When The Idiots Are On Your Side No. 2

Matthew Dowd is looking back at his defection to the Republican side and saying his faith was misplaced. Dowd feels he’s been called by God to restore the balance. In 1999 Dowd was a Texas Democrat. He was impressed by George W. Bush. So impressed, in fact, that he switched parties in order to see to it that GWB became president. In 2004 Dowd was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist. This morning, the New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg writes about his interview with Dowd (“Ex-Aide Details a loss of Faith in the President”) in Austin, Texas. Rutenberg said, “Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership. “He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a ‘my way or the highway’ mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.” What woke Matthew Dowd up? Apparently, he was okay with the lies the Bush administration told to invade Iraq. In fact, Dowd was onboard with the Bush team in 2000 and as a campaign strategist in 2004 Matthew Dowd was one of the GOP loyal liars. He was one of the team that painted John Kerry as a flip-flopper. He said Kerry could not be trusted with national security during wartime. Matthew Dowd was not just a bystander who thought Bush had some good ideas and now is disappointed in the outcome of six years under Bush. Matthew Dowd is one of the guys who shaped and molded the twisted, lying and cheating election strategies of the Bush administration in 2000 and 2004. Matthew Dowd was an intensely loyal Bushie. And now he says he was wrong. However, if you read Rutenberg’s article, Dowd never says the Bush administration’s lies and steady march toward dictatorial rule was wrong. He never says that the Bush administration’s giving the Executive Branch unprecedented power and declaring itself above the law was wrong. Even though Dowd was a willing participant in and promoter of the GOP power grab, Dowd never says the White House was wrong to rule like a fascist regime and to punish dissenters. What happened to turn Matthew Dowd around? Matthew Dowd’s personal life disintegrated. He went through a divorce, one of his twin daughters died and his son was deployed to Iraq. In other words, Matthew Dowd was forced to think about life and death. He no longer could be a detached strategist in his own life. Dowd says his loyalty to the Prez was “almost like you fall in love.” He said, “I was frustrated about Washington, the inability for people to get stuff done and bridge divides. And this guy’s personality — he cared about education and taking a different stand on immigration…when you fall in love like that…and then you notice some things that don’t exactly go the way you thought, what do you do? Like in a relationship, you say ‘No no, no, it’ll be different.’ ” So okay, Matthew Dowd fell in love with the President and he didn’t notice or didn’t care that the President and all the president’s men were thugs and thieves and liars and warmongers, and that he himself was enabling the worst administration in the history of the United States to visit some of the worst disasters on the world. And then Dowd had some personal reverses and his son had to go to Iraq and Dowd fell out of love. Sorry Mr. Dowd, you are the problem. And your seeing the light because you personally have been affected by calamity and because you personally have been affected by the disastrous unilateral decisions of the White House do not white wash your share in the moral and ethical lapses in the Bush administration. What is really perfect is that now Dowd says Barack Obama is the only candidate who appeals to him because he likes his message of unity. Dowd probably will not be involving himself in politics any time soon. He says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t walking around in Africa or South America doing something that was like mission work…I do feel a calling of trying to re-establish a level of gentleness in the world.” Sweet. Matthew Dowd has fallen in love again. This time with his image of himself as the great white hope bringing peace and succor to the black and brown nations. From Matthew Dowd may the good Lord deliver the world.