These days, Republicans don't have much to offer except incompetence, war and deficits up to our eyeballs. Once they get on television, however, they spin like a top. Their new plan to save America seems to consist of dusting off old scapegoats and flat out making stuff up.
On the scapegoat front, Bill Clinton has been propped back up as the man responsible for everything that goes wrong, I'm guessing at least, for the next 20 years. Remember how the bad economy was his fault? (Wink. Wink.)Now, the new RNC talking points is that the armorless Humvees that are putting our troops at risk are Clinton's fault. Yessiree! Both Oliver North and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) have emerged from their caves to parrot this talking point over the last couple days. Forget the fact those Humvees were created in a different time, when the President wasn't expected to send troops into harm's way on nothing more than a gut feeling.
Of course, the four years this Administration has had to fix the problem weren't enough. Must be Clinton's fault. If it weren't for Bill, the Republicans would be awful close to "The dog ate my homework" territory.
The television snake oil salesmen, who like to treat their viewers like backwards swamp dwellers, are peddling a new tonic: Christmas is in danger! Bill O'Reilly, when he's not busy making explicit sexual phone calls, is the Great White Knight saving Christmas from the "secularists". Did anyone in the mainstream ever use that word before O'Reilly? Now, it's a word that packs the punch of "child molester" or "liberal." The poor persecuted white race. However will they overcome the barbarians at the gate?
Of course, O'Reilly plays his viewers for the fool by finding four or five isolated incidents where Christmas displays are kept off public property and makes them out to be a movement. Now, the ever-brave Joe Scarborough is taking up the cause. Go Joe!
A woman I work with who is religious and an O'Reilly fan confided in me that there is a movement underway to extinguish Christianity. When I asked her to confide the details of this insidious plot, she repeated the O'Reilly talking points verbatim. I tried to explain to her that she was being played for a rube, but she didn't want to hear it. She snuck away, nervously looking over her shoulder for the coming hordes of Christian-killers.
She shouldn't have to look far for the culprit. It's only a matter of hours before the assault on Christmas ends up in the lap of William Jefferson Clinton.
Posted by brettdavey
at 8:47 AM EST
