A Walking Corpse

Absolute Republican power corrupts absolutely

by Alan Bisbort

Source: Hartford Advocate, April 14, 2005.

"He who has lost his reputation is a walking corpse."

— Spanish proverb

A couple weeks back, the walking corpse formerly known as Colin Powell was whining to the German magazine, Stern, about how he was "furious and angry" (sic) that he'd been misinformed about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. He was referring to the intelligence he'd been given, and which he accepted as reliable, before he — as our nation's chief diplomat — stood before the U.N. Security Council in February 2003 to beat the drums for Mr. Bush's bloody little war, still raging even on the second anniversary of the Saddam Statue-Toppling Stage Show.

Everyone in the house that day knew Colin was lying through his, ahem, colon. And you have to believe that Colin knew it. You could see it in his eyes, which were as rheumy, beady and bloodshot as Rumsfeld's and Cheney's. He stood up there with his little vial of kitty litter and outdated, fuzzy aerial photos and lied his colon off for the Man, demanding that delegates see his Show-and-Tell as something it wasn't — proof of Saddam's WMD program. (As my friend Nick sagely points out, if that vial of "yellow cake" was so dangerous, how did the sumbitch get it past security, why was he carrying it on his person, why was he waving it around at the podium like a July 4th sparkler, and why weren't the delegates scurrying for cover?).

It's kind of pathetic, really, to see this former "decorated war hero" weepin' and wailin' like Tammy Faye Bakker. As he complains about being "misled" by "information from our security services and from some Europeans, including Germans" (nice touch, that), one thinks of the line from Othello: "Reputation, reputation, reputation! O! I have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial."

Maybe Powell was like this all along, a conscienceless lackey who would do whatever his commanding officer told him to do. Sure fooled me, though. I thought the guy had some stature and decency once upon a time. But, then, the Republicans accepted him as their secretary of state so the shame rests on every Republican's head.

This comes in the wake of Bush's own commissioned report on WMD intelligence (aka "Telling The Boss What He Wants To Hear") which noted, "the Intelligence Community was dead wrong in almost all of its pre-war judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." Still, the Republicans were unanimous in support of this war, so the shame of it rests on every Republican's head.

I defer to Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in March 2004, from an open letter to Bush: "One year and four days ago my son, Casey Sheehan, was one of the consequences of your lies and betrayals. One of the tens of thousands that your arrogant, pre-emptive, imperialistic policies have killed. I don't know how any of you can sleep at night ... I know I can't ... We know the intelligence leading to the war was 'dead' wrong and gleaned from a known liar, so I have a question for you ... Why are Americans and Iraqis still dying every day?"

This comes in the wake of a GOP memo that encouraged Republican leaders to take political advantage of Terri Schiavo's plight. And they did, from Dr. Bill "Diagnose By Video" Frist to George W. "Fly Me To D.C." Bush. Then, when they saw their approval ratings tank (Bush's is the lowest for any president in his second term since World War II), they begged off. You don't hear any of them, except true loonies like DeLay, who all but encouraged violence against the judges involved in the case, talking about Terri now.

This comes in the wake of DeLay's own travails. Indeed, the power-mad DeLay may be the most corrupt politician to ever run roughshod in Washington, D.C. He's a vicious, vindictive creep who should have been bullwhipped in a public square years ago, if not impeached, but the House Republicans let him take over their Party, so the shame of DeLay is on every Republican's head. While the temptation to pile on is admittedly great, DeLay's problems are symptomatic of his entire party. Are his crimes any worse than their collective crime of starting a war under false pretenses?

In other words, all those who call themselves Republicans should take a look in the mirror. If you're holding your head up right now, you're either a fool or a liar.

To those Republicans who can still think clearly, I ask: You can lie all you want to the rest of us, how long can you go on lying to yourselves? How far does your party have to go before you cease aligning yourself with it?

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reprinted from The Hartford Advocate