Diarist.net

Sunday
December 17, 2000

And so the 2000 election formally ends. Great start. We’ve got ourselves an “appointed” president – one who was not elected by the majority of Americans, but one who was anointed by five conservative Supreme Court judges. What a system, what a country, huh? Forget the Y2K bug scare of last year – it actually occurred at the end of this one.

But is it really any surprise that things turned out the way they did? Even as the USSC wrangled with their ultimate decision, the Republican-led Florida legislature was already hurrying to select twenty-five loyal Bush supporters as electors in time for the December 18^th meeting of the Electoral College. Had the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of upholding the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court (what a pipe dream that would’ve been), and let’s posit that Gore eventually garnered enough votes to win Florida – it still would not have meant that Al Gore would go on to sit in the Big Chair. It would all have been over on Monday, December 18^th – thanks to those newly-chosen Bushite electors. The Republican Party was going to have the White House by any means possible – and cheating their way to it has always been an option for them. Because they have no shame.

And of course, now the Repubs are pleading with bitter Democrats (count me as one of ‘em) for “bipartisan unity” behind our new President-(S)elect Smirk. Oh really? Gee, I seem to recall, back in 1992, never hearing such words from these very same Repubs regarding our then-new President-Elect Clinton. Oh no – they spent the next eight years trying to oust him from office (at a cost of $50M+ from the American peoples’ pockets). After all of that, these creeps want me to support a “president” who was appointed to the office? Well, I think not. The only support Prez Smirk will get from me will be what his party has given to President Clinton. No more, no less. Turnabout being fair play, of course.

Yep, the Bush camp did a fine job of running up the clock regarding the vote recounts. The USSC threw out a tiny crumb saying that the recounts could continue if Florida’s (Republican Whore) Secretary of State would decide on a “uniform standard” in determining voters’ intent. Oh sure, we could get that established…in a few days! What a joke! What a farce! You could hear Democrats everywhere choking on that little crumb.

Now that it’s a done-deal that his brother is headed for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Florida Guv Jebbie Bush has now agreed to appoint a 21-person task force to find out “what went wrong” in Florida’s 2000 election. Heh. Well, Jebbie, you should know better than anyone else – perhaps you should be the first witness to testify before this task force of yours. No matter. You won’t be reelected Governor of Florida in two years – unless you can find a way to “fix” that one, too. But at least you have made your brother and father Poppy Bush so happy, so proud.

You know, if the Bush camp had always been so confident that their man had the votes to win Florida, why were they so determined to stop the recounts? Especially with monitoring by both parties? Could it be that the Bushies knew they, in the end, would not have enough votes after all? Even now, Republicans want all the Florida ballots either sealed for four years – or best of all, destroyed. All the better to keep the true results from the American people. I hope that a third party will be able to conduct an independent audit of those votes. It must be done. And I would think that if they believe Dubya would prevail after such a recount, it would behoove the Republicans to allow this to happen. But they are too afraid, too nervous about the prospect of Al Gore being the actual victor (even though, if true, it would not reverse Dubya’s “appointment” to Office; but it sure would be bad press, wouldn’t it? Heh). And as long as Republicans continue to block such an effort, doubt will also continue to grow in the American peoples’ minds about the legitimacy of a George W. Bush presidency.

(Speaking of slamming the door shut on possibly damaging information – several newspapers broke a story in March about Laura Bush which involved vehicular manslaughter. Apparently, back in 1963, then seventeen-year-old Laura was driving her Chevrolet sedan and ran a stop sign, killing another seventeen-year old [he was thrown from his doorless Jeep]. The Bush camp thwarted the Freedom of Information Act by making the particulars of the story “unavailable.” Further, they said, this “unfortunate” incident happened thirty-seven years ago and should have no bearing on the person Laura Bush is today. Oh yeah, causing another person’s death – even thirty-plus years ago should no longer be blip on anyone’s radar. Somehow, I don’t think the boy’s parents have ever gotten over the tragedy as well as Laura has. My point is, however, that should Hillary Rodham Clinton have had something of this kind in her past, do you think the Republicans would be as…forgiving? No, I think we’d still be hearing about it – all eight years’ worth.)

So, in the meantime, let’s take inventory of our new president’s idiosyncrasies, shall we? Well, for starters we’ll have a president who is anything but a workaholic – in fact, Dubya has often said that four hours of work per day is acceptable. Or, at least, that’s the maximum amount of time he’s willing to put to the job. He admits that he hates to read – anything. For all the bleating he’s done during the campaign about improving education, Dubya does not like to read. He says that he has “people” reading for him. He also says that he himself shouldn’t be required to “know” everything – he’ll just have “advisors” tell him where Kosovo is, for example. And let’s not forget that he’s pretty much ruined every business he’s been given (well, except for his interest in the Texas Rangers baseball team – but that was a no-brainer gig anyway). Well, I think we’re pretty aquainted by now with Dubya’s laundry list of peccadilloes.

(What a great PR ploy – naming Ret. General Colin Powell the nominee for Secretary of State, knowing of his popularity among Democrats and Independents. Gee, I wonder how long Powell can endure taking orders from the shadow-President, Jim Baker? Oh don’t look so surprised – we all know that Jim Baker plans on calling the shots. He has always, always longed to be President, but he’s too mean-spirited and has all the charisma of a quart of motor oil – no one save desperate, devoted ultra-conservative Repubs would vote for him. Just remember: When you elect [select? appoint?] a Bush, you get Jim Baker in the bargain. It just works that way. And another thing: You can appoint two African-Americans and a Hispanic to your cabinet, Smirk -- but will you sign anti-racial profiling and hate-crime bills into law? Yeah. I didn't think so.)

I see nothing wrong with having advisors handy – to bounce ideas around, that is. But ultimately, if you’ve got a suitably analytical brain in your skull, you’ll have ideas of your own. You’ll weigh the various opinions against your own (because you’ve naturally researched the situation yourself – because you like to read), and finally arrive at a decision you believe is correct and that you can live with. You do not, however, delegate important decisions to (possibly subjective) advisors thus abdicating responsibility of using your own brain. But that’s what Dubya intends to do. Hooo boy. A quandary: Do we want an idiot to make all of the nation’s decisions by himself – or would we rather let the idiot allow (possibly subjective and evil and corrupt and addenda-minded) advisors to make them in his stead? Can you say, “Caught between a rock and a hard place?” I can. We’re in for a bumpy ride – and only Letterman, O’Brien, Leno and Comedy Central will give us occasional comic relief. Bless them.

And yes, I’m bitter. I can’t help being bitter – especially in light of all the legal wrangling, the voter fraud allegations, the Republican-Rent-A-Protester™ rebellion and subsequent violence, the Republican Bush-supporting (Whore) Secretary of State refusing to certify legitimate Gore votes, yet accepting Bush absentee ballots which arrived after the election deadline, a Republican-lead USSC guaranteeing a GWB “victory.” Well, hell yes I’m bitter – and I’m not alone, there are a whole lot of bitter and bewildered people out there. It’s one thing to simply lose an election because the other guy got the most votes. It’s entirely a different ball game when the other guy steals the election via the courts and ballot tomfoolery. George W. Bush didn’t win the popular vote – but he still gets to be President. No wonder the rest of the world is puzzled.

So. I intend to give our new President-Select Smirk the same support Republicans afforded President-Elect Bill Clinton eight years ago. Yeah, you got it: nada, none, zilch. I don’t care how much they cry and stamp their feet, I won’t budge – nor will many others. Yes, our country will remain ever divided – but whose fault is it, really? Republicans can’t have it their way all the time. Besides, with a newly minted fascist administration in the offing, a little healthy anarchy is good for democracy. In two years the Democrats should hopefully regain the majority we lost six years ago (Speaker of the House Dick Gephardt has a nice ring to it). Even now the Senate is split 50-50 and the Repubs lead in Congress by only nine seats.

But, you know, it’ll all be so apparent just what’s coming in the next four years (maybe…two? Impeach Bush, yeah!) on Inauguration Day. Once Dubya has fumbled through his Oath of Office (after having tried memorizing it for a solid year) and stumbled through his Inauguration speech, departing President William Jefferson Clinton will step up to shake new President Smirk’s hand. Oh what a difference. Tall, stately, self-assured Bill Clinton, so obviously the Commander-In-Chief of the world’s most powerful nation, versus slope-shouldered, shifty-eyed, smirking George W. Bush.

Then we’ll truly realize all that we have lost.

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