Listen to the General(s)

[L. Coyote]

Listen to the General(s)
BY Scott Horton - Sept. 25, 2007
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/09/hbc-90001298

Thank God for Tom Davis (R-Va.) He fully understands the constitutional role of the Congress. Davis has sent a letter to Henry Waxman, chair of the House Oversight Committee, with a very sharp demand. The Committee needs to set aside all other work and immediately take up a matter so gripping that it supersedes everything: Why, he asks, did the organization Moveon.org get a more than 50% price break when it recently ran an advertisement in the New York Times attacking the Administration’s plans to continue its “surge” in Iraq?

I understand Rep. Davis fully. Why should the Oversight Committee be looking into the roughly twenty billion dollars that have disappeared down mysterious rat holes in Iraq; why should it be looking into the festering open wound called FEMA; why should it be considering the operating rules governing security contractors who are running amuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, endangering U.S. soldiers and destroying America’s reputation? The people aren’t concerned about this trivia. And heaven forbid that Congress should actually examine and discuss Iraq policy itself, or the increasingly obvious disaster in Afghanistan. No, what Americans want is for Congress to get to the bottom of the internal advertising practices of the New York Times. How did this group of lefties get such a good deal; how did they land a page at the stand-by rate?! (But, by the way, let’s ignore Fox News, which operates as a G.O.P. campaign soapbox 24/7, using ever less care to disguise its political pimping–of course, it’s a broadcaster and actually subject to Congressional oversight).

Rep. Davis is reading from the last set of cue cards that Karl Rove left behind before making his exit from the White House. What did they say? Americans don’t trust George Bush and the Republican leadership when it comes to the war. Americans trust and respect their military leaders. Therefore the way forward is clear: identify a serving general to use as a sock puppet. Use him as the voice of the Administration. As Roll Call reports (subscription required), conservative columnist Morton Kondracke was recently at a meeting with President Bush at which “the Decider” laid out the strategy in plain terms: “The people listen to Petraeus, not to me.” So the plan was simple: pretend to be undecided about this, channel the message through General Petraeus, and then viciously challenge anyone who criticizes Petraeus. They’re un-American, that’s the line, they disrespect our generals and our men and women in uniform.

[L. Coyote]

1. kick because this is a good read.