See You at the Chapter 11 Hearing

Ciao! I have to take leave. Contractual obligations relating to getting my new novel, Murphy’s War, into print will occupy me for the next few weeks. Shortly after that, non-life threatening medical problems impacting a dear one will place a call on my time and service, and I’m sure that any of you would respond in the same way.

All will be well during this short sabbatical. Since this electronic rag first appeared in August 2004, much has changed in the political landscape that impelled this railing against the present administration and its lackeys in the Republican controlled Congress. While pleased that well over 600 readers check in from time to time, I won’t claim credit for more than a smidgeon of that change. Obviously, most of you are like minded and tune in only as part of choir practice.

The height of my frustration was focused on President Bush’s Second Inaugural Address and the weeks that followed. I was extremely upset that he took his narrow margin of victory in the November 2004 election as a mandate for anything that he’d even mentioned during the campaign – and before. The course in Iraq would not be changed. The people had spoken on the need for a one hundred and eighty degree change in the Social Security system, etcetera, and etcetera. He had political capital and was intent on spending it.

Today, as the president meets daily with his bankruptcy lawyers concerning his Political Chapter 11 filing, and those of us whose hair was on fire in early 2005 relax and observe the leaders of the Executive and Legislative Branches and their ever loyal supporters feed on each others’ entrails, life is better. The Republicans in the House overwhelmingly stuck their tongues out at George over the ports deal while the pres lobbed grenades at those same hyenas on the Hill for failing to fully fund the levees in New Orleans.

My buddy John Merck could barely control his glee at the Dana Milbank article in yesterday’s Washington Post in which a one way food fight between conservatives at the Cato Institute and the absent George W. Bush slobbered on endlessly. Read it for yourselves, but please wear slickers and have many napkins at the ready:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701403.html?referrer=emailarticle

Let’s get real; George has been telling the American people that he’s the guy defending them against the terrorists all by his lonesome. In the meantime, his sycophantic Republican leaders on the Hill who thought he meant them too when he took his bows on national security found out differently when the ports deal hit the street and the public felt more than a little anxious. The party folks sought a little executive protection, but George responded with the usual, “Trust me; I’ve got it covered.” Not to dwell on his Chapter 11 brief, but for the first time the boys and girls from the red states rejected his credit application.

The president has faced us for last time, but a lot of those folks on the Hill don’t feel fully vested and a few of them are more than a little insecure over their prospects on K Street, especially if the government opens under new management, so they began to munch on George’s intestines and intimated that he’s not really looking out for us.

Back at the five sided funny farm across the river, Don Rumsfeld’s making a strong point on Iraq. The media has blown out of proportion the whole series of incidents since the dome was blown off of the Holy Mosque and things are not nearly as bad as CNN and the liberal press would have you believe. Now Don, the matinee idol of the Shock and Awe period, has suffered some credibility problems of his own since the president declared, “Mission Accomplished,” and this latest assertion puts us between a rock and hard place: who’re we gonna believe: Don or our own lyin’ eyes?

In any event, it’s time for me to sign off for about a month, but there’s more than enough to keep you entertained as the fat cats devour each other in the Washington Coliseum.

“Good night and good luck.”

Blog on!

Wild Bill