...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, November 16, 2004
      ( 7:39 AM )
 
New Paradigm

I think Josh Marshall has nailed the new perspective in Washington:

So is Bush moving to the right or the center in term two?

Wrong metric. He's moving to exert greater control.

Look at the pattern.

Neither Ms. Rice nor Mr. Gonzales are the neo-cons' or the conservatives' choice for their respective offices-to-be.

In each case they're acceptable; but no more.

What distinguishes each is their connection to the president, their loyalty and their fealty. Neither has any base in the city or standing anywhere else absent their connection to him. And in appointing them he has placed the State Department and the Justice Department under his direct and unmediated control as surely as the various members of the White House staff already are.

Which is certainly a good thing since if there is one thing this president sorely needs it is more yes-men.

I think this is the more appropriate view of what is going on - it's not necessarily about the neocons taking over, it's about W consolidating power. This isn't so much a coup of rightists, it's the creeping insidiousness of soft fascism.

...and then the rightists will take over.

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