In-a-Gadda Da-Vida We Trust (Dowd alert)

The New York Times ^ | 05/28/03 | Maureen Dowd

[Pokey78]

By rolling over Iraq, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld hoped to deep-six the sixties.

The president was down with that. He never grooved on the vibe of the Age of Aquarius anyway.

Conservatives were eager to purge the decades' demons, from tie-dye to moral relativism, from Hanoi Jane to wilting patriotism, from McGovern to blaming America first, from Lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds to the Clintonesque whatever-gets-you-through-the-night ethos.

In their preferred calendar, more Gingrichian than Gregorian, American culture fast-forwards from Elvis's blue suede shoes to John Travolta's white polyester suit.

Whatever else has gone awry in the Mideast so far, the administration may have succeeded in exorcising American queasiness about using force, and any vestigial image of the military as "baby killers."

As Robin Toner wrote in The Times yesterday, trust in the military is brimming, up to 79 percent from 58 percent in 1975, according to Gallup.

The tactical efficacy and moral delicacy of American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq solidified a trend: the children of Vietnam-scarred boomers trust the government, and especially the military, far more than did their parents, whose generational mantra was "Don't trust anyone over 30."

As Ms. Toner noted, a Harvard poll found that 75 percent of college kids trusted the military "to do the right thing" either "all of the time" or "most of the time." Two-thirds of the students supported the Iraqi war, with hawks beating doves 2 to 1.

Mr. Bush runs a "trust us, we're 100 percent right" regime. So we've got a young generation that wants to take it on faith. And an administration that wants to be taken on faith.

The beginning of a beautiful friendship? Maybe. Unless the White House politicizes 9/11 so much it squanders all that belief.

Karl Rove's re-election strategy is designed to tug 9/11 heartstrings, and his ads will be heroic images of Top Gun chasing down the bad guys.

The president and his posse diverted anger over 9/11 to Iraq, and now they are diverting it to Iran.

The Bushies are playing up Al Qaeda terrorists they say are hunkered down in Iran, even as they overlook all the Al Qaeda terrorists crouching in countries the administration doesn't want to demonize, like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. And the hawks have turned to grooming Iranian exiles, who are pumping out reports of secret nuclear labs. Sound familiar?

After the war, the triumphal administration bragged about its Iraqi, Taliban and Qaeda scalps, painting our enemies as being in retreat.

"Al Qaeda is on the run," the president said in Little Rock, Ark. "That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly, but surely, being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top Al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore."

But Al Qaeda, it became horrifyingly clear a week later in Riyadh, was not decimated; it was sufficiently undecimated to murder 34 people, injure 200 and scare the daylights out of Americans everywhere.

If Bush-Cheney '04's use of Sept. 11 begins to look like cynicism, then cynicism is precisely what it will produce. Officials should stop speaking about threats and triumphs until they know exactly what they are speaking about. They should lose their bewildering and unconvincing color code, because orange doesn't communicate anything to anybody any more.

They should agree, in a spirit of humility and true public service, to stop getting obnoxiously in the way of the release of the 800-page Congressional report that will provide what every American has a right to know about 9/11.

As Michael Isikoff writes in Newsweek, the Bush team does not want the public to pore over the president's daily intelligence briefings, like the one given on Aug. 6, 2001, at the Crawford ranch that dealt with the possibility that Al Qaeda might hijack airplanes. Or the parts of the 9/11 report that deal with our petroleum pals, the Saudis, and their recalcitrance in cooperating in the war on terror. The report, he says, "discusses evidence that individuals with Saudi government connections may have provided the hijackers aid."

The public should take its cue from Mr. Bush's beau ideal, Ronald Reagan. As the Gipper advised, "Trust, but verify."  

[Pokey78]

"Al Qaeda is on the run," the president said in Little Rock, Ark. "That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly, but surely, being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top Al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore."

At least she used the entire quote this time.

---

She still can't get over him.

---

From Oxblog:

IMMUTABLE LAWS OF DOWD

1. Ashcroft never deserves credit.

2. Offering constructive solutions to problems, instead of whining endlessly about them, is a sign of weakness.

3. The People Magazine principle: all political phenomena can be explained with reference solely to caricatures of the personalities involved ("Dubya" is stupid; "Poppy" is an aristocrat; Cheney is macho-man; etc.). Any reference to the common good or even to old-fashioned politicking is, like, so passe.

4. It is much better to be cute than coherent.

5. Maureen knows best. Her long years as a columnist (doing basically what your great-aunt Tillie does in the nursing home bull sessions, but getting paid for it) have given her deep insight into foreign relations, politics, welfare, the Constitution, and all other topics. To disagree with Maureen in any way is not only a sign of being wrong, it's a hallmark of pure evil...or at least membership in the NRA, which is pretty much the same thing.

6. It is usually possible and always desirable to name-drop and name-call in the same sentence.

7. The particulars of my consumer-driven, shamefully self-involved life reveal universal truths.

---

Explanation of the Dowd/Douglas connection: by Miss Marple- 2/11/03

Ms. Dowd was escorted around New York and DC for many months by one Michael Douglas of Hollywood fame and fortune. She got to go to all the best parties, was photographed for the tabloids, and was picking out a gown to wear at the Oscars. Of course, Michael had become interested in her during Clinton's impeachment, when she had written some very anti-Clinton columns. After a few weeks of the Michael treatment, she began to write anti-Starr, ant-Newt columns, ignoring Clinton.

Then Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. In an amazing coincidence, Michael Douglas dropped Ms. Dowd like a hot potato, and instead picked up a hot tomato, Catherin Zeta-Jones, who subsequently bore him a son and they were married.

Ms. Dowd cannot get over her tragic loss. Her columns are increasingly anti-Bush, in the hope of impressing her lost love, Michael.

In addition, we think she has a secret crush on the President and is trying to get him to pay attention to her. Ha!

[Shermy]

Flashbacks. I guess at Woodstock she didn't hear the "Don't eat the brown acid" announcement.

[BerniesFriend]

I know I sound like a broken record..but WHERE ARE THE CZJ PICS????????????? Does anyone think, if I may start a new line here, that CJZ would make a good Wonder Woman in a feature film???

[Pokey78]

I could dig it!

[Enduring Freedom]

The Dowd is a washed-up old spinster and a 'Rat shill.

She will perish with the rest of her kind just like Jayson Blair, Phil Donahue and George Steph.

[MJY1288]

I think old "gutter gums" Dowd has finally cracked, no more of the usual "Frat Boy" comments or the usual "Bush is an idiot" screeds.

I think that sour, vile, nasty witch, Maureen Dowd is really worried, and YES she still cant get over the flight suit

[MEG33]

Dowd has become a Yawn!

[ladyinred]

My goodness, I do think Ms. Dowdy inhaled!

[ladyinred]

While I very much appreciate the picture of W in the flight suit, my hubby is groovin to the one of CZJ! She is my only rival for his affections! :-)

[liberalnot]

i h-a-t-e-d that song when it came out. i was in college and my roommates played that over and over and over and over. one day when they were stoned and partying, i took that record off, and put the sons of the pioneers "cool, clear water" on and blew their minds! they did not forgive me! i thought it was funny.

[Southack]

"But Al Qaeda, it became horrifyingly clear a week later in Riyadh, was not decimated"

Good grief, the poor flacks at the NY Times are so uneducated that they are confusing "decimated" with "incapacitated", as if the two words were interchangeable.

They are not.

Decimated means that you've killed one out of every 10 people.

Gee, do ya think that the other 9 might still be capable of doing some damage, Maureen?!

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Now the snobs at the NY Times are getting their word useage corrected by a country boy in rural Alabama (yes, that would be me).

[JohnHuang2]

Okay, remind me again...who's Maureen Dowd?

;)
/Sarcasm

[TomB]

Hi Chris.

Yep, it seems the NY Times' elderly spinster is finally starting to feel some heat for her completely disingenuous, deceitful column last week (The Times also has a columnist problem (Maureen Dowd Under Review)), although the deception was noted here on FR just hours after the column ran (More Fraud at the New York Times).. I noticed that Imus, a notorious Dowd sycophant, is even picking up on the situation.

This column is nothing but a lame attempt to correct the record without admitting fault. I doubt, however, if this will quiet her critics.

[TomB]

"Al Qaeda is on the run," the president said in Little Rock, Ark. "That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly, but surely, being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top Al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore."

But Al Qaeda, it became horrifyingly clear a week later in Riyadh, was not decimated; it was sufficiently undecimated to murder 34 people, injure 200 and scare the daylights out of Americans everywhere.

Like I said earlier, this is a rather transparent attempt to get the heat off for misquoting Bush last week. You can bet there's a lot of squirming going on at the Times.

But while she gets the quote right this time, she STILL gets the meaning wrong. She still maintains that Bush is saying Al Qaeda isn't a problem anymore. In addition, if you read Bush's quote, it says that the terrorist organization "is slowly, but surely, being decimated". Note the tense, "is being" implies that we are still in the process of "decimating" them. However, in the next paragraph she says that "Al Qaeda...was not decimated". No Maureen, it would be impossible for Al Queda to be decimated when it is still being decimated.

Just more Mo playing with words instead of herself.

[BlueLancer]

"i h-a-t-e-d that song when it came out. i was in college and my roommates played that over and over and over and over."

While at Blue U in 1972, I "worked" as a DJ at the Academy radio station during my Plebe year. I used "Inna-godda-davida" as my "signature" tune, and always played it first when I came on. As my entire session was built around requests from the other middies, I used the long-version as a 30-minute period so that I could take requests and pull LPs off the shelf and get them arranged for play. Halfway through my session, I then played "Thick as a Brick" for another 30-minute period for taking requests and pulling LPs. It always worked pretty well and didn't leave me too rushed.

So there was something good about that song.

[Labyrinthos]

Dear Disingenuous Little Cu*t

I still remember the old days around here when we used to pride ourselves on the ability to communicate without resorting to the type of language regularly used by the street filth at DU. If you can't think of at least ten less offensive words to describe Dowd than the one use have chosen, then perhaps you should ask Hillary for a job on her next campaign. Now go wash your mouth out with soap.

[Miss Marple]

The next thing we have to do is make certain that everyone understands this lame attempt to correct the record. It is a non-correction correction, similar to the non-apology apology.

Onward! Do not let up on the pressure! I personally think we need to start deconstructing every darn column she produces! Go after her grammar, her quotes, her mis-placed facts. I want this woman hitting the Scotch bottle by 10AM. Rarely have I loathed a columnist as I do Maureen Dowd.

[Jhensy]

Karl Rove's re-election strategy is designed to tug 9/11 heartstrings

Source? DNC talking points don't count, Maureen.