Smirk McCarthy

I have never really understood why the media hasn't pulled back the curtain earlier, and even at the times when they do, they don't pull it back fully; they just give us a quick peek, and then herd us back down on our merry way. The subterfuge continues...

First, it was all the brief press conferences. I suppose most Presidents have their own go-to guys when the going gets rough, but for Smirk, holding a press conference was akin to going to the dentist: do it as little as possible, do the minimum necessary, and get it over with as fast as possible.

Then it was the debates last year. I seriously thought (and hoped) for a time that perhaps Smirk was finally doomed; there was quite a brouhaha on the web in various blogs, listservs, and (especially foreign) news sites about the unusual lump on his back, his more unusual (more than normal, anyway) non-sequiturs, and his far-more-than-normal disjointed answers and lengthy silences. It was pretty obvious (to me at least!) that whether through a wire or some other system, he was being coached. But there was barely any mention (and when there was, it was very brief) in the Corporate Media here in the States. What was once a seemingly responsible, supposedly independent press of a generation or two earlier now just completely ignored the fact that there was, at the very least, a good amount of circumstantial evidence to suggest Smirk cheated during the debates with Kerry. I cannot for the life of me understand why Kerry didn't greet him during subsequent debates after the first with a big grin, a hearty handshake-- and a slap on the back. But then again, Kerry has never struck me as being all that politically astute.

There were also all the "forums" and "rallies" during the campaign (and afterwards) where hand-picked individuals were given softball questions to lob at Smirk, and only card-carrying Republicans could enter at taxpayer-funded gatherings to see the person who supposedly leads the entire country-- not just half of it.

So I was not too surprised to learn that our Chief Marionette was guided through a thoroughly scripted teleconference last week with mostly officers stationed in Iraq. What did surprise me was that the press took up on it and displayed it a bit more prominently than page A21, or as a blurb. Perhaps we're finally getting a media with some backbone-- or maybe not. In any event, Karl Rove is no Edgar Bergen, and I'd love to see the puppet's strings fully exposed for what they are. We have an Emperor, people, and he's wearing no clothes.

(with apologies to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy!)