"We have nothing to fear but fear itself" :Why Rove Wants to be Rasputin

[McCamy Taylor]

Thomas Jefferson called the John Adams administration a "Reign of Witches,' and though he was the Vice President at the time, he was as frightened as anyone else of the Alien and Sedition Act. Would be hauled to jail for criticizing the government of which he was a part?

Fast forward two hundred years. How little has changed. We have an administration that holds John Adams and Alexander Hamilton up as models. France is once again our enemy. Anyone who criticizes the administration is denounced as giving aid to the enemy.

So what? Politicians have been denouncing critics of the government as traitors since the beginning of time.

The difference is that this administration has teeth. It punishes its critics, and the Inquisitor Extraordinaire is Karl Rove, the self styled Rasputin.

The choice of Rasputin is an interesting one. The mad monk was known to dabble in the black arts. Just as the voodou priest intimidates his enemy by letting him know of his supernatural power, Rasputin let his foes know that he had access to forbidden tactics. This created an unrealistic sense of fear within them, which paralyzed his enemies. Fear became a weapon he could use against them.

Karl Rove does exactly the same thing. He lets the world know that he breaks the law, allows himself to get caught but never prosecuted or sent to jail, because this lends him the aura of power of a Mafia Don. In effect, he is saying "I can resort to tactics that you can not use, I can call upon powers that you can not even imagine, in order to punish you if you get in my way."

So, when Mary Mapes and Dan Rather decided to go against the administration and run with the Abu Ghraib story, sullying W's perfect war before the 2004 election, Rove used his dark magic to forge government documents that showed Bush AWOL--a true story---then use the FCC to blackmail Viacom/CBS into punishing Mapes and Rather for falling for his forgery. The effect on the rest of the news media was profound. You fuck with Karl Rove, you pay.

Then there is Hatfield. Any other advisor would have tried to get him to stop writing his book. Not Rove/Rasputin. Rove told him about W.'s cocaine use, information which would ensure the marketability of a bio of W. Then, he pulled the rug out from under him. Eventually, Hatfield ended up disgraced and dead---an object lesson and a feather in the cap of Rove/Rasputin.

Rove's 13th hour testimony before the Fitzgerald Grand Jury is part of the Rasputin act. If he can avoid an indictment, it will prove that he has the Rove Mojo in spades. "Wow, he was able to talk himself out of an indictment. That guy must be some kind of smooth talker." If he gets indicted anyway, so what? It isn't as if he has any reputation for honesty that will be sullied? All he has to do is pull some strings and evade the charges or get acquitted on a technicality or get the conviction overturned before the SCOTUS with Meirs casting the deciding vote and everyone will shudder and say "Rove is too powerful to bring down!"

Why do I give a rat's ass what people think about Karl Rove? I'm not scared of him. He is an orphan, who craves attention. However, I am sick in my heart at the fear he inspires in people around him. The epitome of that fear is the death of Teddy Ebersol. The plane carrying Dick Ebersol and his two sons almost certainly crashed because of ice on the wings of a plane known to have serious problems with ice and a pilot and co-pilot unused to icy weather.

However, when the plane crashed and Teddy Ebersol died, because of Karl Rove, people asked themselves "Was that crash deliberate? Did Karl Rove arrange it in order to send a warning to a certain anchor at MSNBC to stop reporting on Ohio?"

That kind of fear has to stop. There is no place for it in a free society.

[Fovea]

1. We have already gone from being a nation of laws

to a nation of corrupt, powerful oligarchs.

From here, the question becomes, can we re-assert the rule of law without becoming a nation of guns...

[global1]

2. Never Heard Of The Ebersol Story/Theory......

I don't know where I was or what I was doing when the Ebersol plane crash was news - so I never heard the story/theory that the "crash was deliberate". Can you fill me in? Who is the MSNBC anchor you are referring to?

[McCamy Taylor]

4. Not going to add to the fear. It's on the Internet if you wanna search it.

[grasswire]

3. excellent commentary

Thanks! It's the same reason why Bush security was so beefy from the first day. All about creating the aura of power.

[texpatriot2004]

5. Yes, excellent post. Thanks. nm

[McCamy Taylor]

6. The administration's response to avian flu is another "FEAR" tactic.

Their response is basically:

"Hey look, America, Avian flu is gonna kill MILLIONS of you, and we are totally unprepared, and there isnt a thing you can do about it, because we have all the power. So suck it up, and pray that we give you some anti-virals or some vaccine."

They call this a "plan"? Yeah, right. A plan for increasing the national systolic blood pressure a couple of more points.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/08/politics/08flu.html?ei=5090&en=fe3a7bec6c129653&ex=1286424000&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1128787586-P6D5H8KAr9xzVpNIB8MitQ


The real facts are that avian flu can only be transmitted from birds to people so unless you area chicken farmer or the virus mutates it isnt going to cause a pandemic. So, DONT PANIC.