March 21, 2007
The never back down philosophy
There’s a foofaraw a’brewin’ in DC these days over just who said what and when before eight federal prosecutors were fired for not being politically loyal enough to the administration’s political aims. Congress wants to know who from the administration was involved and what’s the deal with those missing days from the 3,000 pages of juicy e-mails dumped into the fidgety hands of countless bloggers.
They want to have top advisors like Karl Rove to testify before their committee to get these answers, but as usual the administration is trying to keep everything off the record. They’d rather just say “take our word for it” behind closed doors than actually take ownership of their words and deeds publicly. But this time it seems different. The slim Democratic majority in Congress found that it really had courage all along and they’re challenging Our Fine President’s defiance with subpoenas.
The whole game of political chicken is likely headed to court before it will be resolved, but more importantly it will be setting the tone for future showdowns as Congress is promising to look into illegal domestic spying, FBI misconduct and possibly a plethora of other deeds Our Fine President might not be willing to publicly admit. This case could set the tone for many to follow, and former Republican House Majority Leader and current defendant Tom DeLay doesn’t think they’ll be able to hold off the onslaught.
“The Bush administration sort of showed their weakness when they got rid of Don Rumsfeld.”
He’s still awaiting trial for those pesky trumped up charges that he laundered campaign money to advance his holy Republican cause, but that hasn’t stopped him from making the talk show rounds to flog his new blame-all book No Retreat, No Surrender. In the tome, he takes shots at all the big wigs on his side of the aisle and blames their timidness, lack of focus and other numerous faults for the Republican losses in the ‘06 election.
The notion that the goals and policies coming from his group of ideologues was too far from what the majority of Americans want and so they transferred power to a different group that better represented them never seems to have crossed DeLay’s mind. He believes that his conservative agenda comes before everything else and worked hard to change the rules of politics to solidify his party’s grip on the reins. He’s likely to go to jail over his efforts to do this, but in his mind, he’s done nothing wrong. Instead he’s the victim of a long and vicious campaign to take him down.
“Employing the media, incessant frivolous ethics charges, lawsuits and disgraceful tactics on the floor of the House of Representatives, these conspirators have sought to drive me from office and destroy the Republican revolution with the politics of personal destruction,”
“I’m not guilty of anything, and I will not succumb to the Democrats’ criminalization of politics. I think it’s incumbent on me to fight the politics of personal destruction that I’ve been living through for 12 years.”
He’s big on those buzz-phrases and plans to fight til the end. His book title captures the entirety of his philosophy as he is the epitome of the bully who pushes everyone around because he believes that showing any weakness leads to being attacked. The belief stems from the fact that as a bully, the weak are his targets and by their weakness they’re inviting his attacks.
He’s of the mind that by beating up on the weak you everyone how tough you are and then they’ll fall into line. It’s all very convenient and it’s a mind set shared by Our Fine President. It certainly explains why we went after Iraq instead of the more immediate WMD threats from the much tougher Iran or North Korea. Of course DeLay now thinks the administration is now doomed because they’ve shown some weakness to their sworn enemies, the Democrats down the block.
I really wonder how his philosophy will hold up if he’s sent off to prison. Will he walk into the yard, scope the crowd until he finds a frail bookish fellow to pummel? I wonder if that would work out exactly as planned, because it’s the exact opposite of what I’ve always heard you’re supposed to do
As it’s told, the first thing you’re supposed to do when you get to prison is pick a fight with the biggest guy around to show how tough you are and let everyone know to back off. If you survive the imminent pounding you’ve established your credentials. This is what al Qaida did in picking their fight with the U.S. They wanted to have a voice on the world stage so they challenged the biggest dude around to a fight and since we let their leadership escape with their lives, our new enemy has more power and respect than ever before.
That whole proving your power by picking on the weak guy sure has backfired in Iraq.