That didn't take long.
Shortly after the shock:
Washington insiders from both parties have long been muttering that George W Bush's Republican party is going to lose ground in elections in November.
The only question, they say, is how much ground. Enough to lose control of one or both houses of Congress?
They may have had the beginnings of an answer on Tuesday night, but the scalp that was claimed was not Republican - it was Democrat Joe Lieberman...
Came the awe:
Act I, that sits in print form in front of me on the front page but has been quickly buried in The New York Pravda website:
...Republicans began a concerted effort to use Mr. Lieberman’s defeat to portray Democrats as weak on national defense, reprising a theme that they made central to the last two national campaigns.
The attacks came in searing remarks from, among others, Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and Vice President Dick Cheney, who went so far as to suggest that the ouster of Mr. Lieberman might encourage “al Qaeda types.”
“It’s an unfortunate development, I think, from the standpoint of the Democratic Party, to see a man like Lieberman pushed aside because of his willingness to support an aggressive posture in terms of our national security strategy,’’ Mr. Cheney said in a telephone interview with news service reporters...
But who needs encouraging? From the BBC:
Twenty-four people are being held in London after night-time raids. One raid was in Walthamstow, east London.
Searches are under way at a number of businesses and homes after an "unprecedented" level of surveillance.
Two of those arrested under the Terrorism Act came from the Birmingham area, West Midlands police have said...
Noteworthy is that
[Update to the Update: Looks like Bu$hCo has tripped over its own feet giving credit to the Brits while the NSA claims it for itself. And wouldn't you know it, CNN gives airtime to the idea Lamont is the Al-Qaeda candidate.]
Still, one gets the impression the timing was awfully good.
...Imagine a conversation late Tuesday night between Bush and his British Prime Minister lapdog, just as Ned Lamont declares victory. "Yo, Blair," Bush says while scarfing down a dinner role. "I gotta to do something about this sh*t. Can you finally arrest those suspected terrorists you told me about? This election business is ruining my vacation! I know you're chillin' in the Caribbean yourself right now, but it sure would be great if you could make a few calls for me ASAP."
Don't buy it? Consider this quote from a Reuters article on the story: "President George W. Bush had known about the investigation for several days, was briefed about it regularly and knew the arrests were coming, a senior administration official said." Both countries are surely monitoring several terrorist leads that could lead to arrests at any time. The British group would have been stopped eventually, but there has been absolutely no indication why it had to be today.
Just yesterday Tony Snow and Dick Cheney told America that Lieberman's loss was going to make us less safe and warned of the dangers of our supposedly weakened resolve against terrorism. What better way to drive the point home than to catch some terrorists in England immediately afterwards? Based on a quote from the U.K. Guardian, the Brits seem to have the same agenda: "The events unfolded just hours after (English Home Secretary John Reid) used a speech to a thinktank to accuse critics of the government's anti-terrorism measures of putting national security at risk through their failure to recognize the serious nature of the threat facing Britain."
If the timing of the media announcement wasn't a political ploy, the rhetoric and propaganda sure are. "It was in some respects suggestive of an al-Qaeda plot," Homeland Security Director Chertoff said. Attorney General Gonzales also noted it was "suggestive of al-Qaeda tactics," and FBI director Robert Mueller claimed "this had the earmarks [sic] of an al-Qaeda plot." They still warned that it was too early to reach any conclusions, yet had no problems with dropping the name of the feared organization to implant the connection in our heads without proof. If they don't know, they shouldn't even make the suggestion. The Bush Administration has become masterful at scaring the bejesus out of us without actually saying anything factual. They did exactly the same thing when they were trying to connect Saddam to terrorists. The lengthy press conference today had an awful lot of "we believe" and not very much "we know."
For his part, Bush personally declared that "it is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America" because "this nation is at war with Islamic fascists..."
Among others.
[Update: and of course, being the Omnipotence He is, Dear Leader seems more than willing to acknowledge knowing about this weeks ago].
Don't get me wrong, unlike some, I think there are real terrorists who will jump at any opportunity to kill any American. There are people who hate the American way of life. There are people who despise freedom and liberty and the Constitution.
Caliphate and Empire are two sides of the same coin.
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