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The most terrifying sentence in this Washington Post article about Kerry's cabinet choices is this: "John Sasso, who was recently put on the Kerry plane to restore order and discipline, is making a move for chief of staff, too, campaign sources say."
In case anyone was under any false impressions, John Sasso is not a nicer person than Karl Rove. He just happens to be on Kerry's side.
It's a pretty pro-Kerry article, by the by. The first few paragraphs are particularly beneficial -- the article starts out with a joke about Kerry having a tough time making decisions, but then defuses the negative implications by pointing out that Kerry may well make the tough bi-partisan decision to put a Republican in as Secretary of State. That speculation also helps shore up Kerry's image as a uniter who can fix the problems Bush has created.
Meanwhile, the equivalent Bush article talks about major changes in his cabinet, which leaves one with the implication that Bush's first term cabinet wasn't doing such a great job. Warms the cockles of my heart, it does.
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See, I find nothing wrong with that. There's, like, this idea on the Left in this country that we have to, I dunno, fight "cleaner" than the Right or something — but that's bull. Ideology and political power are far too important to try and fight civilly over. So I say let's find the Left's version of Karl Rove and unleash him against our enemies. It's the only way we're going to win, and winning, right now, is the only thing that matters.
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And what do you know? Kerry started taking off soon after Sasso came on board. The guy knows how to run a campaign. He has fucking fangs. If I ever met him I would feel compelled to roll over and show him my belly to demonstrate submission to the alpha politico.
I'm just sneering at people who think that a Democratic administration will be all peace and harmony and holding hands.
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Do people really believe that without the aid of irony or self-delusion? (There's some guy out there with a "Kucinich-Carter '08" sticker on his car, and that's not the guy I'm talking about.)
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(Well, there's more to it than that, but the epigram came to me and I wanted to get it down.)
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Of course, I don't define "civilly" as "never mentioning anything controversial" or "never mentioning anything the other party doesn't want to talk about". But Karl Rove's tactics are outside the bounds of what should be tolerated by either party.
I want the war to end too...
And I'm very much afraid that the only way to deal with that is to fight back, hard. Because more than I want the war to end, I want our side to stop getting its ass kicked.
I don't know of another way to deal with the in-power Right just now than with a show of political force. We've tried sheer competence, we've tried honesty, we've tried ignoring them. None of these appear to work. I hear their rhetoric about their enemies -- "all they understand is power and fear" -- and I know their propensity for projection, and I find myself concluding there's only one thing they understand.
I'd love to hear better solutions -- because to listen to myself I know that I sound like a Republican warmonger talking about 'the terrorists'. I don't want to think of it as a war. I want to find a way to win hearts and minds, and to have those who disagree willing to work within a civil system to pull public opinion honestly in their direction. I want very very much for people like Rove simply to be thrown out of every political organization across the political spectrum.
But that's not where reality is right now. So how do we reach the point where they do get treated like the wolves they are? Maybe try to fix the media first, so they know how to report the difference between a bit of spin and an outright lie?
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I'm just noting that John Sasso is a slimebag on a par with Karl Rove. I'd bet that he's behind the attacks on Bush's Social Security policies, which strongly imply that Bush has said he'd cut current SS benefits -- a lie.
Doesn't bother me. I'm with Al on this one. I'll start yelling about Sasso after Kerry wins and Sasso's made chief of staff.
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I'm not in favor of outright lies in campaign ads, but at least they're traceable. Too much of what Karl Rove does isn't traceable to him in anything resembling a timely fashion. I don't think Sasso's a saint, nor do I think he should be, but just as we shouldn't compare Bush to Hitler until he publishes his version of Mein Kampf, let's not get too hasty comparing John Sasso to Karl Rove. Unless you've got evidence...
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People like Karl Rove have made politics even dirtier than usual. Finding a left-wing homologue is not an asset in my eyes. I believe Bush can lose on his own lack of merit; lies just get called out as such and make it all worse on everyone. They drive voters away, when we've been working so hard to bring voters back.
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