The Boy becomes a Man [?]



[17:55 UPDATE below and added the missing "?" above]

Finally, authenticity. A lot of people won't get this, especially those whom George has just left without cover for their bluster and short-sightedness, but I'm proud of him. For the first time since those few seconds atop The Pile at the WTC with his PA horn, the man displays the limbic courage of true leadership. Even though it's the dour side of the archetype, balance demands it. You can sense the harmonics and appreciate his struggle. And you can bookmark this 1:28 because somebody's had a variant of the Goldwater-to-Nixon chat. Something big has happened.

What? Most likely a slow roll has picked up speed and added an exclamation mark in the form of some really bad, but below the radar policy development. Probably just deserts; a very bad-for-us mutual security and economic pact between a Bear and a Tiger. (Read Swinging at Pinatas while a Tiger creeps up behind you from a few weeks ago.)

I'd be willing to bet this summer's new car that there's a lot of "unofficial" telecom happening right now between many heads of state and freelance conservative and old-guard eminences like Baker, Brezinski, Jack Welch, Murdoch and Kissinger, assuring those heads that Iran is off the table, that the "soft" crashlanding of a toothless Bush is being engineered, and that a certain Hammurabic political justice will be forthcoming. "Balance" and karma are not just the mien of granolas and "Falling on ones sword" is primal and expected in all cultures. If a push is required, que será, será. It's not unfamiliar chess in the Bush family:

August 8, 1974

Dear Mr. President,

It is my considered judgment that you should now resign. I expect in your lonely embattled position this would seem to you as an act of disloyalty from one you have supported and helped in so many ways. My own view is that I would now ill serve a President whose massive accomplishments I will always respect and whose family I love, if I did not now give you my judgment. Until this moment resignation has been no answer at all, but given the impact of the latest development, and it will be a lasting one, I now firmly feel resignation is best for the country, best for this President. I believe this view is held by most Republican leaders across the country. This letter is much more difficult because of the gratitude I will always have for you. If you do leave office history will properly record your achievements with a lasting respect.

George

George H.W. Bush
Chairman
Republican National Committee

Nixon resigned the next day. What's next for Walker? Dunno. Depends on how well and faithfully he walks back the cat. Expect a tart farwell by Rummy forthwith. I'll let Paddy Chayefsky take it from here:

ARTHUR JENSEN: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal - that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians! There are no Arabs! There are no Third Worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic, and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!

***

UPDATE: Richard Wolffe of Newsweek thinks he's still Peck's Bad Boy. Probably so, but somebody new is writing the lines. My premise above is unmoved. These guys aren't asking "why now?" or "because why?" Instead, they're pondering the "honesty" of the statements of a definitively unsquare dealer. Once again, they're 5 moves back on the board. Crooks & Liars has the Wolffe video and Dubya post-answer smirk:

Wolffe: ...And for me the big giveaway was at the end of that answer, I don't know if you can see it on camera, but the President flashed a big grin to those of us sitting in the front rows. It didn't seem that he was quite as contrite as his performance.