On Rudy Giuliani’s groundless and shameless claims that he alone can save us from the terrorists and win the War on Terror (or as he prefers it, the Terrorist’s War on Us™), and the fact that we must begin to challenge him and his ‘facts’ openly and forcefully, Anonymous Liberal saidbest:
Giuliani is the Republican frontrunner and his claim to expertise in this area is the central rationale for his candidacy. It’s well past time to start tearing that image down. The Republican candidates are all attacking Hillary, Obama, and Edwards already, building narratives about them and planting the seeds of general election themes. It’s silly to allow Giuliani free reign to construct his public image as a seasoned terrorism expert, particularly when lack of such experience will almost surely be a major attack theme used against whomever manages to win the Democratic nomination. Giuliani is no more an expert on terrorism than Ray Nagin is an expert climatologist or the mayor of Tokyo is an expert seismologist.
Republicans almost always craft an identity to directly cover up (or at least get out in front of) their obvious flaws. Wisely, they then invest heavily in embedding that narrative into our collective psyche, building enough brand equity to withstand and a familiar refrain to combat our feeble future attacks. We never build a competing narrative, therefore there is no sustaining attack, and certainly no lasting damage, which leaves us lamenting the fact that the world cannot see the obvious truth…
Rudy is yet another Republican farce, a caricature of himself and his party’s wet dreams. We have already allowed him to march forward with his charade, but it is a house of cards, the truth of which will be so easy to uncover and dismantle with a concentrated and sustained effort to paint his true picture.
So let’s stop complaining and get to work.
On the wisdom of impeaching Alberto Gonzales as a means to uncover much greater crimes committed by George W. Bush and his administration, Anonymous Liberal saidbest:
The focus on Gonzales’ perjury has already paid dividends by forcing the Bush Administration to leak additional important facts about the NSA program to various news outlets in an effort to defend Gonzales. This is how scandals unravel. You find a thread and you pull it. That’s what happened in Watergate.
Nothing happens unless you create leverage and use it to pry the truth out. Gonzales’ lies may pale in significance to the underlying conduct at issue here, but they are also something concrete, something that can be seized upon to put pressure on the White House. We’re never going to get to the underlying truth unless we have some means of forcing the issue.
Bush knows that he cannot afford to lose Gonzales, but he is quickly running out of room to maneuver. His administration is clearly in a panic, frantically trying to make this issue go away, yet each successive twist to the story only ratchets up the pressure. Democrats in the House are wise to move on impeachment now. They must force Bush to make another move he can ill afford…
To be fair, this is only the first of many battles to come, but it is an important one. We have the truth on our side, as well as the authority to demand it, but more importantly we have a clear and compelling emotional and moral story-line. Gonzales’ conduct is beyond indefensible, even for the most jaded Republicans in Congress, so we must continue to force Bush and Dick Cheney to publicly back him. They cannot win that game without destroying what little credibility they have left.