Tina Brown writing in WaPo: "Floods Scour the Political Landscape, Too"

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702341_pf.html

<>If 9/11 was Bush's Woodstock, Katrina is his Altamont -- the place where his ability to unite people behind a flurry of flag-waving came to look like the hollow sham it always was. John Edwards's mantra of Two Americas doesn't sound so corny now that Bush's soaring vision of democracy on the march has suddenly been laid as bare as an abandoned Superdome where the toilets are overflowing.

<>But now, in Katrina's aftermath, there's something different in the air: the scent of insurrection. The needless torment of New Orleans has reignited the dormant passions of the election. E-mails are flying again between friends who've been out of touch for months, enclosing Web links to new polemics of disgust. The big donors with wallet fatigue after John Kerry's loss are ready to write checks again, big time, for any Democrat who shows courage.

It's as if the tragedy in the Gulf Coast has awakened us from a deep materialistic sleep to acknowledge the pain of poverty and racial inequality for the first time in years. Those Democrats who still temporize for fear of being tagged as "playing politics" don't seem to understand that being all kissyface and timid is as over as strategy as it is as substance. Better to play politics than play possum. Maybe Hillary should stop going on fact-finding trips to Alaska with her new Republican pals. Even before Katrina changed the landscape, her careful tactics of sleeping with the enemy had begun to annoy the town that adored her.

<>What's so troubling about Bush is not that he is incompetent, as many currently charge. It's that he is dismissive, unless programmed to be otherwise. His competence, as Justin Franks pointed out in "Bush on the Couch," extends only to personal self-preservation -- to winning. When the less fortunate are endangered, he reverts to the primal aphasia he learned at his mother's knee. "Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," Barbara Bush commented from Houston on NPR Monday evening, adding, with a chilling matriarchal chuckle, "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway. This is working very well for them."

Wow. How's that for one family's values? New York's only consolation this 9/11 is that we no longer feel so marginal as we recoil.

[Wordie]

1. whew...kick...recommended

[thebigidea]

2. 9/11 as Bush's Woodstock is one fucking awful metaphor

otherwise, huzzah Tina Brown. She had an entertaining show. Certainly better than listening to Larry Kudlow.

[Skinner]

3. That's a great read.

:thumbsup:

[Skinner]

4. Self-delete

Duplicate posting.

[sendero]

5. Great piece....

... well worth the read and spot on.

---- personal observation that will annoy some follows. read at your own risk ------------


It really seems to me that it is mostly WOMEN who are coming out swinging on this thing. Why is that? Is it because they feel more empathy for the victims and that creates more outrage? Has it been this way for a while and I'm just now noticing?

Whatever it is, I'm grateful for the few who will stand up and say what needs to be said. Kudos to Tina Brown, Barbara Boxer, Arianna and even Hillary for refusing to sit down and shut up.

[KoKo]

6. Fantastic Read......Recommend!

[spooky3]

7. kicking because it's so rare the WaPo allows people to speak out

[ProudDad]

8. I liked Oliphant on Al Franken this morning

He said that the * admin. is arrogant and incompetent.

The absolute worst combination.

That combination is killing people in the Gulf Coast and, lest we forget, the Middle East...

[ladylibertee]

9. Right on ....

Good read :kick:

[Tatiana]

10. This is analysis is one of the best I've read. n/t

[Usrename]

11. Heads on pikes

Any elected Democrat that attempts a "bi-partisan" reconciliation with these assholes should be deemed a traitor to democracy.

Any mention of the word "bi-partisan" by Democrats should be considered an act of TREASON.

Any who do so should have their reputation destroyed. No mercy.


<edit> Thoughtful or mindless dissent with my position is welcome. Seriously. This may be the wrong course. Does anyone disagree?