Fourth quarter
The Tuesday elections may prove to be a repudiation of George W. Bush and his administration. Or the Republican candidates may carry the day and maintain the conservative majority in Congress.
Either way, the nation is going to lose. We’ve lost already, and it’s only the weekend before Election Day. Bush has a team that knows how to get around Congress, if it has to. If the Bush team doesn’t have a Republican Congress to “work with,” then the team will work without Congress. Loss of a Republican congressional majority will be a repudiation, but only a vocal one. Bush, Cheney, Rove and Gonzales will continue on their same path, maybe with more machete work to do on balances of power put in place in 1789, but continuing all the same.
It is this inevitability that is so depressing. It’s like the nation is behind, 100-0, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, there’s no mercy rule, and nobody can leave until the fat lady sings. If the Congress remains Republican-controlled after Tuesday, who knows what the final score will be? If Republicans lose control – I don’t say, “If Democrats gain control,” because it’s not that black-and-white (or red-and-blue) – but if Republicans lose control, the final score, when Bush is finally carried off the field in 2008, may be 150-14.
Surely a non-Republican Congress can scratch out a couple of scores in two years, but most of the drives won’t get inside the 40-yard line, against an opponent that knows how to use the rules so well.
But who cares? What good are 14 points in the last quarter of a game that was over at the half? In the Congressional locker room, what will the coach say? “Folks, you did your best.” Well, rah rah rah. The stories in the morning papers, when the gun finally sounds in 2008, will be about which nation is bloodied the worst, Iraq or America.
And all we can do is sit in the stands and watch. Can’t leave, can’t get away, can’t go home and fix a martini and turn on the TV and try to forget. Wait til next year? Sheesh. Who wants to watch 2007 in America?
The Bush team has already won. The new Congress, in red jerseys or blue, will be the scrubs, playing out its worst loss in history against the Bush first-string, still sending in a new play every day with a new way to hide the ball until it’s too late. You almost hope all the Republicans win on Tuesday. Go ahead and shudder at the thought. Or you can shudder at the thought of what the Bush team can do in the fourth period, even ahead 100-0, if it is motivated by a Congress wearing blue jerseys. It would be better to lose, 150-0, with a red congress, than 250-14 with a blue one. Wouldn’t it? Talk about the blues. I got ‘em, baby.
We take what distractions we can find, from the carnage on the field below. Yesterday a vendor came up the aisle with copies of The New York Times. I bought one, and in it found a column by Thomas L. Friedman, under the headline, “Insulting our troops, and our intelligence.” I have nothing against Republicans, or Republican or conservative philosophy and ideology, or honest Republican elected representatives, or evangelical Christians gay or straight, and I am not energized by the prospects of a party that counts John Kerry among its leaders. I am just an American, sitting in the stands, rooting for a country that is behind 100-0 with a full quarter left to go, reading a Friedman column that is the most succinct expression I have seen, of the way that I feel. Only Friedman is more optimistic than I. He believes Tuesday will make a difference. Remember Andy Griffith’s funny monologue, “What it was, was football”? Well-oiled fellow next to him slaps him on the shoulder and says, “Buddy, have a drink,” only Andy says, “drank.” To you, my seatmates in this stadium from hell, I slap you on the shoulder and say, “Buddy, read Friedman’s column. And have a drank. Have several.”
Either way, the nation is going to lose. We’ve lost already, and it’s only the weekend before Election Day. Bush has a team that knows how to get around Congress, if it has to. If the Bush team doesn’t have a Republican Congress to “work with,” then the team will work without Congress. Loss of a Republican congressional majority will be a repudiation, but only a vocal one. Bush, Cheney, Rove and Gonzales will continue on their same path, maybe with more machete work to do on balances of power put in place in 1789, but continuing all the same.
It is this inevitability that is so depressing. It’s like the nation is behind, 100-0, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, there’s no mercy rule, and nobody can leave until the fat lady sings. If the Congress remains Republican-controlled after Tuesday, who knows what the final score will be? If Republicans lose control – I don’t say, “If Democrats gain control,” because it’s not that black-and-white (or red-and-blue) – but if Republicans lose control, the final score, when Bush is finally carried off the field in 2008, may be 150-14.
Surely a non-Republican Congress can scratch out a couple of scores in two years, but most of the drives won’t get inside the 40-yard line, against an opponent that knows how to use the rules so well.
But who cares? What good are 14 points in the last quarter of a game that was over at the half? In the Congressional locker room, what will the coach say? “Folks, you did your best.” Well, rah rah rah. The stories in the morning papers, when the gun finally sounds in 2008, will be about which nation is bloodied the worst, Iraq or America.
And all we can do is sit in the stands and watch. Can’t leave, can’t get away, can’t go home and fix a martini and turn on the TV and try to forget. Wait til next year? Sheesh. Who wants to watch 2007 in America?
The Bush team has already won. The new Congress, in red jerseys or blue, will be the scrubs, playing out its worst loss in history against the Bush first-string, still sending in a new play every day with a new way to hide the ball until it’s too late. You almost hope all the Republicans win on Tuesday. Go ahead and shudder at the thought. Or you can shudder at the thought of what the Bush team can do in the fourth period, even ahead 100-0, if it is motivated by a Congress wearing blue jerseys. It would be better to lose, 150-0, with a red congress, than 250-14 with a blue one. Wouldn’t it? Talk about the blues. I got ‘em, baby.
We take what distractions we can find, from the carnage on the field below. Yesterday a vendor came up the aisle with copies of The New York Times. I bought one, and in it found a column by Thomas L. Friedman, under the headline, “Insulting our troops, and our intelligence.” I have nothing against Republicans, or Republican or conservative philosophy and ideology, or honest Republican elected representatives, or evangelical Christians gay or straight, and I am not energized by the prospects of a party that counts John Kerry among its leaders. I am just an American, sitting in the stands, rooting for a country that is behind 100-0 with a full quarter left to go, reading a Friedman column that is the most succinct expression I have seen, of the way that I feel. Only Friedman is more optimistic than I. He believes Tuesday will make a difference. Remember Andy Griffith’s funny monologue, “What it was, was football”? Well-oiled fellow next to him slaps him on the shoulder and says, “Buddy, have a drink,” only Andy says, “drank.” To you, my seatmates in this stadium from hell, I slap you on the shoulder and say, “Buddy, read Friedman’s column. And have a drank. Have several.”
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