-Broke-So-Don't-Even-Ask City of Chicago apparently stumbled across a windfall in the sofa cushions of the teacher's lounge of one of the many, many, many schools it has financially short-sheeted.

Guess what the New Mare did with it?

Brizard Set to Earn $250,000 as CPS CEO

by REBECCA VEVEA | May 25, 2011

Incoming Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard will officially begin work Thursday, after the outgoing Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved a one-month contract at its monthly meeting Wednesday. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s hand-picked board will approve Brizard’s longer-term contract when it convenes in June.

Brizard, who did not attend the meeting, will make $250,000 a year under a the resolution approved by the board — $15,000 more per year than he was earning as superintendent of the Rochester, N.Y. school system. It’s a $20,000 increase from the salary of the last full-time CPS CEO, Ron Huberman. Interim CEO Terry Mazany worked for a token salary of $1.
...

One of the iron rules of the Clout Club is that there is always plenty of money for whatever the Boss wants to spend money on.

Always.

Of course, in a city starved down to its last nickles, a story about throwing absurd, private sector, boom-era pay and perks at the outgoing chancellor of a deeply flawed and failing public institution doesn't make a damn bit of sense until you understand two things.


First, the city's clout system sometimes gets bottlenecked with hungry, hungry hippos: what Abraham Lincoln once refereed to as "too many pigs for the teats."  When this happens, the city college system provides a safe place away from prying eyes where the Machine can quietly dump its loyal, overpaid, surplus lieutenants (or, as one wag once put it, "for decades the ossified city college system has been used as the pasture out to which politically-connected friends have been put".)


And second, while Mr. Watson may have been a glad-handing empty suit, he was Mare Daley's glad-handing empty suit.  He presided discretely and faithfully over Hizzoner's unsanctified resting place for the politically undead and was compensated commensurate with his years of loyalty and discretion.

In other words, there is a Club.

And you are not in it.

Before Them All

There was


The Newsroom


And nothing whatsoever -- save a few hours a day on MSNBC -- has changed for the better since.

Losing His Religion

Remember a hundred years ago -- or was it less than a month ago? -- when the latest batch of Wikileaks showed that the Iraqi "surge" was, in fact, a trick of the light?

A fraud and failure (From the "Daily Dish"):

Iraq Surge Fail Update

24 Oct 2010 07:21 pm

The Wikileaks doc-dump adds more light to debunking the myth of the surge. No one doubts that Petraeus' extra troops and shrewd bribery played a part in reducing sectarian violence of nightmarish levels. But the further we get away from that moment in time and the more we learn, the clearer it is that it was the internal dynamic of Iraq that created the lull:

A unique set of conditions had coalesced on the ground. The warring communities were exhausted from the frenzy of killing. Mixed neighborhoods and cities were largely cleansed. The militias, both Sunni and Shiite, long seen as defenders of their communities, had begun to cannibalize them, making local residents newly receptive to American overtures.

Civil wars have their own ghastly rhythms; and the war we pretended to control we never controlled. And we still don't. The violence was dropping fast before the surge was in place:

The single worst month for civilian deaths was December 2006, two months before the buildup’s first brigade arrived. Casualties dropped slightly in January. In February, when the first new brigade arrived, the recorded casualties dropped by a quarter, though it is the shortest month. Around that time, Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric, decamped to Iran, perhaps fearing American troops. What the documents suggest strongly is that Iraqis themselves were looking for an escape from the orgy of sectarian killing made worse by the growth of ordinary, but still violent, crime.

There's no doubt that the US military were admirably able to take advantage of these internal dynamics. But the narrative that official Washington has tried to perpetrate - that the war was "ended" by more US troops - is simply untrue. The war was burning itself out before more troops arrived; the surge failed to use this lull to construct a multi-sectarian democratic government (which was its own criterion for success)
...

Considering that, when it comes to Bush's Iraqi Debacle, the Right has tamped down all criticism of their collective, bloody treasons, crimes and failures by continually screaming at the tops of their lungs about the singular awesomeness of The Surge, this revelation would certainly seem to constitute a Really Big Fucking Deal.

And yet, after a brief flutter of embarrassed rhubarbing, you never heard about it in the Mainstream Media again did you?

Ever wonder why?

Precisely because the Right has used it as a pointed stick to keep all criticism at bay for the last four years.

Precisely because it was the very last "See! We were right about something too!" lie the Right felt they could trot out in public and not have to Sharron-Angle-chicken-dash the Hell away from when whatever is left of the press starts asking questions. Something they felt they could brag about in the daylight and not be laughed at because Serious People in Serious Media would back them up.

And, most importantly, it was the last brick in the last load-bearing-wall in the great, wingnut, "Both sides do it" fortress. Without it, the whole. weak, wilty reed of Centrism has nothing but Glenn Beck spackle, Limbaugh beer farts and random, frantic secondary lies ("ACORN! Soros! Black Panther! Kenyan!") delivered at 300 decibels to hold it upright.

Not that this matters to most Conservatives, but to the last of the Brain Caste -- to moon-faced Quislings like David Fucking Brooks -- whose whole schtick is going on non-Fox media and appearing reasonable as he hammers home the Big Centrist Lie, it is terribly important.

David Brooks is the architect of the Right's Asshat Panic Room, and the ridiculously handsome compensation he pulls down for spinning this pie-plate longer and more implacably that almost anyone else depends entirely on having at least this one, concrete example of Both Sideism.

In 2008, Bobo led the way:

The Bush Paradox

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: June 24, 2008
...
But before long, the more honest among the surge opponents will concede that Bush, that supposed dolt, actually got one right. Some brave souls might even concede that if the U.S. had withdrawn in the depths of the chaos, the world would be in worse shape today.

And from relieved, Rightwing warbloggers:

NYT's David Brooks Admits: Bush Was Right About the Iraq Surge

It is becoming obvious even to many on the left that the Iraq surge has worked.

George W. Bush was right. The Americans who elected George W. Bush as their commander in chief, or who at least gave him the benefit of the doubt in wartime, were right.

John McCain was right, too.

Barack Obama was, and still is, wrong.

...to the Villager's favorite Useful Idiots:

Surge Protection
Posted by Joe Klein Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 10:35 am

I think David Brooks has it essentially right here about Bush's stubborness--as opposed to his knowledge of strategy or tactics or the situation on the ground in Iraq--as the reason why he made the correct choice on Iraq in late 2006. But, as Brooks says, history is complicated--and the current reduction in violence in Iraq was a combination of many factors.

As for me, I happily acknowledge that I was wrong about the surge.
...

...to the entire Mainstream Media establishment...

ABC’s World News aired a series of reports (6/19/08, 6/21/08, 6/23/08, 6/25/08, 7/8/08) emphasizing the progress in Iraq. And as NBC host Chris Matthews remarked (Chris Matthews Show, 7/6/08), “The surge’s success has been a point of honor for McCain.”

...
When CNN correspondent Candy Crowley observed (6/29/08) that “while few would argue about the success of the so-called surge in Iraq, there’s no shortage of criticism about the political progress there,” she apparently forgot that by definition a successful “surge” was supposed to usher in political progress. Most media analysis, though, left out the political dimension altogether, as when NBC anchor Brian Williams asked Obama (7/24/08), “Is it not time to say that the surge you opposed has worked?” When ABC correspondent Terry McCarthy (7/31/08) examined the decline in U.S. troop deaths, he stated flatly: “The turning point was the surge.” Fox pundit Fred Barnes’ judgment that the troop increase “turned Iraq heading into a stable, democratic country” (Fox Special Report, 7/9/08) was only an exaggerated version of what had essentially become a media truism.

...all the other baby ducks dutifully toed the new Party Line, because it was no longer merely a foreign policy question.

It was salvation.

For the Right, it was something they could finally shove into those fucking Liberal's elitist faces! After gleefully ignoring every warning from the Left...after swaggering along behind Dubya and his band of criminals and sociopaths as they plunged down the Rabbit Hole...and after seeing it all blow up in their cow-dumb faces in bloody, public and spectacular fashion, they finally, finally had something they could hide behind. Something, somewhere in the whole wide world they could point to and say "See! Y'all ain't so smart!"

For the Center, it was manna from Heaven. It was literally the only fact on Earth they could point to to affirmation the core tenet of their bullshit "both side are always equally wrong about stuff" cult.

From the L.A. Times, June 26, 2008:

...Obama gets credit for opposing a war whose initial goal -- protecting the world from weapons of mass destruction -- turned out to be an illusion. Shouldn't he have to account for opposing the surge, which has enhanced the safety of Iraqis and American GIs?

And they could do it because clowns like David Fucking Brooks used the occasion to give them explicit permission to charge back into the culture war:

The cocksure war supporters learned this humbling lesson during the dark days of 2006. And now the cocksure surge opponents, drunk on their own vindication, will get to enjoy their season of humility. They have already gone through the stages of intellectual denial. First, they simply disbelieved that the surge and the Petraeus strategy was doing any good. Then they accused people who noticed progress in Iraq of duplicity and derangement. Then they acknowledged military, but not political, progress. Lately they have skipped over to the argument that Iraq is progressing so well that the U.S. forces can quickly come home.

Lying about the facts and history to create utterly false equivalents has been David Brooks stock-in-trade since forever, and the myth of the irrefutable success of George Bush's Iraq Surge has become the single, largest crutch on which his entire collective "Both Sideism" fraud now leans.

From June 24, 2010:

...
The ensuing mental flabbiness is most evident in politics. Many conservatives declare that Barack Obama is a Muslim because it feels so good to say so. Many liberals would never ask themselves why they were so wrong about the surge in Iraq while George Bush was so right. The question is too uncomfortable.

David Brooks continues to be a high priest in the temple of a god he knows damn well is a complete fake. But the high priesting business pays really well, and if there is one thing Neoconservatives get good at early, it is knowingly lying to the rubes in pursuit of their own, private agenda:


Which is why I doubt you will hear much above the fold about the very inconvenient failure of The Iraq Surge ever again.

Wholesomeness:

One patriot explaining the Hot Gates to another patriot.