The White House heaved a sigh of relief a few weeks ago upon being told it wouldn't undergo a lobotomy by having Bush's Brain indicted, although we still don't know if Karl Rove struck a deal with the prosecutor to send his former pal, Scooter, Down the River.
Not as big a story, however, is that Bush is going to get his voicebox replaced. The news of the laryngectomy came last week with the resignation of longtime speechwriter and evangelical wingnut, Michael Gerson.
The effect of Gerson's departure could be monumental not only in light of the comparison between Bush's scripted and unscripted words, but also if we consider the ideas that David Domke puts forth in his book God Willing?. Domke analyzes the connection between religion, politics, and the media since September 11th, explores various key phrases that Bush employs in his speeches, and examines how the press echoes Gerson's words as eloquent statements of Bush's politically fundamentalist worldview.Gerson, an evangelical Christian, is known for saturating President Bush's speeches with religious language and is most famous for creating phrases such as "axis of evil" and "armies of compassion." He is also responsible for aiding in the development of Bush's plans for "freedom and democracy" in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for publicly attaching religious significance to the United States' presence in those countries. (Nicole Greenfield, Bush Loses his Voice, via The Revealer)http://www.therevealer.org/archives/main_story_002556.php
Maybe more than Bush's voice, Gerson has been Bush's spiritual Elmer Gantry, enabling him to be trickster, seducer, mouthpiece, beguiler, all in the service of selfishness.
Greenfield quotes The Brain on the Voice's importance:
According to Karl Rove, "There's no way to replace him--he is a once in a generation. He helped take the president on his best day and represent what was in the president's spirit and soul."
Those "best days" projected a smallness and meanness of spirit in ways that concealed its lack of substance and malign origins. Good riddance to Gerson. I'll be glad when I can say the same for the ventriloquist dummy in the White House.
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revere: "~ventriloquist dummy~"
Let's not get in a rush. We're as overdue for an assassination as we are for a pandemic.
I 'spect that Kenny Boy tipped over when Cheney called to invite him on a hunting trip to discuss a pardon.
Gasp! Bush works with a Christian who actually called Iran, North Korea, and Saddam Evil! And he helped Bush put in place a plan so thousands of Afghani women can read and go to school?! Small and Mean indeed! Revere - I think you have the entire conservative movement where you want them.
Actually, I have noticed Bush stumbling more and more over what to say in his speeches. In Chicago, he also sounded scared. He knew that city was not fond of him, and the press would be more brazen, but still he wavered and stumbled and stuttered. Momentarily, I almost thought I might in a pinch feel sorry for him but that passed in less that a femtosecond...
His responses were also hedgy and absolutely without content.... there was not even the hint that he understood the question enough to lie.... It was very interesting.
Gasp: Notice we are not much in Afghanistan, now. NATO carris the load. Low priority for us. We didn't do anything for the Kuwaiti or Saudi women, I notice. Don't want to piss of the oil barons, I guess. And yes, Gerson wrote pretty words about rebuilding New Orleans for Bush, too. Maybe we'll see that -- someday. When the Messiah comes?
I don't need to worry about the conservative movement. They'll do themselves in, as they are proving at the moment.
It is true that Gerson could put pretty-seeming words together to speak to the evangelicals without alerting most others. However, Bush still has Karen Hughes who also knows how to fit in the words of bible and hymn book, and has been responsible for some of the most notable phraseology. She is an elder of the Presbyterian Church. In the U.S., there are several strands which call themselves Presbyterian, the mainstream, fairly liberal Presbyterian Church USA, and also some rather evangelical/sorta fundamentalist branches. I don't know which she would be connected with, but she does indeed know how to sound the themes of the old-time religion that red-neck sorts do quite like.
(The Pres.Ch.USA was the first denomination to comb out of its investment portfolio investments which supported Israeli aggression against Palestinians. Others have since followed.)
I gather that some of the supposedly evangelical/conservative churches in USA are getting tired of casting morality as sexual in nature, and are pointing out the biblical imperatives to do justice, care for the poor, eschew violence. If there is such a trend, I pray it may continue.
Revere, a small correction: There are about 23,000 US troops in Afgh. That is Operation Enduring Freedom.
Then, there is the International Security Assistance Force, now under NATO control, and under the command of the British, though a Canadian general is responsible for part of the South. (This oddity is to be fixed soon.) 9,700 troops is the latest figure I read, this is after the recent augmentation.
To use a stereotypical image, the former bomb the Taliban; the latter set out to win hearts and minds. In their own way, these factions are also at loggerheads, as they often disaprove of what the other does and both complain that the Afghanis can't tell the difference between the two!
The militias - varied and numerous - are in part allowed by and supported by the Gvmt. (Karzai) and receive money, to the tune of millions, from the Americans. Rather like the Iraqi police and some Iraqi militias -the idea is to co-opt those who will, personal interests permitting, fight on the occupiers side, at least on occasion. I don/t know how to count them.
NATO is not carrying the load.
Ana: Thanks. I would say that is a moderate sized correction and it is appreciated.