Remember when O.J. Simpson’s wife and her friend turned up dead in her Brentwood front-yard? How did you know O.J. was guilty? After all, he seemed like a nice enough guy, certainly not the type to nearly sever his ex-wife’s head off with a knife. Well, I knew he was guilty because of his attitude. He pretended to give a shit about who the real killers were, but he was utterly unconvincing. Sure, there were other factors, like the cut on his hand and the blood in his car and house. But he didn’t act like a man who had just had a stranger kill the mother of his children. He acted like he was the one who killed her. So, what am I to make of this?
Some Republican strategists are increasingly upset with what they consider the overconfidence of President Bush and his senior advisers about the midterm elections November 7–a concern aggravated by the president’s news conference this week.
“They aren’t even planning for if they lose,” says a GOP insider who informally counsels the West Wing. If Democrats win control of the House, as many analysts expect, Republicans predict that Bush’s final two years in office will be marked by multiple congressional investigations and gridlock.
“The Bush White House has had no relationship with Congress,” said a Bush ally. “Beyond the Democrats, wait till they see how the Republicans–the ones that survive–treat them if they lose next month.” GOP insiders are upset by Bush’s seeming inability to come up with new ideas or fresh approaches.
Or this?
Cheney flatly rejected predictions by pundits that Democrats will take control of the House and Senate in November.
“We will retain control of both houses,” he said.
Sounds like bravado, right? But, what if it is not bravado? What if they mean it, and they know it? I bring this up now because the last time we had an election it turned out quite differently than we anticipated, and yet no one was really prepared to deal with the vast discrepancy between the results and the exit polls and expectations.
Why would the Bush adminstration not prepare for the potentiality that they will lose one or both houses of Congress? Is it because such a fate is unthinkable to them? Is it because they have a plan to make sure that does not happen? Or is it just one more example of their criminal incompetence?
All I know is that they are behaving like I would expect them to if they were criminals. Just like O.J. did.
