Judging by the recent comments and diaries, Kossacks everywhere are moving yet again through the Five Stages of Scandal, which closely parallel Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's Five Stages of Dying:
Denial (this isn't happening to me!)
Anger (why is this happening to me?)
Bargaining (I promise I'll be a better person if ... )
Depression (I don't care anymore)
Acceptance (I'm ready for whatever comes)
This time, it's the NSA wiretapping scandal, wherein we've already diagrammed the Bush Maladministration's entire successful defense strategy 72 hours after having Bush thrown out of office and hauled before The Hague as a war criminal. Will wonders never cease?
My sense is that most are already flirting with "Depression" given the rapidly emerging "here's why Bush won't be impeached" diaries. Let's break it down, in order:
Denial: I can't believe it; even Bush can't be so brazenly, stupidly, arrogantly criminal!
Anger: Guerilla impeachment movement! Call your congressman!! Read my rant!!!
Bargaining: If only Fitzgerald will go after these guys, I'll hand out leaflets, I'll donate, I'll man the phones, I'll ...
Depression: Oh my GAWD the attack plans are already in place! They've got pictures of John Conyers and farm animals!!
Acceptance: Here's where Ol' Crusty starts pontificating.
Truth is, I went through Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and a measure of Acceptance back in January 2001. See, I was keeping very close tabs on everything going on and I knew back then the election was scammed, something that even lots of Kossacks only came around to accept recently, and even more recently we have Dieboldian doubts about the 2004 election's legitimacy gaining traction. I also "accepted" that the leading co-conspirators in 2000-2001 were the Democrats, beginning with Clinton's own self-immolation setting the stage, Gore's abysmal campaign, "butterfly ballots," and a hopelessly impotent Gore legal strategy before the SCOTUS.
In fact, I accepted back then that Bush would be around for two terms, one way or another. Later, I accepted another dreadful Democrat campaign failure as soon as Kerry found his footing and started winning primaries, and the boob still managed to score, like, 50,000,000 votes.
Even with my acceptance of our collective fate, after 9/11 I gathered my kids around and told them, "Let's see what kind of a man George W. Bush can be." Now, even they can see for themselves: he's a very bad man, a very small man and a very stupid man, surrounded by bad men, worse men and a few bad and worse women.
Of course, living with the knowledge that the Bush Cosa Nostra stole the Presidency once, I knew Iraq was yet another Big Lie, designed in part to steal the Presidency again, but like most of the country, I felt ambivalent. The neocons were right about one thing: If Iraq could be transformed into a stable, representative, secular democracy, the entire Middle East could be re-shaped. Maybe they knew something I didn't know. Maybe they were super-prepared with a "secret Marshall Plan" for Iraq. Maybe if liberals ate neocons and pissed gasoline all of our troubles would be over. None of these propositions withstands the test of realism, however.
More recently, I have accepted this: even if Bush is not impeached the common good is better off now than it's been since this nutjob was sworn into office either time. Attendez, s'il vous plait:
ACCEPTED POINT ONE: Don't underestimate the impact on the status quo of the cascade of ongoing scandals: Fitzgerald's Plame investigation, the Abramoff scandal, Frist's and DeLay's troubles, the Niger forgeries, and even Operation Able Danger--not to mention that post-election Iraq is looking more like a powder keg every day--have not gone away and will continue to take a toll. The entire machine is under attack and many of its key cogs, including all of its House members and several Senators, are up for re-election this year. Too many things are in flight and too many variables are in play for the kind of controlled suppression needed for the Patent Pending Bush Rope-A-Dope to work on the NSA warrantless spying scandal. If it does, we deserve what we get as a nation, and the "Project for a New American Century" will have become the "Project for a Non American Century."
ACCEPTED POINT TWO: I've been saying this over and over again: the civil suits are utter, complete and total wildcards, all lined up against the Regime, and I just don't see how they can be subject to any kind of Republican control. Plame and Wilson will file suit soon after Fitzgerald goes to trial, maybe yet in 2006, and after a mountain of FOIA suits, names are going to get out on the NSA wiretapping mess and we'll see tons of FISA and civil rights litigation. You can't spin these, the punitive damages claimed at the time of filing will be huger than huge, and I'm pretty sure that civil liabilities are not affected by pardons, should any come down (I don't think pardons are in Bush's nature; they are a tacit admission of being wrong, and he just can't do that). The suits will keep everything in the public mind and will linger on well beyond 2006 in the run-up to 2008.
ACCEPTED POINT THREE: Best case scenario short of impeachment: the Bush Maladministration, as a force for lasting policy change, has effectively been neutered. Think about the phrase "honor among thieves." Deals will be cut, backs will be stabbed, a few consciences will out, but most important, they can't cover for each other anymore. Come 2006 there will be too many sharp edges to watch, too many missiles flying in too many directions, too many low-hanging branches, and too much thin ice to allow the Maladministration to function in anything but a jury-rigged defense mode. Anyone with any brains who can jump ship will do so, to accounting firms, lobbying firms, law firms and consulting firms with big federal business while they still have any "Beltway Cred" to speak of. The brain drain, relatively speaking, should take away much of the remaining behind-the-scenes competency (you didn't think Scotty McClellan made that crap up all by himself, did you?). The ones most culpable will fight the hardest, and be the loneliest. Pick your favorite "siege" movie: "The Alamo" (1960 version), "Starship Troopers," "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," or one of my all-timers, "Zulu" and think about the scenes where the walls are finally breached and General Santa Anna's Giant-size Insectoid Orcish Zulu Warriors start pouring in. The Administration will be under attack from all directions. Sure, having an ineffective U.S. presidency is scary but I'd say it's about 80% less scary than having this gang in office and effective.
ACCEPTED POINT FOUR: It will all become so massively messy that the media will have to pay attention, not out of any kind of journalistic sense of integrity but because of three things: ratings, ratings, and ratings. With that going on, all Democrats except maybe Rush Lieberman, will rightly make Republicans their core issue and some Republicans are going to find themselves an anti-Bush parade and jump quickly in front. Don't be surprised if even the sycophants realize their credibility (such as it is) might be at stake. Remember what Hizzoner Da Mare Richard J. Daley said: "Don't back no losers." Bill O'Reilly is such a bombastic, arrogant, self-serving asshole he'd throw Bush overboard in a heartbeat if it made him look good and he had a halfway decent excuse.
ACCEPTED POINT FIVE: It's always the economy, stupid, and the natives are going to become very, very restless. The analyses I've read for 2006 show GDP still in a decent growth mode but employment and wage growth remaining off the pace of what we all would consider healthy. It's no secret that consumers are maxed out on personal debt, we've likely seen the last ultra-low interest rates for a long while, and the real estate market is cooling fast. No president has ever repealed the business cycle so I can't blame Bush for a lot of what's coming. But he shot his wad on tax relief for consumers during the 2001 recession so I can blame him and his deficit-bloating illegal war for choking off that avenue when the next recession hits. This is assuming he's still around at the time, because the Democrats have failed to retake the House and the Senate in 2006--a dicey proposition at best. If somehow we end up with President Pelosi, a bad economy is still easy to blame on bad Republican policies.
The whole cycle will be self-perpetuating. These scandals have all the potential to eat up 2006 and go well into 2007. By early 2008 we are looking at another House election, scads of Senators and Governors up for re-election, state legislatures up for grabs and, oh yes, THE PRESIDENCY. If Dems don't prevail in 2006 and we still can't begin to re-fashion a legitimate, representative Democracy by 2008, well ...
Acceptance can only extend so far, even mine.
