The Star Tribune gave Katherine Kersten a rare and coveted Sunday spot today so that she could tell us a scary Halloween story a day early! Katie has tried everything should could think of, and some things she didn’t think of, to drum up support for George Bush’s vanity war in Iraq, or failing that, badger the anti-war people into just shutting up. Today, she tries to equate the backlash from the Paul Wellstone memorial service with support for Cindy Sheehan. Truly, it is a rhetorical tour de force.
First, Katie starts out by repeating the conservative legend of the Wellstone memorial: it was intended all along as a political rally that backfired. Never mind that most of the people who spoke said little or nothing about politics, and that everyone who spoke was filled with overwhelming grief and sadness for people they had loved and tragically lost. Heaven forbid that these people would be cut any slack. Spot just hopes there is somebody around to record Katie’s remarks in her most vulnerable moments.
The tragedy of the Wellstone memorial service was more conservative spin than anything else. Right after the service, the dour, be-jowled Republican flak Sarah Janecek laments with glee that the memorial was so scripted that there actually was a script on the Jumbotron at the memorial in Williams Arena, complete with places for applause. Of course, what Sarah saw was closed captioning for the hearing impaired. She either knew that’s what it was, or she is too something-else impaired to figure it out.
Katie remarks that poor Norm Coleman was sitting “helpless” on the sidelines when the memorial shenanigans happened. Katie, Spot had heard Normmy called a lot of things, but helpless isn’t among them. Try these adjectives: opportunistic, calculating, grasping, contriving, perfidious, unfaithful, knavish, treacherous, and insincere. Readers are invited to leave more apt adjectives in a comment.
Spotty also invites readers to think back of some of the political things that were said by Republicans during the Reagan Farwell Tour, also known as the Death and Transfiguration of Ronald Reagan, that happy cowboy demagogue.
This is supposed to be a cautionary tale for people opposed to the Fraud for Oil Fiasco that the neo-cons foisted on the American public. There is nobody on the face of the earth with more standing than Cindy Sheehan to criticize this war, or this truly feckless president. And Katie, Spot has some news for you. The Cindy Sheehan effect is going to blow up in your face, not Cindy’s. The antiwar movement is only growing, in spite of all the president’s men: Scooter, Karl, Dick, et al.
Why reach back three years to discuss the Wellstone memorial service? Because that’s all she’s got folks. With the shining city on a hill sliding down the shitter, Katie has to strike out at somebody. Psychologists call it displacement. Spotty calls it desperation.
Tags: Katherine Kersten Sarah Janecek Paul Wellstone Cindy Sheehan
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