Upending the Mayberry Machiavellis-Up To Congress To Save Exec Branch From Rove & Bush (Salon)

[kpete]

Upending the Mayberry Machiavellis
It's up to Congress to save the executive branch from Bush's and Rove's radical experiment to transform it forever.

By Sidney Blumenthal


...............

On the one hand, Rove has sought to forge a permanent Republican majority. On the other hand, that project might not be completed in just two Bush terms. In either case, Rove's strategy has depended on subjecting the federal government to political objectives. He is not trying to achieve any abstract goal, such as reaching the conservative nirvana of limited government. The endless scandals revealed are not a random compendium of corruption and incompetence, though they are that, too. They are evidence of Rove's -- and Bush's -- larger strategy of hollowing out the federal government in the interest of building a political state.

In 2002, a University of Pennsylvania professor and earnest conservative named John Dilulio, who had been appointed a White House domestic policy advisor to Bush's faith-based initiative, the essence of his claim to being a "compassionate conservative," resigned, becoming the first person to quit the administration in disgust. As Dilulio told reporter Ron Suskind, writing in Esquire magazine, the tone was set from the top. He overheard Rove shouting about some poor object of his anger, "We will fuck him. Do you hear me? We will fuck him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever fucked him." Dilulio was shocked to discover not only that Rove was placed in charge of domestic policy but also that Bush had no interest in it except as a political tool. "On social policy and related issues, the lack of even basic policy knowledge, and the only casual interest in knowing more, was somewhat breathtaking," Dilulio said.

Possessed with a sense of history, the disillusioned professor's remarks of five years ago have proved prophetic: "There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you've got is everything -- and I mean everything -- being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."

In all his machinations Rove did not calculate that he would ever create an opposing force that might stop him. The Republican Congress had long shielded the administration from oversight and investigation, protecting Rove's handiwork. Now the Democratic Congress has begun to uncover seemingly endless series of abuses. In this respect, the clash of the legislative and executive branches is not over a difference in policy, as in the conflict over the Iraq war. Rather, Congress' effort is even more fundamental: to salvage the executive branch -- its capability of functioning in the public interest in the future -- from Rove's radical experiment to transform it forever.

more at:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/04/12/bush_destruction/

[yourout]

1. Rove truly is a modern Joseph Goebbels.

Does the term "1000 Year Reich" sound alot like "permanent Republican majority"?

[Parisle]

2. A very succinct article. Should be required reading.

--- "Bush's larger strategy of hollowing out the federal government in the interest of building a political state." Whew! That pretty much says it all. K&R.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Yup, they are a wrecking crew. And you gotta wonder who would be interested in

destroying the U.S. of A.

Candidates:

Al Qaeda.
U.S.-based global corporate predators who fear that we might pull their corporate charters and seize their assets for the common good (--which we, as the voters of the U.S. and its sole and sovereign RULER under the U.S. Constitution, have the theoretical power to do).
China.
Saudi Arabia.
The UAE.
Diebold and ES&S. (The CEO of the first, a Bush/Cheney campaign chair; the initial funder of the other, gives millions to rightwing 'christian' nuts who, among other things, want to see the death penalty for homosexuals.) (These are the people who "counted" 80% of the votes in the 2004 "election.")
Exxon-Mobile.
Banks. (--all of them)
The WTO.
The Bilderberg Group.

Who would be interested to destroy the capability of the U.S. federal government as to "functioning in the public interest in the future"? I'd say #2, above, is the best candidate, with some of the others on the list as their tools.

The enemy within.