Two things I know from the downfall of Alabama’s Don Siegelman and New York’s Elliot Spitzer:
One, I know how to spell the word “surveillance” correctly. I type it pretty often these days.
Two, if anyone here has any doubts that the Bushies are abusing their illegal wiretaps to go after political enemies whenever and however possible, ask Don Spiegelman or Elliot Spitzer.
Now I’m well aware of saying this in BooLand is preaching to the choir, but it still needs to be said. The alacrity of the downfall of Spitzer especially needs to be addressed in the larger picture scenario. It’s not really important if you believe the charges against him. It’s not important what you believe about the legality of prostitution. That’s not the point.
The point is Spitzer was taken down both fast and hard because he opposed Bush’s powerful Wall Street friends. Opponents of this presidential administration have this nasty habit of either being disarmed, taken out of the arena, or being converted to Bush’s side.
We know Bush has been illegally wiretapping since before 9/11. We know at every turn Bush has pushed for more surveillance powers specifically with as little oversight as possible. We know Bush has recruited telecoms, banks, credit card companies, internet providers and tech companies to provide the government with information, ostensibly in order to “protect us”.
So we now know that the Bush-led GOP is using these powers to specifically target political foes. Spitzer went down because the banks flagged his account thanks to the IRS and then he was referred on to wiretaps. The papers are full of accounts detailing how he was Client 9, and how he was recorded having a liaison with a woman in the Mayflower Hotel on February 12, literally just one month ago.
Spitzer was served up, his name leaked to the press, and in a storm of controversy he resigned in a matter of weeks. “Fast track” doesn’t begin to describe the level of speed, coordination, and determination in this case. He was targeted and taken down with impressive skill for such an otherwise incompetent administration.
Think about it. How startlingly coordinated was this plan of attack between the IRS, the DoJ, the banking industry, and the FBI, all at the Federal level and all bypassing NY officials, and all done with lightning speed! This is a government that can’t find Osama bin Laden after six and a half years, but can pursue a Democratic governor dipping his wick in a 22-year old Jersey girl in the space of weeks.
At this point, the Democrats have to treat Spitzer (and Don Siegelman as well) as what they truly are: warnings that opposition to Der Chimpenfuhrer will not be tolerated. We’ve been accusing the Democrats of being spineless hacks or worse (in the case of the Bush Dogs) co-conspirators. It’s worth considering that seven years of wiretaps have most likely revealed plenty of information of use to control Democrats, and it of course explains why A) the Democrats have suddenly shown a spine on FISA immunity for telecoms and B) why the Bushies are screaming about must having it.
The court cases against the government are the only way to get the whole sordid mess out in the open, and both sides know it.
So the Bushies are playing hardball and will not take defeat this November lying down. Recent special elections indicate a massive landslide for the Democrats on Election Day and the GOP knows it’s in serious, serious trouble.
With the economy coming apart, Bush has no legacy left except that of utter and complete failure, that his record will be that of the worst President this country has ever had the misfortune of producing. That must weigh on him daily if not hourly.
The guys that got him into power know they’re in deep too. They know they will be cleaned out of the system. Some will survive, but most played such partisan politics that in a Democratic administration they’d be lucky to be working at Dunkin Donuts.
The Spitzer story therefore serves as a shot across the bow…a very loud and public one. It’s the kind of “you’re next, asshole!” warning delivered with all the subtlety of a flamethrower in a fireworks factory that we’ve come to expect from the modern GOP.
It’s all leverage: what Bush has on the Dems, and what the Dems have on Bush. As long as they stay in balance, there’s a semblance of normalcy, or at least business as usual. But the Dems finally have something they are using to push the scales, and the Bushies are pushing back.
Hard.
And that brings us to the society we live in. With that same trademark subtlety this President and his cronies have all but confirmed that the years and years of illegal surveillance are being used with the sole purpose of damaging political foes, the same kind of banana republic strongman tactics you’d expect from a tinpot dictator or Soviet-era Politburo.
This is now the American President’s SOP, standard operating procedure.
Asking “why aren’t the Dems fighting Bush” and “why is the press in bed with the GOP” isn’t the right question. It’s “what does Bush have on these folks?” How much leverage? What kind of dirt? How bad is it truly?
And finally, what does Bush have on YOU? What would Obama, Clinton, or McCain do with these powers? Would they rid themselves of the temptation? Would they rescind these secret orders? Would they expand upon these powers?
These powers are the hallmarks of the fascist surveillance state. These powers are being used against us now. What elese are they doing that we don’t know about? What else are they doing that we WOULD know about, but are being kept in the dark about due to other “leverage” on the people who might reveal it?
How deep does this hole go?
