On Political Euphoria

I'm going to take a moment here and talk politics. My blog, my call. 🙂

The last few weeks have been, well, euphoric for me. On one hand, the religious right and social conservatives are having a meltdown over the Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court. On the other hand, Tom DeLay was indicted not once but twice for money laundering and a criminal conspiracy to circumvent Texas election laws, crimes that could lead to significant jail time and remove DeLay from his influential role in the House. On the gripping hand, the White House itself is under attack with indictments expected in the next few weeks over the Valerie Plame affair, indictments that could touch Karl Rove (better known as "Bush's Brain"), Scooter Libby (VP Cheney's chief of staff), even the Vice-President himself, and these indictments would do lasting damage to Bush's Presidency and relegate Bush in the history books to the ranks of America's lesser Presidents, right there alongside Franklin Pierce and Chester Arthur.

And yet, despite as the glee I'm feeling at the thought of the tissue of lies being torn away and the truths of the Administation revealed for all to see, I can't help but feel some trepidation. There's nothing to stop Bush from issuing a pardon to his inner circle. Short of a filibuster, there's nothing really standing in the way of Miers assuming a seat on the Supreme Court. DeLay's toast, though, so I've no trepidation there. The best way to explain the trepidation I feel is to compare it to the way a kid feels at Christmas–he sees the presents under the tree, he knows in his heart what's in them because they're exactly what he's been expecting, but there's a lingering doubt that underneath the paper there's nothing that he really wants. It's just like that. It's just like Lucy snatching the football away from Charlie Brown at the last moment. That's the trepidation I feel.

And so I've been trying not to feel the euphoria I've felt. I'm trying not to get my hopes up that the cancer on the Presidency will be revealed for all to see. But when I try to feel a little less euphoric, I feel depressed that our long national nightmare will continue and that in the fullness of time Bush will be acclaimed in the history books as one of the greats.

Funny, I've just quoted two statements on Nixon in the last paragraph. But that's how I feel–Bush is as much as a cancer on the Presidency as Nixon was, and Bush’s adminstration has been as much of a nightmare for the common American as was Nixon’s.

The Chinese curse–May you live in intersting times–has never been more true. These are interesting times, but not for any reason to be proud of.