Tuesday, May 24, 2005

What Does the Senate Compromise Really Mean?

It means Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has all but announced he'll be the next President of the United States. McCain has been steadily campaigning for 2008 since 2000. He fully realizes that the next Republican candidate will have to act like a Democrat while carrying the GOP banner. As the news gets worse and worse for his GOP compadres, McCain needs only to stay in the limelight and emit rays of sensible reasoned judgment for the right and left to flock to his side. Witness yesterday's last-minute compromise in the Senate on the Republican threat to change the filibuster rules. It's McCain who will be given credit for averting the so-called nuclear option. But at some point McCain is going to have to make a clean break from the Republicans currently holding sway in the White House. Moderation and centrism are desirable attributes for any Republican candidate in the current climate of GOP totalitarianism. However, Democrats and many disillusioned Republican voters are not likely to forget that McCain has constantly kissed the ass of the very fascists he needs to dissociate himself from. His all-out campaign to appear to be the one sane man in a lunatic asylum will have been for nothing unless he repudiates the actions of the Bush administration. It's something McCain is going to have to do. And trust me, this man wants to be president so bad he can taste it. Watch him do whatever he's gotta do. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) yesterday cautioned Republicans not to feel they have won anything in the filibuster compromise. He said, “Don't forget that the worm turns." Wise old Byrd. But as far as the GOP and its goals for 2008 are concerned, the worm has already turned. Already the power brokers are reinventing the Republican Party. McCain's unmistakable campaign for 2008 is a clear sign. And GOP candidate profiles appearing in the MSM are another. It is a total mystery to me exactly how major articles on Republican political candidates are placed in the MSM. But what is just as plain as white cotton panties is that Michael Sokolove's article on Rick Santorum in the Sunday (May 22) New York Times Magazine was planted by the GOP. The tenor of this article is an example of how GOP candidates will now present themselves: The church-going relatively harmless Mr. Nice Guy. As Sokolove pointed out, “If he (Santorum, R-PA) wins a third Senate term in 2006, he will most likely move up to Republican whip, the No. 2 spot. His influence already exceeds his rank.” Really? I would argue that. I would say that Santorum's radicalism and ignorant religious zealotry already exceed his usefulness to the United States senate. But then, I'm not writing an article for the New York Times to promote a GOP candidate. Michael Sokolove is a Pennsylvania homeboy. He knows Santorum. He knows full well how Santorum's extreme views on religion permeate this senator's politics. And yet what we get in this pro-Santorum promotional profile is a bucolic picture of a churchgoing father and gardener who just happens to be a Republican Senator. The rants against gays, and pro-life harangues are barely touched on. Expect more of this GOP fiction writing as the 2006 and 2008 elections loom on the horizon. The White House may think its jackboot policies are winning the day, but the RNC knows the old dictator days are over. Now the GOP will bully the MSM into running puff pieces on how Republican candidates have seen the light and have turned into humanitarian good guys almost indistinguishable from Democrats. Uh huh! Beware these podpersons. Underneath the makeovers they still want to rule the world…John McCain included.

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