NYT: MODO: Dems cowering behind closed doors.

[dand]

There's no evidence- it's just a preposterous, paranoid fantasy at this point. But it speaks to the jitters of the Democrats that they are consumed with speculation about whether Karl Rove, the master of dirty tricks and surrogate sleaze, could have set up CBS in a diabolical pre-emptive strike to undermine damaging revelations about Bush 43's privileged status and vanishing act in the National Guard, and his odd refusal to take his required physical when ordered.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/16/opinion/16dowd.html

[amber dog democrat]

1. I am perfectly OK with this theory.

and would never put it past KR to set this up. Its all too neatly done to seem like a random turn of events.

[Disturbed]

3. The Neo Fascists can go fuck themselves.

I am ready to fight them for real. Most Dem in Congress are chicken shit weasles.

[amber dog democrat]

10. Distrubed, you've got that right.

And we can write off most of the House and Senate for now.
A nation of sheep begats a government of wolves. ( Edward R Murrow )
I am in a take no prisoners frame of mind.

[thebigidea]

2. so... uh... who let Dowd behind those closed doors?

Or is her blather a case of "There's no evidence - it's just a preposterous, paranoid fantasy at this point."

Love her closing line:

"Unlike the president, the young men and women trying to stay alive in the unraveling chaos of Iraq can't count on their daddies to get them out of the line of fire. "

No, but they count on Maureen Dowd to slam the Dems at every turn to insure that the fire keeps a'comin'. After all, Bush is good for her career, right?

[bklyncowgirl]

5. Read the whole article before you judge Dowd

Dowd makes a good point for all the sound and fury over whether or not the guard memos are forgeries deflecting attention over the mounting disaester that is Iraq, including the newly leaked intelligence analysis.

Dowd doesn't come down on the "Rove did it" side (she leaved it open) but it's clear that the flap over this is helping Bush.

[thebigidea]

6. Of course I read the whole article.

Why the heck would I post the closing line if I didn't?

Dowd is a nasty little creep who doesn't care about Iraq, she just wants a "Shakespearian" backdrop to spin her spinster satire.

Do you think she really wants Kerry to be President? Of course not, she wants what's good for her career - the Bush Admin. They're colorful, they're creepy, they allow you to stuff in more pop culture references into your cranky columns.

I mean, if Kerry were in office, she'd be bored silly and drinking daquiris with Tom Friedman to alleviate the boredom.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. She's very anti-Republican in this column

"These same Republicans never wanted investigations into missing W.M.D., why Congress passed a Medicare bill based on faulty figures, Abu Ghraib or even whether those Swiftie guys were lying, for Pete's sake."

"Iraq is a vision of hell, and the Republicans act as if it's a model kitchen. The president and vice president brag about liberating Iraqis and reassure us that they are stopping terrorist violence at its source and inspiring democracy in the region by bringing it to blood-drenched Iraq.

But what they haven't mentioned is that they have known since July that their rosy scenarios are as bogus as their W.M.D. That's when the president received a national intelligence estimate that spelled out "a dark assessment of prospects" for stability and governance in Iraq in the next 18 months, as Douglas Jehl wrote in today's Times. Worst-case estimates include civil war or anarchy."

There's a lot more fear and criticism of the Democraic party screwing up the election here on DU than in her columns.

[thebigidea]

9. yeah, those first two paragraphs are just stuffed with praise for Dems

She never attacks the Republicans without throwing in at least one barb for the Dems.

And you do remember her wondrous columns on Al Gore, yes?

She's not Anti-Republican, she's Anti-Everything... I can't decide who's worse: Friedman, Dowd, or Brooks.

[bklyncowgirl]

11. That's two paragraphs. Most of the article slams, I mean slams Bush

The "Rove did it" theory is far fetched, although I am personally beginning to lean toward it myself (I'm not yet convinced the documents are fake)and, let's face it, there are some Dems who do believe that this is not winnable. This article slammed Bush. If only true believers who have never uttered a word against a Democrat are allowed to slam Bush, then my friend, we will lose.

[thebigidea]

12. since when did "allowing" anyone to slam Bush enter into it?

I think Dowd is a creep and can say so... I wasn't aware that she had to go through some internet body for approval, or that the election was going to be decided by her snide articles.

[21winner]

7. She swings.Flip/flops

She has reached the top of the pundit pile of whatever. You and I would do it to in these times. To be otherwise is a hard way to go.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Maybe she talked to the same Democrat as The Guardian

"The timing of the appearance of the documents has led some Democrats to wonder if they had been put into circulation to discredit the anti-Bush effort. Fingers have begun to point - as they often do among Democrats - at Karl Rove, the president's electoral mastermind.

"If this is Rove, it is his greatest masterpiece," a Kerry campaign adviser said yesterday.

The rumours may say more about the extraordinary powers attributed to Mr Rove by his adversaries than about the facts."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1305524,00.html

[thebigidea]

14. you think Dowd actually bothers with actual journalism and sources?

She writes allegedly entertaining columns, but she certainty doesn't meet with shadowy trenchcoated figures in parking garages who whisper off the record gossip.

[Spinzonner]

4. The problem I have with this scenario is

its a desparation move. It starts a process which could spiral out of control and, in effect, become a bet-the-farm action.

It only makes sense as a preemptive defense to what is perceived - by the initiator - as an even more disasterous attack coming.

To motivate this kind of action, its reasonable to assume that he had gotten wind of CBS's ongoing research into Dubya's TANG shenanigans and expected them to both be brought out and to be potentially devastating.

[Cocoa]

15. this is Dowd's imagination

the dems are only "cosumed with paranoia" in her mind, probably in consultation with William Safire, whom she admitted she writes to impress.