The Anchoress: Not the effect the Dems or press intended

The Anchoress

Not the effect the Dems or press intended

Had an interesting conversation this morning with a neighborhood lady I ran into at the store (with all of my plans for baking, you think I would have checked to make sure I have enough sugar and flour, but noooooo, that would be too obvious…) - this lady is one who, upon seeing my Bush-Cheney lawnsign in 2004 went into her garage to bring out her “Hillary!” sign from 2000, just to have a little good-natured war. “I can’t stand John Kerry, or his wife, or that freakin’ John Edwards” she had said, then, “so I’ll just remind everyone of who is waiting in the wings after another 4 years of Bush.”

I never asked her whether or not she actually voted for Bush in ‘04 - that’s not my business - but I suspect she may have. While she certainly doesn’t love the president, (”well, he DOES sort of have a simian look to him” she once told me, in defense of the ‘Chimpy Bushitler’ nonsense, although she drew the line at comparisons to Hitler, “and he really can’t speak well.”) she is a New Yorker with enough common sense to know that appeasement will only embolden our enemies, and that yes - we are in a war.

This morning, meeting up in the parking lot, she banged her shopping cart into mine - that good-natured war thing, again - and we started talking of this-and-that and of course politics came up - the FISA issue, the Patriot Act - I ventured to opine to her that the Democrats and the press seem to have lost all seriousness and all credibility regarding national security. Her response (paraphrased - all emphasis mine, but only to give you a sense of her tone):

“Oh, you said a mouthful, kid! I’m so disgusted with my party I’m thinking of sittin’ out the next election, because these people have lost any sense of what their jobs are; they seem to think they were put into office to destroy Bush, and that is all that motivates them - it’s all they can think about, and they seem to think this is what they were charged with, when we put them in office. Hello? I didn’t freaking vote for Schumer to shove his face into every camera, promote himself and play obstruction games when we have a war to fight. I did not vote for Hillary so she could sit around waiting for opinion polls to tell her what to do before she runs for president, and you know what, if she doesn’t mean to be a senator then she shouldn’t be running for the seat in ‘06! Let her step aside, and be honest for once, and start her freakin’ presidential campaign, already, and let a serious legislator run for her seat - her office is rude and unresponsive, anyway - she’s useless! At least you call Schumer’s office, they are respectful - if you look for help, they actually respond, even if they don’t do anything, they send a freakin’ letter letting you know they know you’re alive and they need your vote again. Hillary’s office? They can’t be bothered with anyone! And don’t get me started on this Patriot Act nonsense! When I saw Reid saying they killed it I flipped out! I FREAKIN’ FLIPPED OUT! FOUR YEARS and we haven’t been attacked - what are Reid or Schumer or Hillary gonna say if they let the Patriot Act die and six months from now we’re attacked? They’re gonna blame Bush? Of course, they are, but they’re gonna have a hell of a time convincing the country that Bush is responsible for an attack when THEY were the ones who dropped the Patriot Act! And this FISA baloney is just that: BALONEY! I want to know whose leaking this crap! We had a big investigation on that stupid Valerie Plame deal, and who was she - she’s a nobody at a desk at Langley - we have two freakin’ years of investigations on that stupid issue, and it’s all probably Tim Russert’s doing, anyway - end it, already - let’s investigate who’s freaking LEAKING real national secrets! Whose leaking the CIA work? Whose leaking the surveillance? That’s what we need to know! THAT’S what we should be investigating, and if we find out who did it, we arrest the scum and throw him in jail, I don’t care who he is! I read that Jonathan Alter piece and I wanted to vomit, I wanted to puke my guts up! You know why? Because I remember something that maybe Alter has forgotten, that when 9/11 happened, Bush said he’d use ‘every tool’ at his disposal, and we all applauded that! Remember? We all said, THANK FREAKIN’ GOD this man is in charge, and he clearly means this! I haven’t forgotten it. I haven’t forgotten what downtown NYC smelled like for weeks after the attack. I haven’t forgotten the big freakin’ hole in the city. I haven’t forgotten what it felt like to look at a plane taking off from the airport, and me worrying that it was going to be blown up before my eyes from some freakin’ crazed assh*le with a bomb in his shoe, or someone on the ground with a surface-to-air missile - I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN - and I’m getting damned fed up with my party leadership that seems to have forgotten, and I’ll tell you what, they had better start REMEMBERING, real soon, or they’re gonna find their asses tossed OUT, come November if they don’t get with the program! And don’t even get me started with the papers, I cancelled the freakin’ papers - I’m fed up with all of them! What do I need the papers for, so I can read how everything bad that happens in the whole world is Bush’s fault? I can predict what they’re gonna write! Now, I want news, I go look at the internet, I turn on C-span and watch things for myself! I’m an educated woman, and I can think for myself, I don’t need newspapers if they’re not gonna gimmee news!”

I kidded with her that she sounded like a Republican, and she gave me a withering look. “I’d never be a Republican, not in a million years, my side is ridiculous and blind, but your side is spineless and weak. You people were idiots to get rid of Trent Lott. I mean, his hair was obnoxious, but at least he had balls. This man, Frist, he must take his balls off when he walks into the Senate and leave them in the cloakroom next to Teddy’s flask, or somethin’, because he sure as hell doesn’t bring them into the chambers with him, and he wants to be president? Yeah, that’s gonna happen - NOT! The hell with all of them - the whole Congress is out to lunch! But I’ll tell you something, Joe Lieberman should run for president, because I would vote for him. I won’t vote for Feingold, I won’t vote for the rest of these putzes. But I’ll vote for him, because he seems to have his head on straight, and he has enough balls to talk straight.”

“What about Hillary,” I teased, “I thought you said she’d be the next president.”

She made a face. “She probably WILL be the next president,” she said ruefully, “but I don’t think she should be. She doesn’t stand for anything. She’s nothing but a big fat opportunist. Remember when she went to, what was it Jordan or whatever, there was trouble and she and Bill had to rush over there and hold hands for the camera? With Chelsea, remember that? A freakin’ farce, and I’m tired of feeling played by them, like they think I’m too stupid to see through them! And I’m getting sick of seeing Bill everywhere I look. He’s gettin’ on my nerves. I didn’t like him going to Dubai and badmouthing the war effort; he was wrong to do that. That’s not how a former president should act.”

“Well, then, I guess you’d better pray for a Lieberman run…” I laughed.

“Or Guiliani,” she said, very seriously. “That’s who I really wish would run for president, Rudy Guiliani! He’d have my vote, and I wouldn’t look back. I’d donate money, I’d stuff envelopes. Rudy is the guy we need for 8 years after Bush. I don’t really trust anyone else to do the right thing. He’s freakin’ fearless, and he has balls! He has so much balls, he probably has his own plus Bill Frist’s! Rudy is my man! You can’t fight an enemy that is willing to die to kill you, unless you have balls.”

“So, balls are essential to the presidency,” I summed up.

“They are nowadays,” she agreed, “we can’t afford another president like Clinton, whose gonna throw a few missiles and cry and then ask France and Germany and Arafat what to do. I voted for him, and I loved him when he was president, but he should have been more on the ball in the 1990’s.”

“What about Condi Rice,” I asked, expecting her to balk. “What about a Rudy/Rice ticket?”

“Yeah, I could see Rudy/Rice,” she said, surprising me. “She’s some smart cookie, and you’d have to be blind not to notice that the world respects her. She’s got class, too, and balls! She’s an excellent Sec’y of State. But I don’t know that she’s ready to be a president - but yeah! But, she’s never been married - hard to run for president if you’ve never been married. You know that would start a whole whispering campaign about her.”

“Well, exactly WHO would start a whispering campaign about her?” I asked, “the Republicans?”

“Get outta here,” she said, lugging her bags into her minivan. “It would be Democrats doin’ it, just like they did to Cheney’s daughter, just like they did when Bush nominated Judge Roberts because ohmigawd, he got married late and wore checkered pants back when his mother dressed him. They do it all the time, but they shouldn’t! It’s not right! And we’re supposed to be the tolerant ones!” She slammed down the hatchback and opened the driver’s door.

“My party is beginning to freakin’ disgust me,” she said. “And I never, never thought I would ever feel this way.”