close up magic

Although I am cognizant of the biblical cautions regarding soothsayers and divination, I want to start the new year off with a little prediction.  If I am right, and I think I would bet the farm on this one, I promise not to crow too loudly. Maybe one I told you so.

For the past two weeks the current and soon to be departed administration has been engaged in a wonderful game of covering their collective ass and setting the historical record straight.  Condi, Laura and even old Dick Cheney (yes, he's still alive but doesn't look so good) have all made their case for future generations lauding the incredible courage and proficiency of Bushworld.  Even Arturo Gonzales is going to pen a memoir, so that his son's will know the true story of his demotion and that he was only one of many engaged in the general tear down of the constitution.

Wait, I am forgetting my prediction - such a lock I should be putting money down with Roxbury in Vegas and here goes - The real condemnation of Bush and Co is about to begin and it will all be from the right. Why?  Simple. They need to rebrand the party and they refuse to believe that the public has already spoken in November.  I am starting to hear the homily that Bush was not even a Republican - he was a democratic marxist in drag.  The so-called fiscal conservatives has been exposed publicly as pork laden, earmarking, bridge to nowhere building, K street owned scofflaws who partied on their watch like a bunch of drunken shriners in Reno.

So America will be asked to drink the kool aid again in four years and vote for the pachyderms, and any inklings of memory of our current conundrum will be met with protests that Bush was never their man.  The cannibalism is about to start and it ain't gonna be pretty.  George did a great job of carrying the water for his "peeps" for 8 years and this is the thanks he can look forward to receiving. All of the screw the environment, deregulated markets, supply side, Jack Kemp hooey will certainly be repackaged for another go.  The sleight of hand will require blaming the old messenger since they don't have the intellectual honesty to change the message itself. 

Now as a betting man, I am too jaded to think that America won't fall for this hook, line and sinker, since the historical memory is so short and the mean i.q. so slight.  But excuse me if I wretch while these folks once again put on the tired old mantle of fiscal conservatism.  Except for a few hearty renegades like Jeff Flake and Tom Coburn in Oklahoma, they can burn our money up with the best of them.  The Clinton surplus was quickly turned into the largest deficit ever recorded. Or have you forgotten already? 

p-s-s-s-t - want to buy a watch?