Gonzales is out, or very nearly so. As some wag has probably suggested by now, I’m sure, he’s headed back to Texas to spend more time waterboarding and warrantless wiretapping the wife and kids. With his departure and that of Rove, both lobes of Bush’s substandard brain will have 
shuffled down the highway to the land of yellow roses, god help it. The old Texas mafia is disbanded, and Dubya now nearly stands alone amongst assorted replacements and second tier “Bushies”, like Condi Rice and Chertoff. (Media child that I am, this reminds me of the final seasons of “The Waltons,” with no mother, no grandma, no grandpa, an ersatz “John-Boy”, somebody named “Miss Rose”, and the guy who played Patty Duke’s father.) The only constant is Cheney, and he’s very much alive in this embattled White House, at the very center of greatly expanded presidential powers and, paradoxically, greatly diminished presidential influence around the world. Even after monumental failures of judgment, Cheney is still driving policy, pushing the same discredited and disastrous agenda that has cost so many lives overseas and consumed so many resources at home.
True, Cheney is one of the most strongly disliked, unpopular political figures in America. But don’t think that fact will slow him down. There are troubling signs that our cockeyed VP is pushing for war with Iran as soon as this Fall; another full-blown marketing campaign, like during the run-up to the Iraq war, may ensue in the coming weeks. (See this posting on Juan Cole’s valuable blog.) Now that the press has offered limp mea culpas over their complicity in whipping up war fever in 2002-03, you may be tempted to believe that they will not repeat the same sorry performance again so soon. Don’t get your hopes up. If the administration wants war, the mainstream media will be right on board. Per Cole, Barnet Rubin reports that “the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects” will be leading the charge, per Cheney’s “instruction”, delivering a “heavy sustained assault on the airwaves” to generate support for war on Iran. Hypersensitive media institutions like the major broadcast networks, NPR/PBS, and major newspapers will fall in behind these drunken admirals of the gutter press, even if they are leading us into the reef. All it will take is a cry of treason or two to make them snap to attention.
Given the climate of the country today and the bankruptcy of Dubya’s current endeavor in Iraq, it seems unlikely that even a well-crafted scare campaign could drum up majority support for yet another war. But they don’t particularly need or want majority support. It would be nice to have, I’m sure, but they don’t really care that much. If they can keep the hardcore reactionary base on board, they’re fine with that. Barnett’s sources suggest that they consider 35-40% enough of a mandate for them to attack another country without provocation – that this level of public consent is “plenty.” I suppose it’s not surprising. They’re in the final 18 months of their reign and from their point of view, they’ve accomplished everything they set out to do. We now effectively have a permanent presence in Iraq, our public sector institutions are crumbling around us, hundreds of billions of tax dollars have been squandered on well-connected contractors, and trillions have been added to the national debt, making major “structural adjustment” of the U.S. economy far more likely in the coming years.
In short, these fuckers don’t need public support. If they did, they’d never get anything done.
luv u,
jp
