No More Mr. Nice Guy!

GOP will eat itself

With Junior's approval ratings dropping faster than Ann Coulter's knickers, the junta is lashing out in increasingly crazed and demented desperation. Of course, we've long been used to the gutter attacks on Democrats - Karl Rove's recent despicable tirade being the latest in a long tradition of hate-mongering and rabble-rousing - but now the bushites are starting to attack the growing number of Republicans who are belatedly opening their eyes and realizing how totally and royally their glorious leader has cheneyed up in Iraq.

Recently, Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel stated the obvious: the Bush administration "is completely disconnected from reality" and that "we're losing in Iraq." Though Hagel has been one of Junior's staunchest loyalists, speaking the truth is a cardinal sin which cannot be tolerated from anyone. Cheney the Dick lashed back: "Since 9/11, we've had people like Chuck Hagel and other politicians and we've had people in the press corps and commentators who've said we can't do Afghanistan."

A few days ago, the odious and sleazy professional liar Donald Rumsfeld came before a Senate hearing to deny angrily that the US is losing in Iraq. "You have an insurgency with no vision, no base, limited popular support, an elected government committed to Iraq's democratic process," he said. "And you have Iraqi security forces that are fighting and dying for their country every day. Senator, that is not a quagmire." Ooookay... but more recently, Rumsfeld offered a much less rosy picture: the insurgency could last "5 to 12 years." Will Rummy be the next one to be taken to the woodshed?

But many more Republicans are seeing the Bush regime's incompetence in Iraq as electoral poison in next year's mid-term elections, and are seeking to distance themselves from the self-deluding cabal in the White House. Even Walter "Freedom Fries" Jones is calling for the administration to start creating a plan for withdrawal - though Junior petulantly refuses to consider setting any timetable for pulling out.

So desperate are the Bushites that they are sending out their bumbling figurehead to do another "Mission Accomplished" tomorrow night at Fort Bragg. Once again the Chickenhawk-in-Chief will use soldiers as props, and proclaim that everything is going swimmingly, and people who say otherwise just hate America. But something tells me he will not be greeted as a liberator. The troops are no dummies, and even the most gung-ho of them are starting to realize that they are being used as cannon fodder in a reckless and pointless war. Meanwhile, the rethugs are "supporting the troops" by slashing their pay, benefits, health care and so on, while extending their tours of duty indefinitely.

Junior's reign is following the trajectory of almost every tyrant in history. First the seizing of power amid rosy projections of a new order leading to utopia. Then the increasingly blatant arrogance and corruption. Next, the growing megalomania and paranoia, with friends and enemies alike falling victim to hysterical purges. Finally, the inevitable collapse and overthrow.

The Junior junta is by no means in its last throes, but a tipping point is rapidly approaching. Of course we in the reality-based community can't sit back and take it for granted that things will work out. We have to pile on the pressure more than ever, keep hammering away on the Downing Street Memo and the regime's criminality and cluelessness, keep doing whatever we can to turn public opinion against the Iraquagmire and the blundering buffoons who led us into it. Every day we remain in Iraq means more troops and innocent civilians killed for the greater glory of Halliburton's bottom line.

But the signs are hopeful that the GOP will implode under the weight of the neonazi-con's lies and corruption. Who knows, maybe the remaining moderates and grown-ups will reclaim their party from the religious lunatics and corporatist crooks. So we'll be doing them a favor in the long run.