The Poet's Eye
commentary by Lightning
Rod
the Poets' Eye is skeptical
without being cynical, innocent
without being naive and
critical without being
judgmental
Wizard of Oz
for release on 11-08-04
"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore."
I watched Karl Rove appearing on one of the Sunday morning shows this
week. He was glowing from the Republican victory of which Bush, in his
recent news conference, called Rove 'the architect.'
It's hard to argue with success. Karl Rove is an obviously capable puppet
master. In this election campaign the Bush camp was marching in lock step
with constant iterations of the same simple but understandable message.
As I watched Rove deliver the calm and familiar party line, which he invented,
I thought of the Emerald City of Oz. "Don't pay any attention to
the man behind the curtain."
Bush would be just a 'nuffin', his head all full of stuffin' if it weren't
for Karl Rove and the rest of the neocon crew who are in charge of our
government today. Because you didn't only vote for George Bush last week.
You also voted for those he brings with him. You voted for a set of men
behind the curtain who are ideologues like Paul Wolfowitz, expert bureaucrats
like Rumsfeld and regulators who are working for the industries and interests
that they pretend to regulate (Cheney). The vote was to install the foxes
as guardians of the henhouse.
Karl Rove and I have a few things in common. We both spent a great deal
of time in Texas. We were both Young Republicans (but I got over it.)
We both went to college but never graduated in favor of larger goals.
Neither of us are too fond of following the rules. But if I only had a
brain, I would want it to be like Karl Rove's. I'm sure he could beat
Bobby Fischer or Joseph Goebbels at chess. He is Svengali, Rasputin, Machiavelli
and Cardinal Richelieu rolled into one.
Rove's political journey stretches from Watergate to today as a master
of dirty tricks. He has been behind the curtain in the administratrions
of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and then he fell in love with George Jr.
He immediately saw that W was just his kind of political property--a brightly
colored parrot with great family credentials, reasonable stage presence,
a strong jaw and an empty head. He thought he was in Oz. The ventriloquist
had found his dummy.
In Bush's campaign for governor of Texas against Ann Richards, which Rove
ran, they successfully painted Richards as a lush cocaine sniffer (which
is rich, considering the source of those accusations) just like they successfully
painted John Kerry in this election as being an indecisive flip-flopper.
Rove's credo from then till now has been 'go negative early and often.'
George Shipley, Richards' campaign advisor, said, "We did not believe
that Bush would be as disciplined as he was. He was extremely disciplined.
Karl gave him 10 index cards and said, 'This is what you are going to
say. Don't confuse yourself with the issues.'"
And this is another reason that the match (I hesitate to say civil union)
between Karl Rove and G. Bush is so perfect: Bush doesn't confuse himself
with the issues. He let's Rove worry about them.
Bush calls Rove his 'Boy Genius.' He also calls him "Turd Blossom."
This is Texanese for a flower that blooms from cattle excrement. For those
of you who aren't familiar with the flora and fauna of Texas, the flower
that grows out of a cow patty is a purple psychedelic mushroom. These
mushrooms will make you understand Oz.
Robert Heinlein wrote a book about the invasion of Earth by a race from
outer space. It was called The Puppet Masters. The aliens were slug-like
creatures that would attach themselves to the back of a human just between
the shoulder blades and insert a tap root into the victim's spinal chord
thereby controlling him. The famous picture of Bush at the podium in the
first presidential debate with the obvious bulge under his coat just between
the shoulder blades reminds me of The Puppet Masters. In the book all
the citizens had to go naked from the waist up to reveal which ones were
being controlled. But we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. And it's not
a sci-fi novel or a mushroom dream either. This is real.
The Poet's Eye will be watching the men behind the curtain.
"Is the front door of heaven
the back door of hell?
I swear I really couldn't tell
I swear I really couldn't tell"
Mushroom Men by Lrod
Lightning
Rod
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