Okay, Sun-Tzu, Where Are You?

In the summer before President Bush’s re-election, a liberal friend used to send me dire warnings about (a) Bush’s defeat in November, or failing that (b) Bush’s impeachment within eighteen months. It seemed so preposterous at the time that I didn’t pay attention to whether he meant impeachment 18 months after the election itself, or 18 months after the President’s inauguration. The first date would be around May, 2006. The second date would be two months later, sometime in July, 2006. Back then it seemed so strange that I didn’t give it much thought — except to remind myself to send a “haha” when his predictions proved not only wrong but whacked.

However, with all the shenanigans of late, even someone with a congenital lack of self-preserving paranoia has got to wonder: what in the world is going on here? Why the venom? From whence the irrational hatred? To what end the country’s self-destruction?

Not “what is going on” in the psychological fisking that Drs Sanity and Shrink-Wrapped are so nimbly able to apply. No, this question is more about strategy than tactics or underlying motivation. This is about “Hey, what’s up?” Specifically, what is the game plan and how do they plan to execute it? Was my friend right? Were they planning the impeachment before the election?

Varifrank has some interesting ideas. First of all, he likens the amount of play that the Democrat’s fulminating gets from the media to the template used for “shark summer” news:

“The Summer Story” is a phenomenon I’ve noted ever since the days of Watergate. There is a natural cycle to the news that corresponds to the amount of time people are at work. During the post 4th of July time period, a high percentage of the workforce is out on vacation. This leaves less than a critical mass behind to get anything accomplished. Very often what happens that everything goes on hold until enough of the staff returns to get on with work. In the media its much the same, except for one small problem, they can't just wait around for the news, they cant go dark just because there’s nothing to report. The result is that most news organizations make things up to get excited about during the late summer.

Okay. So these kids at the newspapers don’t have enough to do. And real reporting would involve thinking, which is not a reporter’s forte (had it been a strong point he/she might have gone into philosophy. Both areas involve talking, but the discipline of philosophy requires thinking —in most cases — while journalism requires neither discipline nor much thought. It is necessary only to be able to twist a phrase here and there). So there they are, these reporters, easy prey for politicians who want to score some points. Enter Durbin, stage left.

He has an expectant audience, especially if it looks like he’s into serious slaying of Dragonus Republicanus. Maybe, (hold breath here) he'll have another Abu Gharib. Kewl.. Whoo…look at that: toilets, handcuffs, cold air. It’s all S and M to them. And it will have to substitute for the real thing since there is no real thing. Nada.

President Bush has no scandals. No venal flaws by which to hang him from the nearest public hook. No bimbo eruptions, no pardons for food, no mortgages on the Lincoln Bedroom, no fisticuffs with the First Lady, no semen samples. Nobody has died in the White House under suspicious circumstances. No leaks, no rumors, no back-stabbing —unless you count General Powell’s ire, but even that was so gentlemanly it was impossible to build up a head of steam sufficient to get the indignation train very far down the track.

The MSM would be falling asleep at the wheel were it not for the toothpicks in the eyelids by the Democrats. Howard Dean has to scream like that to keep the press pool awake. Durbin has to build his astonishing castle-in-the-air comparisons to get attention. And they all have to villainize whomever Bush has the temerity to attempt to appoint to some post requiring the Senate’s advice and consent.

This is getting tiresome and dangerous. As Varifrank says, we can’t afford these kinds of distractions. But what can we do? Lots of people wrote their senators after Durbins vomitus hit the microphone; that helped some. And then President Bush called Frist on the carpet and made him do a 180 on his wimpy “I-don’t-think-we’ll-bother-with-Bolton” pronouncement. Thank you, Mr. President. You saved a whole lot of work on that one.

But it’s not over. Here’s Varifrank’s take:

I think Durbin spoke out of turn in a calculated campaign. He and the Democrats clearly miscalculated the reaction, but I don’t think its over with just this one flub. I think we are going to hear much, much worse, and in a much more coordinated fashion over the summer. I don’t think we should just be shocked, I think we need to prepare ourselves for what is about to come.

He cites a chilling example of Democrats holding mock-up impeachment proceedings. These are not off-the-wall tinfoil hat San Franciscans. These are elected members of Congress, especially Mr. Conyers, who owes his election to so many Islamists in Michigan. The Hon. Mr. Pander…

So do you laugh or cry as such hubris? The Democrats control nothing. This is not Richard Nixon and they are not his Congress. It’s all about publicity and planting the seed in the heart of the public. Creepy. The Democratic Party becomes creepier as the summer wears on.

Meanwhile, how do we set about disrupting this well-organized smear campaign on a sitting president in a time of war? It’s time to build a domestic war machine and bring to bear the wit and wisdom of the blogosphere in designing goals and objectives for victory. Simply being reactive and putting out fires isn’t going to work.

Anyone have some ideas? Brainstorming permitted.