I'm getting a bit tired of the hand-wringing and the debates over how to "frame" this administration's unforgivable incompetence. Yes, we've all noticed that the media sheep bleat the Bush talking points on cue: "Baaaah! Blame game. Baaaaah!" But what do we offer in response? "Well, Don, the Bush administration is simply using these cutesy phrases as a way of avoiding accountability."
Well, duh.
But accountability, in case no one's noticed, is, how to put this gently? A fucking abstraction. That's what. A big motherfucking abstraction, lovely for policy wonks and lawyers. But for actual communication with real people? Not so good.
If you're still with me, hold your nose, close your eyes and
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Phew!! Ya made it. Mazel tov!
OK. Where were we? Oh, yeah. Policy wonk abstractions. Bad. After all, why should anyone really care if Bush is "accountable"? I mean, sure, we all understand that if we screwed up on our job as bad as he's screwed up his, we'd have been fired, oh, about four years, six months ago, give or take. But really, when you get down to it, is it that important that we hold Bush "accountable"? What does it mean, anyway? That we're going to give him a good, stern talking-to?
Accountability is only as important as the concrete thing that one is accountable for. If my job is making sure Brad Pitt's hair looks good, well, you can hold me accountable all you want. But try getting anyone, aside from Brad and maybe Angelina, to give a rat's ass.
It IS important to hold Bush accountable. But not as an end in itself. He must be held accountable because his acts and omissions have cost lives, including a goodly number of American lives, and resulted in the destruction of an American cultural jewel, the city of New Orleans. We expect a lot from our government, and rightly so. That's why we try to attain democracy. But when you get down to it, a lot of government failures are, if not forgivable, not something most people will lose much sleep over. There is one job we entrust to our government, however, at which it may not fail. Not "should not fail." Because failure at this job is unforgivable, regardless of the government's ideology. Our government must protect us, its citizens, keeping us safe from foreign enemies and natural disasters, to the full extent of its capabilities.
And when it comes to that basic task, the one job we must insist upon, this administration has failed. When disaster loomed and the hurricane winds were pounding the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, the President went to bed. Only after New Orleans had drowned, the city rendered uninhabitable, hundreds, if not thousands, dead did this administration tear its attention away from schmoozing with the rich and powerful and focus on the job it was hired to do: Protecting us and our loved ones.
And it gets worse. When the administration's incompetence had been exposed to the full view of the world, Bush and his cheerleaders determined that there was no great rush when it came to providing American citizens reassurance that the government would right itself. No need, this administration decided, to take steps to ensure that it would not fail us so egregiously ever again. In fact, our government told us, demands that the government address its failures were nothing but a game: the blame game.
Yup. A game. Your life. My life. Our loved ones' lives. A game to them.
New Orleans is NoMoreleans and Mississippi bleeds. No biggie. A few jokes from the Comedian-in-Chief about rebuilding Trent Lott's house from the "rubbles" will make it all right. American exporters may worry whether they can feed their families because the Port of NoMoreleans is, for the time being, an ex-port, but not our President. He takes to the airwaves to read a list someone prepared for him of aid his government would provide, too late, and scurries off to his next photo op.
All a game.
If this were the first time this administration played with our lives in this manner, that would be bad enough. But what did these same people tell us about the brave men and women involved in the task of keeping us safe through undercover intelligence work designed to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction? A game. The wife of an administration critic, you'll recall, was "fair game." Never mind that their game could cost the lives of this critic's wife and others working with her to protect us. Never mind that their game means the waste of valuable time and tax money because a long-term covert operation had to be shut down. All a game.
How about we all chip in and buy these people the latest edition of Madden Football or something? Anything so that they keep their fucking games out of our lives.
But now we know. We know how little Mr. War President really cared about making us safer after 9/11. He had four years and he put together an emergency response system incapable of responding to a clogged sink, let alone a drowning city. As a result, for the first time in my nearly 50 years on this planet, I believe my government is incapable of protecting me and my loved ones from danger. (Of course, this government's foreign and environmental policies have increased those dangers, but we'll leave that aside for now.)
Today we learn that the President took "responsibility" for the failures of the government over which he presides. Mighty big of him. So when can we expect the letter of resignation? Or are his words as hollow now as when he told us he was a "compassionate conservative"? When he promised to be "a uniter, not a divider"? When he told us he'd bring in Osama bin-Laden "dead or alive"?
Don't answer that. We all know the answer.
Words, even big words like "accountability" and "responsibility" mean nothing to this administration. They're toys. Part of the game.
We also learned today that Congressman Conyers and other of our friends in the House will be taking steps to investigate the administration's unforgivable inaction on the Plame leak. That's great. It's also not enough.
This administration has lost whatever claim to legitimacy it ever had. Through sins of omission and commission, it has needlessly cost our country money, respect and, above all, lives. We should insist that for once George Bush's words carry meaning: The only way he can truly take responsibility for the drowning of New Orleans is to resign. That goes for the Vice-President he rode in on as well. If they won't resign, which they won't, Democrats in Congress should proceed with the hearings, but they should also draft articles of impeachment. Those articles should include some or all of the following "high crimes and misdemeanors":
- Knowingly deceiving the American people about the seriousness of a threat to their security, to wit, the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, thereby sending American soldiers into battle under false pretenses and damaging the safety and security of the United States and its citizens;
- Knowingly tolerating the treasonous behavior of administration officials who, for perceived political gain, feloniously revealed the identity of an undercover operative engaged in deterring the spread of weapons of mass destruction, thereby increasing the danger to those who risk their lives by working under cover on our nation's behalf and damaging the safety and security of the United States and its citizens;
- Knowingly allowing the deteroriation of our disaster response system to the point where the federal government is no longer able to respond effectively to emergencies including, but not limited to, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, disastrous fires and terrorist attacks, thereby damaging the safety and security of the United States and its citizens; and
- Knowingly or negligently failing to take basic steps to enable a competent response to Hurricane Katrina, thereby contributing to unnecessary death, destruction and injury and damaging the safety and security of the United States and its citizens.
In the meantime, we should state plainly that the failures of this administration in its most basic of duties have destroyed its claim to legitimacy. Accordingly, this administration has forfeited the right to appoint the next ambassador to Fiji, never mind the right to make lifetime appointments to the federal judiciary. The failures of this administration are, for want of a better phrase, an extraordinary circumstance justifying the use of all parliamentary and extra-parliamentary means at our disposal to prevent further damage to our safety and security. At the very least, that includes taking whatever steps are necessary to prevent the confirmation of judges and justices appointed by this illegitimate government. I don't care if they appoint Larry Tribe or Mario Cuomo to the federal bench. This administration lacks legitimacy. Like the words they use, their right to govern no longer has substance. Accordingly, the only legitimate action they can now take is to resign.
Yes, it's a matter of accountability. But it's also a matter of life and death for the citizens of the United States they have proven incapable of protecting. Including me, you and our loved ones. That's not an academic exercise and there's nothing abstract about it. Our lives are at stake and we should act like it.