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by Harvey Wasserman
Is the tide turning?
George W. Bush and his puppetmaster Karl Rove tried to upstage the Democrats with a State of the Union Address full of tricks and gimmicks, martian distractions and rattling sabers.
It backfired. The stunning results from Iowa far overshadowed Bush's lame, malapropic stump speech. Space travel, gay marriage, steroids in baseball, these are the burning issues for a Republican Party smug enough to be certain they can steal any election.
The week's signature GOP moment came from Tom DeLay's Texas, where a woman who sells vibrators was arrested for possessing more than two. In a state that's just been redistricted to prevent any Democrats from going to Congress, we see the GOP as the ultimate Luddites. Are Texas men that insecure? What will they ban next? Massage oil?
Come November, we can expect Osama bin Laden to be miraculously "found" whenever Rove decides the timing is best.
A terrorist attack will explode here or there precisely as the Democrats gather steam. Bush may dump Dick Cheney into a cardiac unit to grab headlines and expand his base.
Remember, please, that Karl Rove, who runs the Bush apparatus, cut his teeth as a "Dirty Trickster" for Richard Nixon. Bush's father was elected in 1988 in the infamous "Willie Horton" campaign, the most racist in modern history.
These amoral assassins will fling the lowest available dirt on whoever got in their way, and nobody has mastered the craft better than Rove. With unlimited money to spend, your worst ethical nightmare is their bottom line.
But we're seeing a pattern here. Every time Bush jumps in the polls, he slumps back down.
From the gigantic rush he got after his "trifecta" on September 11, the polls fell to where they were before the terrorist attacks. From his "Mission Accomplished" flashdance on the decks of the Abraham Lincoln, back down he crashed as the bloodshed continued. From the "miraculous" capture of Saddam Hussein (where is he now?) the polls again plunged as the grassroots Iraqi resistance goes on. From the "booming" economy we see the Bush bounce going flat as no jobs materialize and deficits soar while the dollar slumps.
In short, George W. Bush is still George W. Bush: ruthless, corrupt, untrustworthy, closed-minded, authoritarian, inarticulate, intellectually challenged, programmed, cynical, dishonest, violent, a draft dodger and a religious fanatic who believes he speaks to and for God.
Through the Christian Coalition the GOP has a solid activist base of fanatic puritan fundamentalists unparalleled in US history. They have unlimited money. And they have control of the mainstream media, whose endless gush of right-wing bloviaters has just one mantra: "Bush will win, Bush will win, Bush will win."
But they can be beaten. Here are some of the things that must happen:
THE VOTES MUST BE HONESTLY COUNTED: As push comes to shove, there is only one issue in this campaign: will the votes be honestly counted. As Stalin infamously put it: it doesn't matter who casts them, only who counts them. We know that the 2000 election was stolen, and that the GOP would be more than happy to do it again through rigged voting machines without paper trails, the computerized disenfranchisement of "convicted felons" and other suspected Democrats, and whatever else Rove & company can come up with.
2) THE VOTES MUST BE HONESTLY COUNTED: In 2000 Al Gore sat passively and watched as the White House was stolen. This time, all serious candidates must hammer at this issue, over and over. Rep. Rush Holt's bill now in Congress to require a paper trail for computerized voting machines is just a start, but it's a good one. The Democrats must get that passed or let the nation know why it didn't, and what that really means if the GOP claims victory in November.
3) THE VOTES MUST BE HONESTLY COUNTED: But it won't be enough just to raise the issue. In every state there must be campaign committees explicitly charged with fighting pre-election disenfranchisement, as happened in Florida and elsewhere. There must be extensive inspection of all voting machines, ballots and other election procedures. The polls must be monitored. Unless the Democrats take concrete, effective steps to guarantee a fair vote count, there's no reason to bother with this election at all.
4-10) THE VOTES MUST BE HONESTLY COUNTED: It may also not be sufficient for the Democrats alone to do
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