What Was That Date Again?

Well, what do you know; the Republicans are shamelessly milking the 9/11 tragedy for political ends. I’m shocked, shocked I say. Here comes Rudy Giuliani to cheer for the team. Here comes John McCain to follow party orders and pretend Bush is a real leader. And throughout it’s 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. I’m sure when those 3,000 people died, they were thinking, “Gosh, I may be dying, but at least one day a party of liars and scoundrels can use my murder to get a corrupt and morally bankrupt tool of big business and the energy industry elected as president.” You know, I shouldn’t even call it shameless. That’s an insult to shameless people.

What I find most hilarious about all this is that the tragedy happened on Bush’s watch. Why is the constant repetition of 9/11 supposed to make us think well of him? Shouldn’t it remind us all that it was the intelligence failures of his administration that allowed this to happen? Shouldn’t it remind us that for a brief moment the US had the sympathy of much of the world, but it was Bush’s cowboy diplomacy that squandered all that good will in no time at all? Shouldn’t it remind it us that, in fact, Osama bin Laden has not been “brought to justice” and resources that might have been used to that end were redirected to fight a baseless and illegal war in Iraq?

This is all the legacy of the 2000 elections. The Republican spin machine learned that it could literally say anything, make up any lie, and the media would give them a pass. More than that, they’d repeat any lie to the public and give it equal time so as not to show “bias”. This is why they can launch what would seem to be mind-boggling stupid ads attacking Kerry’s war record. I mean really, if you were in charge of Bush’s image, would you want anyone even bringing up Vietnam? Even if you think Kerry didn’t deserve some of his medals (and there are folks like Alexander Cockburn on the left who do), the fact is the guy volunteered and fought while W. was partying too much to bother to show up to his cushy Air National Guard gig. Bush just can’t win that battle, so you’d think the Republicans would be insane to pick that fight. But no, after the hatchet job they did on Gore in 2000, shamelessness knows no bounds.

My only solace is this: at least the RNC is the best fodder the Daily Show could possibly ask for. Their coverage so far has been priceless.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.