 Dick Cheney, the Vice President of the United States, slandered 60% of the American people last week, claiming our opposition to the war in Iraq is “giving the al Qaeda types exactly what they want.” He made his comments in a conference call with some A-List MSM reporters, which is exactly what they wanted – a rare interview with the subterranean 2nd in charge. An opportunity to quiz Cheney is a treat for the media, because he basically regards the non-Fox News press as “al Qaeda types.”
The timing of the interview was curious, which is nothing new with this bunch. At the time, the big terrorist round-up in London was imminent. In fact, the Brits claim the White House instigated the arrests sooner than Scotland Yard would have preferred – and as a result, five of the conspirators got away. This is undoubtedly exactly what those al Qaeda-types wanted. Was it all planned to take the shine off Ned Lamont’s primary victory over the Bush’s fuck-buddy, Joe Lieberman? And does Cheney seriously believe that we’d take a scolding from a guy who’s less popular than Lyme tick disease?
While this was going on, President Bush was at the Western White House reading Albert Camus’ The Stranger. Why he chose to flip through an existential bed-time story while on vacation from ruining the world is a mystery – he’s not the most introspective sort, is he?
My guess is that The Stranger, at 144 pages, appealed to W because it was the slimmest volume on Laura’s bookshelf, and isn’t larded-down with a lot of multi-syllabic words. Bush called it a good read, which isn’t exactly how I’d describe it. It’s about a murderer named Mersault who, after getting into a tussle with some Arabs at the beach one day, goes back later and gives one of them two in the turban.
Maybe Bush identifies with Mersault, who is every bit as empty and remorseless as he is. In an early scene with his dead mother at the morgue, Mersault asks the attendant not to open the box because he doesn’t want to see the corpse. That sounds familiar.
The MSM who wrote about Bush’s Excellent Reading Adventure referred to Camus as a French writer, and wondered if maybe the President’s attitude toward the French was improving. What he and apparently they don’t know is that Camus wasn’t French at all, he was Algerian. And he identified with the dead Arab. The genius of Camus' stories is that they only seem simple if you are.
This brings us to Sen George Allen (R-VA), who is running for re-election this year, and putting together a possible presidential bid in his spare time. At a campaign event, Allen referred to one of his opponent’s campaign volunteers as a “macaca.” This means monkey for those of us who aren’t vertebrate zoologists, or racist blockheads. The volunteer in question is an Indian-American from Fairfax County, VA, and a student at the U of VA.
Allen’s damage control team would have us believe that “macaca” means Mohawk, which is a reference to the kid’s haircut, which would be accurately described as a mullet. So that’s clearly bullshit.
Allen has dodged charges of racism many times before. As Governor of VA, he proclaimed April as Confederate Heritage and History Month, with a proclamation that described the civil war as a struggle for independence and sovereign rights -- with no reference to slavery. He opposed adopting Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday as a holiday in VA. He has a confederate flag hanging in his living room, and had a noose on a tree hanging in his law office. In his high school yearbook photo he’s wearing a stars and bars lapel pin, which his spinsters explain away as an example of his rebellious youth. There might be a shred of credulity in that if his father had been the coach of the Boston Patriots instead of the Washington Redskins, but in the face of the facts, it just sounds like more bullshit.
Will Allen’s racist gaffe affect the outcome of his senate race against James Webb? Sadly, no. Will it come back to haunt him when he comes to NH to run for president? Count on it.
~Jack McEnany
Also see:, Karl Rove, Republicanalooza, Bush Buddy, Deep Doo Doo, Coxcomb Speaketh, Impeachment
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