My take on this crisis is from the perspective of an older man. The current Republican meme dates back to my college days when Goldwater and Ayn Rand were real, living people. John Kennedy became President in my Freshman year in college and was killed in my Freshman year of Medical School. There was the Bay of Pigs, the early Viet Nam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, Folk Music from the Depression, and the Great Communist Experiment had yet to show signs of cracking into a million pieces. . All of today’s issues were swirling in the air around us – inchoate spirits not yet coalesced into today’s form.
I would never have dreamed that the Great American Conservative Experiment [the Bush years] could’ve happened. Then, it was the stuff of summer beach novels, the Right Wing takeover of the country thwarted just in time by a lone hero and his beautiful sidekick. But it happened. From my vantage, this experiment that should never have been has been a horrible disaster – destroying our place in the world and unleashing the greed on Wall Street at levels unimagined in those salad days of college in the early 1960’s. They really did it big.
Obama’s election will put a stop to it, but not "just in time." It’s actually already late. Nor will his election immunize us from its resurgence. As the results of their experiment play out, they’ll blame it on the Democrats, and try to make a comeback. How far down will we have to go before the notion of a greed-driven, unregulated economy with a government that essentially stands for no governing will finally go the way of the Berlin Wall? I expect it will be past my time when this sad phase of our history is laid to rest. That’s the source of my dipping into lousy moods.
But giving them immunity says that what Bush and Cheney did with the F.I.S.A. Courts is okay. It isn’t okay. Somehow, Bush has gotten Congress to grant immunity to our torturers and the companies that let him tap our phones. Maybe they don’t want to punish others for Bush’s misdeeds, but I don’t think that’s really it. I suspect that they’re bowing to lobbying from the telecoms. Even worse, maybe they’re just not willing to stand up to Bush and Cheney. Whatever their motives, I hate this vote.
Finally, right at the end, there’s this strange business of giving his article to a lobbyist friend, Rick Holt:
Walton: Without relating what someone would have said in response to what you said. Did you, once you learned about Wilson’s wife and the fact that she worked at the CIA, did you discuss it with anyone prior to your article.Robert Novak: Yes, I spoke to Bill Harlow.Patrick Fitzgerald: Just the names.Judge Walton: HarlowRobert Novak: Spokesman for CIA. I testified that I might have asked Libby about, but I don’t have a clear recollection bc I don’t have a clear response.Judge Walton: Rick Holt. Who is Rick Holt.Robert Novak: A lobbyist and a close friend. I talk to him every day.Judge Walton: did you have conversations with him about it. Did you give him a draft of the article.Robert Novak: Yes.Judge Walton: Mr. Holt had the article in his hand by 4:00 that day. And Holt is a lobbyist about town. Would you describe him as a gossip.
Robert Novak: He talks to a lot of people, even me, he’s a good news source.
Judge Walton: He talks to a lot of media people.
Patrick Fitzgerald: Did you have an understanding about what he could do with the copy of the article.
Robert Novak: No sir. I didn’t have an understanding with him. I had assumed he would not share it, there was not an agreement made between us.
Patrick Fitzgerald: one moment.
Patrick Fitzgerald: Did he ever tell you he had shared it
Robert Novak: Vague recollection that he had told the WH that there was an interesting piece coming out.
Robert Novak: In those conversations I had with him on Friday.
Patrick Fitzgerald: Your belief is that he told the WH on Friday that an interesting piece coming out.
Robert Novak: YesSo, on July 11th he sends off his piece to his editor and gives it to a friend who tells the White House.
Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn’t signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong told the Associated Press in an interview.
See, it’s the responsibility of hunters to constantly yell, "I’m a human being! Don’t shoot me!" and stay out of the way."The vice president didn’t see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."
By God, that old Dick Cheney went and shot himself a lawyer. Pretty good hit too!
The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic.
"It broke the skin," she said. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn’t get in his eyes or anything like that."No big deal. Why that lawyer could still see out of both eyes!
What a long, strange trip indeed. I haven’t thought about Dick Cheney since his snarky, condescending and inappropriate remarks a week and a half ago and it has been good. I hope, with as much earnestness as an irreligiousist can muster that he fades away (we’ll see). I’ve wondered whether the Hipporcratic oath needs an amendment to cover the Cheney cardiology situation. Instead of “first do no harm” whether it should read “first, do no good if a greater harm will result”. Wishful thinking but still, the whole world would be a better place had nature taken its natural course and taken Dick Cheney at the appointed time. Ask Mr. Whittington!