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Rumor has it that Bill O’Reilly’s attack on Daily Kos was, at least in part, triggered by me. Or specifically by my previous posting, in which I called upon the skilled professionals of the United States Civil Service, the justice agencies, the intelligence community and the military Officer Corps, to find every legal and Constitutional means -- carefully but courageously -- to neutralize the monstrous political hacks who have been appointed to lord over them, by an Executive Branch gone mad.
Lest there by any doubt, I am talking about the War Against Professionalism which we now see as the core theme of this entire administration.
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Note that this subsumes the "Republican War on Science," the trend toward outrageous skyrocketing secrecy, the Culture War and even the war in Iraq.
Alas, this common theme has gone unnoticed, in part because it runs separate from any political issue or even the left-right dogmas that Karl Rove wants us fighting over. Indeed, it’s worth noting that many of the professionals I am talking about are conservatives in the older and more honorable sense of the word. And hence, it is understandable that it’s taken so long for them (and for us) to realize what this is all about.
In my previous posting, I laid it out clearly: there are NO victims of the Bush-Cheney cabal who have been targeted more relentlessly than the skilled men and women who have sworn to serve us with their labor, sweat, honor and skill. The professionals.
(See also my regular Web Log, where I post more often than here at Kos and where I have tried for years to get Democrats to recognize this issue... one that crosses all party lines and might unify the country against this horrific gang.)
That was my point, last time. Now I am forced to ask:
Has anyone out there seen or heard confirmation that O’Reilly was specifically referring to me, for "inciting treason"?
If so, then I am surprised for two reasons:
- Because I was in fact very careful in my phrasing, for example, to parse the rebellion "in favor of the law and the Constitution" ... and thus by definition not advocating anything illegal.
- Why would O’Reilly even draw attention to my tiny, ignored corner of the rant-ocracy?
Just as interesting has been the overall response to O’Reilly’s sally. As usual, the liberals and moderates shoot off-target! Indeed, many of those who leaped up to defend Kos assumed that O’Reilly was referring to some fringe elements, posting from some basement lined with Che Guevara posters. Yes, an open community site is not responsible for occasional weird screeches from the edge.
But if O’Reilly was referring to my most recent post, then we are talking about something else, entirely.
What we are seeing is a servant of the cabal who knows darn well where his gang’s greatest danger lies.
Their greatest danger lies not in politics, or the nostrums offered by Democratic candidates. Nor even (directly) in elections.
Their greatest danger comes from the professionals. From the chance that our public servants may gather the courage and will and determination to simply do their lawful jobs.
From the skilled people finding the same strength that their ancestors did, in rising up against Joe McCarthy... legally and with full fealty to the law (as passed by Congress) and the Constitution.
From their awakened realization that they are not ONLY part of the Executive Branch, but indeed, public servants who are set aside and protected from the political monsters who have been appointed to bully and harass and suborn and torment them into quiet acceptance of a growing dictatorship of secrecy and frightened silence.
This, is the awakening that O’Reilly and the gang fear most. And it is the one thing we should be bending all of our efforts to achieve.