Here's part of Howard Fineman's Tuesday night interview with Keith Olbermann. They're chatting about the fact that the Dems haven't let up on Traitorgate, although Fineman describes the Dems plan as watching the Sunday talkshows for "something to go after."
FINEMAN: I think they have a plan. And I
think what the plan is, a new form of wedge politics. You remember
that term, wedge politics? Well, that was a tactic invented by the
Republicans, by Lee Atwater and others. And the idea there was to
divide the constituencies of the Democratic Party, set, for example,
the labor unions against the African-American community on something
like affirmative action.
Hang on. Lee Atwater invented wedge politics? Why does the corporate media overstate the accomplishments, however evil, of GOP masterminds? Civil War era Dems, who looked around after the Civil War and decided to drive the mother of all wedges into American politics, might want some of the dubious credit Fineman seems to want to shower on the long-dead Atwater.
Fineman continues acting like exposing the crimes and failings of a political opponent is the same thing as designing campaign strategies rooted in hatred fear and lies:
Well,
this is kind of wedge politics inside the Beltway. The Democrats‘ aim
is to divide the White House itself and the Republicans inside the
Beltway. So they want to set Bush against Cheney. They want us to
get—set Rove against Bush. They want to set the Hill against the White
House, and Republicans on the Hill against each other.
That‘s why Reid was out there, talking about the focus on Cheney.
They
want to make the White House either defend Cheney or give up Cheney.
So it‘s a new kind of wedge attack. And I think they‘re being pretty
successful with it right now.
Yes, a "new kind of wedge attack." If you've spent the last decade in a cave on the moon.
Olbermann buys in:
OLBERMANN:
Well, in part, if that‘s true, certainly it‘s in part because
they‘re—they seem to be getting the cooperation of the Republicans. I
mean, the response today was, Let's find out who let “The Washington
Post” in on those secret CIA prisons, particularly the repurposed
Soviet gulag we happen to be using.
I
mean, do they, A, really want to be backing some sort of environment in
which the words “CIA leak” and “investigation” are all linked, and in
the news, and B, based on what Senator Lott said today, what‘s the
point in starting an investigation, a high-profile investigation, in
which you wind up finding one of your own leaders?
FINEMAN:
Well, yes. I mean, I think the Democrats win doubly on that, for the
reasons that you said, especially if Trent Lott is right, and it was a
Republican who is the leaker. And, you know, one of the standard rules
of political investigations is, you want to know what the conclusion is
before you start it, if politics is your aim. So before they sent that
letter, Hastert and Frist might have considered who was really at fault.
We're "repurposing" (read: reopening) gulags in Eastern Europe to add to our global secret prison network and Fineman and Olbermann want to act like the whole thing is a parlor game. Exactly how far up each other's asses do they have their heads? Is it possible that they haven't read accounts of what's being done to human beings in our name? Or is it more likely that the word's come down to keep the whole torture thing upbeat, just another day on the crazy Hill?
Fineman persists in staying as far away from anything like a real story as he possibly can:
The
other part of it is, the mere fact that the Republicans in their closed
policy luncheon were discussing this topic is another benefit for the
Democrats, because it shows that the Republicans, in private, were
concerned about this before it ever hit print. So they benefited all
the way around.
Yes! Being locked out of policy meetings is a benefit for the Dems, to say nothing of the security benefits it poses for the country to have the Congress run like more like Stalin's Politburo than any American Congress. We have the ruling party restricting access to highly secure information about BushCo's continuously botched War on Terror and it doesn't bear mentioning according to Howard and Keith. If another 9/11 happens are we going to be tracking down memos from lunches and secret GOP-only Congressional meetings where important national security information was overlooked or covered up?
Fineman doesn't care about all that. He's more interested in the melodrama the corporate media is writing. After all, it's so much easier to write. Take us home, Howard. Cue Do Not Forsake Me:
And the other way that they‘re succeeding here is that George Bush is playing right into their hands. George Bush is a loyalist. He‘s drawn the circled the wagons, as we say. He‘s not about to abandon Dick Cheney. He‘s not about to abandon Karl Rove, unless Karl Rove is indicted. And that‘s just the kind of mentality that the Democrats are going to try to make George Bush pay for. You
have a situation today where “The New York Times” editorial page is
basically calling for Bush to freeze Cheney out. You can see the
Democrats are going to be pursuing that theory from now through next
year‘s election.
But why? Oh, that would be telling.
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