Billmon has an interesting, if slightly unnerving, foreshadowing of what may be the latest attempts by Republicans to steal yet another American election, an "October Surprise" of sorts.
Billmon shares the following two quotes under the title "Paranoia Watch" at:
http://billmon.org/...
Some Republican strategists are increasingly upset with what they consider the overconfidence of President Bush and his senior advisers about the midterm elections November 7 -- a concern aggravated by the president's news conference this week.
"They aren't even planning for if they lose," says a GOP insider who informally counsels the West Wing.
U.S. News and World Report
Bush Is Said to Have No Plan if GOP Loses
October 13, 2006
The aircraft carrier Eisenhower, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio, guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage, guided-missile destroyer USS Mason and the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, is, as I write, making its way to the Straits of Hormuz off Iran. The ships will be in place to strike Iran by the end of the month. It may be a bluff. It may be a feint. It may be a simple show of American power. But I doubt it.
Chris Hedges
Does Bush Think War With Iran is Preordained?
October 10, 2006
Now, my friends, contrast that with FDR as President and Commander in Chief during World War II. After Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II in December, 1941 after being attacked, FDR planned a counter-offensive against Nazi Germany, what became known as Operation Torch, the landings in North Africa. Congressional Democrats were nervous in the fall of 1942 given the bad news on the war-fronts and the fact that the victory gained at Midway in June, 1942 wasn't fully appreciated at the time for the victory it was.
Key Democrats wanted FDR to invade North Africa and show American voters that we were on the offensive BEFORE the off-year election on November 3, 1942. As it turns out FDR put the Nation before politics (imagine that!), and given the military advice he received planned the North Africa invasion for five days after the election of 1942, and as a consequence of not using the military/security issues to steal votes before the election in an "October" or "early November" surprise in 1942, the Republicans gained 44 new House seats and 9 in the Senate. When military considerations led Eisenhower to set the date of the landings on November 8, five days after the midterm elections, FDR agreed. As Brigadier General Charles "Casey" Brower, Dean of the Faculty of the Virginia Military Institute observed at a speech on November 12, 2002 at the FDR Library: "When Steve Early, FDR's press secretary, heard the announcement of the invasion five days after the Democrats had lost 44 seats in the House and 9 in the Senate, he exclaimed: 'Jesus Christ! Why couldn't the Army have done this before the election!' The Commander-in-Chief understood, however."
The difference should be noted in the event that this "October Suprise" indeed unfolds before election day, November 7, 2006.