I'm a partisan Democrat and I'm proud of it. Today, I spent my Labor Day watching the Sarah Palin Circus on the TV. Republicans, so quick to condemn everyone, are now the ones standing on the edge of a teetering plank, ready to begin their Big Show. But the trapeze is blowing in a hurricane and the Family Values net is proving to be made from silly putty.
No one in our political system is more righteous than a Republican with political leverage on some liberal accused of high moral failings. Most of the time, those high moral failings are the smallest of incidents, whipped up into a rampaging firestorm, a white hot Dresden-like frenzy of condemnation and outrage coming from the Right.
Already in this Presidential campaign we've seen it again and again, with Michelle Obama's supposed lack of patriotism, Barack's alleged ties to terrorists, the absence of a flag pin on his shirt. Such small little nits, which dispassionately and honestly amount to little more than a hill of beans, instead in the heat of moral outrage and righteous Conservative condemnation turn into leaping pyres burning from one end of the media dial to the other.
Now, with the appointment of Sarah Palin to be John McCain's Vice President, it's the Republicans who are caught in a growing firestorm of failings, taking punishment today for the same kind of political sins they so gleefully piled on to Democrats for in the past. Now that the political shoe is on the other foot, the airwaves are filled with the whines of Republican pundits, trying to scrap the moose pie mess from their Gucci shoes. The Sarah Palin circus has come to the Twin Cities and as a partisan Democrat I'm loving every minute of it.
John McCain has yet to admit it, but choosing Sarah Palin to be his V.P. was the political equivalent of Houdini shackling himself to concrete, then getting underwater and realizing he left the key in the glove box of the car. For Democrats, though, she's the gift that keeps on giving. Barack is taking the high road concerning Palin's 17-year old daughter and it's only right that he should do so. But after more than 10 years of Vince Foster Clinton murder madness, flying monkey assualts on Al Gore for "inventing" the internet, and more recently, the screaming hordes of Hannityites with torches and sickles in hand, howling at the moon over Jeremiah Wright, I'm ready to pop some popcorn and settle in for the gleeful ride of watching Sarah Palin self-destruct and take the Hindenburg GOP down with her.
Mince no words about it....... Sarah Palin will self-destruct. Just tonight on CNN, Anderson Cooper is reporting that phone calls and emails "have surfaced" in the Troopergate potboiler, an Alaskan soap opera of family drama, erratic behavior, vengance, and ineptitude. This alone is enough to keep the networks and the chat shows talking, and in truth, the charge at the heart of the brewhaha - the Governor's abuse of power in firing a Supervisor who wouldn't fire the bad dog brother-in-law without grounds to do so - is genuinely serious. But the real fun is in watching the GOP pundits twist in the roaring wind.
With Hurricane Gustav as the backdrop, these GOP shills have little but air to work with. How could McCain pick a virtual unknown to be his V.P., and then, within less than 48 hours, have his selection start to stink worse than limburger cheese? For a partisan Democrat, the smell couldn't be more sweet.
In one 24-hour news cycle, Sarah Palin - a strong proponent of Abstince-Only Values Education - turns out to have a pregnant 17-year old daughter who clearly wasn't listening to her Evangelical message. As Stephanie Miller so gleefully said tonight on Larry King "it's good she's a member of the NRA, because this going to be a shotgun wedding." But that's not all. In the same 24-hour news cycle, the story comes out that Palin once belonged to a political party that advocated that Alaska secede from the Union, ran a 527 for Ted Stevens - a corrupt Alaskan Senator, himself under investigation for his ties to Jack Abrahmoff - AND had the Troopergate story go south.
The delicious sight of Republican pundits, visibly choking on the message they're paid to spit that Sarah Palin is "the right choice" to be McCain's V.P., is to snark what the taste of wildebeest is to a hungry croc. When a deadpan GOP pundit declares that Sarah Palin's inexperience in foreign affairs will actually be an "advantage" in a debate with Joe Biden, you know and I know that the White Rabbit has come through the looking glass to lead the Republican party. Republican pundits are nothing if not combative, but the bile is so close to the surface you can almost taste the kool-aid turning to ashes in their mouths.
For me, however, I love every second of this circus.
The mighty Republican preacher, the Right Reverend John Hagee, got down on his knees and prayed for rain to drench Barack Obama in his open stadium in Denver. Instead, God sent Barack beautiful skies and capacity crowds, outdrawing in TV viewership even the opening of the Beijing Olympics. For the Republicans who swear that God is from Texas and that the pearly gates were paid for by the GOP, the message for rain was heard about a week too late. God sent Gustav, and even with a one-day postponement to avoid the most blatant of PR disasters, a weakening levy or two should be ready to burst in New Orleans right about the time the first yammering minion at the GOP Convention calls for help from the ghost of Ronald Reagan.
Three years ago, George W. Bush and the GOP left New Orleans to fend for itself, and though any disaster is a tragedy, if disaster is to again befall New Orleans, the symbolism and power of it happening now, up against the implosion of Sarah Palin and the opening of the GOP convention, is just too fanciful to be fully believed. The GOP called out to God to smite their enemies and God decided to smite them instead. On all the TV channels, around the clock, in living color. Praise be the Lord!
Tomorrow is another day and a week in politics is an eternity. No one knows what will come next. But today, for just this moment, it's sweet to be a Democrat and watch the bully boys and girls, the righteous A-holes and the haters, choke down their crow and sweat under the TV lights.
Yes, John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for Vice President DOES say something about his decision-making ability and what it says is that on this one, he went off half-cocked. Not exactly the guy we want near the nuclear trigger when Russia pushes a little too hard on the fragile membrane of John McCain's psyche.
For a Democrat like me, I'm loving every second of this circus.
"Those who humble themselves will be exalted and those that exalt themselves will be humbled." So says the Bible and so says the Law of Karma. For now, the Circus has come to town for John McCain and the Republican Faithful. But for those who look more closely, one can see the shadow of the Four Horsemen following behind.
For the Republicans, it's a sight they're frantically spinning in every direction, trying to make the shadow go away. But for a partisan, born-and-die Democrat like me, it's the soap opera I've been waiting for way too long time to see.
It's a bit too early to tell yet if the House of GOP is going to crumble completely but it's clear the cracks are spreading. John McCain fancies himself to be Sampson, but if so, Sarah Palin is his Delilah. He fell in love with Sarah and now Sarah is shaving his head.......
Time for me to go pop some more popcorn.