Bad boy George and redefining the new millennium

Welcome back to the 21st Century! I was surprised that none of the victorious American Democrats used this mantra after doing what many thought impossible; wresting control of American government from the cocky, dark and misplaced confidence of the Bush administration, with its secret weapon Karl Rove — mastermind, it was thought, of Republican victories and Republican virtue.

Most readers who suffered my musings about the change in political climate in the US last summer, garnered as we drove our covered wagon through the American mid- and northwest, will not be surprised nor will those who read my viewers’ guide last week.

I doubt that many of you will think I teared up at the outcome so I’ll try to resist the desire to redo earlier columns or state the obvious.

Still, it does make some sense to get a read after every election of what the electorate meant and what, in this case, this portends for our more delicate flower of a democracy here in Canada.

There’s plenty of evidence that folks were voting against the war. And they have, with Donny Rumsfeld’s firing, the reasonable expectation that they will soon be “out of Iraq.� This is great news for those increasing numbers of Canadians who are uncomfortable with our sacrifices in Afghanistan.

We are there primarily to do a job that American forces were unable to do with Iraq on their plate. Now, with the prospect of American troops freer to return to Afghanistan, we can make a noble and earlier retreat, leaving them to do their own unfinished business.

Three more things can be said about the mid-term elections. The first is that our friends to the South have indeed begun to recover from the fear of Bin Laden’s hatred. The second is that the Democratic Party has recovered from the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and, accordingly, has regained much of its traditional support among the electorate. The third is that Americans have really become tired of being lied to, especially in a way that insults their intelligence.

This tendency of leadership persisted, however, in George’s discouraging conduct the day after. He claimed, for instance, in dumping Rumsfeld and hiring Robert Gates as Secretary of Defence that this was his plan weeks ago; he just didn’t want to do so before the election as this would have introduced “politics� into the election. Yeah, right, George!



No Churchills on Capitol Hill

And to add salt to this injury he and Don intimated that the Republican losses were really the American people’s fault; that they just weren’t as sophisticated as the two of them are in understanding Iraq.

Donny’s insulting dumbing-down contribution consisted in likening himself to Winston Churchill, also intimating that George and he would go down in the history books. Don, we knew Winston Churchill and you are no Winston Churchill, sir. Sure, you and Dubya will go down in the history books. But in what column?

Canadians, especially those in the Harper-Ignatief camps, have something to learn from this. Even more than Americans, we don’t like to be told fibs and we don’t like our intelligence insulted. We know what you said about Iraq and torture, Iggy. Why not just be straight with us?

And Steve, we know why you’re not going to some international conferences these days. Your energy policy is a paper tiger, and we know what your ministers who shout across the floor of the House or what many of your crew, nationally and provincially, think of women. Just tell the truth, eh, or if you’re not going to, at least tell us something that doesn’t look like you’re trying to convince a middle school vice-principal that you didn’t really do it.

Speaking of being a bad boy appearing before a middle school vice principal, not really getting why what you’ve done is wrong and blindly certain that you can talk your way out of it, George W.’s public performances the day after comes back to mind. And the fact that he appointed his Daddy’s man as the new Secretary of Defence speaks volumes. I’m not sure I’m glad that our prime minister has George as his buddy. Canadians have to take care who our guy is hanging out with, even if they will only be in town for two more years.