The Best Damn Thing That Ever Could’ve Happened

Lately I am coming to the conclusion that losing the election in 2004 will be the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats. There was actually little consolation in hoping for a Kerry win; we all knew the reality on the ground, which was that the Republican congress would handcuff him and box him in out of shear spite, smearing and meanness (wonder how fast they would resurrect the independent special prosecutor rule?). We’d seen this movie before, with a Democratic president and a Republican House. It would have been much worse with the Senate against him, too – but at least we could have accomplished something.

I think all of the post-election Democrat soul-searching has been more productive than therapeutic. It was a truly interesting process, the likes of which have not been seen on the American political front. Yes, parties have re-grouped and re-focused after losses, but never before has the soul-searching of a party been so public, so communal. Or so productive.

There has been a seismic shift in the power structure for the Democrats, which will have a significant impact on Democratic policies and politicians. But there are other dynamics, serendipitously working in concert to the Democrats’ advantage, as follows:

Richard Gephart's retirement. Gephart's retirement to pursue a failed bid for the Democratic nomination holds significance as a changing-of-the-guard, as he was the last of the old, big-government-era Democratic leaders. His leadership was tied to his own obsolescence in today’s political reality. Gephart came from the days when holding together the Democratic coalition was the primary concern of its leaders. It will always be an important job for any party leader to appease divergent interest groups (the GOP has similar concerns, for example, keeping the libertarians and social conservatives in the camp). But while no Democrat can afford to take interest groups for granted – indeed, Karl Rove proved that you can win by motivating those groups – in today’s political climate, none of the groups are going to vote outside the party.

Gephart also rose to prominence in the days when Democrats held a safe majority. Democrats could afford for representatives to return home and campaign however they felt necessary – as conservatives, moderates, liberals or radicals – to the detriment of a unified party message.

Nancy Pelosi has brought a level of public feistiness the Democrats have been sorely lacking. Her response to the Republicans’ blatantly unscrupulous and shameful neutering of the House Ethics Committee has been encouraging. But she has long needed help – exactly the kind of help Senator Harry Reid is bringing.

The defeat of Tom Daschle. Republicans actually helped facilitate what is turning out to be a major addition by subtraction for the Democrats. Daschle, inexplicably a demon of the right, was the leader Republicans should have enabled, not defeated. While the GOP labeled him an obstructionist – with the arrogant presumption that the minority party should never dissent – he had to consistently pander to conservatives in his home state because his seat was always hanging by a thread.

The main reason Republicans targeted Daschle was that they wanted his seat and thus, a larger Republican majority. As collateral damage, perhaps they’d hoped to intimidate the Democratic leadership into appeasement. While many Democrats regretted the loss of Daschle’s seat, many, many Democrats celebrated and welcomed a change of leadership – and anyone was better than Daschle, who had to sacrifice principled Democratic stands for his own political survival.

Perhaps the new “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!” Democrat, Reid has brilliantly united the party in its opposition to the president’s dishonest social security privatization scam. He has responded forcefully to the GOP’s attempts to Daschle-ize him. He has also adopted the GOP method of threatening senate dissenters with the loss of their committee seats (as DeLay has done recently in the House with the Ethics Committee, whose Republican members were punished for reprimanding him). And he has gotten the caucus squarely behind him.

Howard Dean’s ascension to DNC Chair. Dean has been very impressive, from the moment he declared himself for DNC chair. Democrats rejected him in the primaries because few knew who he was before this campaign season and because Democrats wanted an established name, preferably with military credentials. But during his candidacy for DNC chair, he has marvelously channeled the grassroots and understands the netroots. He also responds forcefully and passionately to GOP attacks. (I will comment on Dean in a subsequent post outside of this series.) John Kerry failed to understand any of this, because the army of consultants he hired to run his campaign was comprised of Washington insiders who had no idea. Nor did they care.

The "Manchurian Beefcake" And Other Scandals

I have been watching the Jeff Gannon/Guckert controversy with a keen interest.

Indulge me in some speculation. I am trying to draw the line between developing my own conspiracy theory and examining some odd facts that, when examined in their totality, comprise circumstantial evidence pointing in a strange direction.

Let me first present the facts – followed, on occasion, by my own speculation – as we know them.

Fact: Jeff Guckert, a.k.a Jeff Gannon, has been exposed as a faux-journalist who obtained White House press credentials under a pseudonym just five days after the websites for which he worked, Talon News and GOPUSA, were founded.

Fact: The Talon News and GOPUSA websites are owned and operated by Republican Party activist Robert Eberle of Texas.

Fact: Gannon/Guckert was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury investigation into the Plame leak.

Inference: Of course, the testimony is sealed, so we are not yet certain if he was testifying as someone to whom the White House source leaked the outing of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA asset (but we may know something soon). Since he, in an interview with Ambassador Joseph Wilson, mentions an intelligence document that had at that time not been made public, it is logical to infer that this is what his grand jury testimony was about.

Fact: Talon News and GOPUSA have scrubbed all mention of Gannon/Guckert (excepting his resignation statement), including all the articles he had written for the site.

Question: Why? One would think that, in the wake of this controversy, they would present him as a martyr, Example Number One of a conservative unfairly pilloried by the left and the So-Called “liberal media,” a la Oliver North. Since his articles were often little more than RNC press releases and never failed to parrot the party line, one would think the site owners would want to attract attention to his previous posts. Unless it had to do with:

Fact: Gannon/Gucket registered URLs that explicitly stated gay prostitution. Records show the websites were last updated in November of 2004.

Inference: The update indicates the sites may have been active until recently. Of course, we do not know who updated the records or what the updates were. They may not have been content-related; they may have been technical.

Fact: GOPUSA and TalonNews quietly changed ownership on Monday, just as the Gannon story was breaking on the liberal blogs, to a corporation that was founded on the same day.

Inference: Combined with the previously mentioned site scrubbings, someone is whitewashing, reason unknown. When people act as roaches scurrying when the lights come on, it naturally implies someone is hiding something.

I expect we’ll hear much more about the Manchurian Beefcake scandal, as James Wolcott so appropriately dubbed it, in the coming days. It certainly feels like something is unraveling.

However, none of this crosses yet into conspiracy theory territory. These are facts and logical – but not necessarily accurate – suppositions one could make based on the facts. There isn’t yet a smoking gun that could potentially tie all of this together.

Radical Speculation: It’s when I read this, via Wolcott, that I was reminded of a little-known gay pedophilia ring that was run in the Bush I White House. I realized as I researched that this speculation could lead to a criticism that I have strayed too far from the boundaries of reasonable inquiry – and perhaps even, some may say, sanity itself.

But is this radical speculation? Bush I was the former head of the CIA. He would thus be expert at covert operations, blackmail, and all of the spy vs. spy elements of Cold War espionage. When he served as Reagan’s VP, the administration was discovered to have engaged in nasty forms of espionage, including arms-for-hostages, clandestine operations in Central America and support of right-wing death squads.

All of this seemed too hard for Americans to accept or believe; this cold realpolitik belied Reagan’s perceived sunny optimism. In retrospect, if one considers the current administration model, it makes more sense. That is, a vice president who operates under the radar, but has considerably more power and influence than is typically ascribed to the position.

As Reagan descended further into Alzheimer’s during his presidency, is it not conceivable that the second-most powerful person would seize the reins of control? The considerable tension between Nancy and Michael Reagan and the Bush family, I would submit, is rooted in more than just stem-cell research; it smacks of a power struggle.

I certainly haven’t seen any hard evidence to implicate Bush I (I am discounting the eyewitness accounts and testimony) in prostitution or blackmail. We do know that Lawrence King and Craig Spence had very high-level GOP ties.

Now we have proof of Jeff Gannon/Guckert’s own high-level GOP connections, and his sudden disappearance in the midst of other Bush II propaganda scandals (bloggers are following the money -- also here). The fact that he received White House press credentials under a pseudonym just days after his media organ was founded clearly indicates preferential treatment, as no other journalist would be credentialed under similar circumstances. To receive such preferential treatment, you have to know some powerful people. I am sure we’ll see some connections as the story develops.

Again, I realize I am speculating. But in the aftermath of fervent connect-the-dot attempts regarding Vince Foster’s suicide, a failed real estate venture and a blue dress, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to consider this as historical background potentially relevant to this scandal.

I'm Back

I'd like to apologize for my long absence from these parts. The past couple months, my personal life descended into some chaos -- including a couple of illnesses (of which walking pneumonia was the worst) that took some time to shake and the busiest time of year at my real job -- but I am feeling chipper now and ready to begin posting again. My postings may be in fits and starts, but I will do my best to post with some regularity. But only if I can contribute to the national discourse with a unique perspective or original thoughts.

I would also like to apologize for the tease in the previous post. At the time, I was working on a couple of essays that remain unfinished. I became sick as I was working on them and had to adandon posting in favor of rest.

With all that behind me now, I am putting the finishing touches on a post that I will have up shortly.