Frank Rich: America's 'fearing fear itself' era is over

[kpete]

Frank Rich: America's 'fearing fear itself' era is over

"The results are in for the White House's latest effort to exploit terrorism for political gain: The era of Americans' fearing fear itself is over," writes Rich.

"In each poll released since the foiling of the trans-Atlantic terror plot -- Gallup, Newsweek, CBS, Zogby, Pew -- George W. Bush's approval rating remains stuck in the 30s, just as it has been with little letup in the year since Katrina stripped the last remaining fig leaf of credibility from his presidency," Rich writes.


Excerpts from Rich's column:

It's not as if the White House didn't pull out all the stops to milk the terror plot to further its politics of fear. One self-congratulatory presidential photo op was held at the National Counterterrorism Center, a dead ringer for the set in "24." But Bush's Jack Bauer is no more persuasive than his Tom Cruise of "Top Gun." By crying wolf about terrorism way too often, usually when a distraction is needed from bad news in Iraq, he and his administration have long since become comedy fodder, and not just on "The Daily Show." June's scenario was particularly choice: As Baghdad imploded, Alberto Gonzales breathlessly unmasked a Miami terror cell plotting a "full ground war" and the destruction of the Sears Tower, even though the alleged cell had no concrete plans, no contacts with terrorist networks and no equipment, including boots.

What makes the foiled London-Pakistan plot seem more of a serious threat -- though not so serious it disrupted Tony Blair's vacation -- is that the British vouched for it, not Attorney General Gonzales and his Keystone Kops. This didn't stop Michael Chertoff from grabbing credit in his promotional sprint through last Sunday's talk shows. "It was as if we had an opportunity to stop 9/11 before it actually was carried out," he said, insinuating himself into that royal we. But no matter how persistent his invocation of 9/11, our secretary of homeland security is too discredited to impress a public that has been plenty disillusioned since Karl Rove first exhibited the flag-draped remains of a World Trade Center victim in a 2004 campaign commercial. We look at Chertoff and still see the man who couldn't figure out what was happening in New Orleans when the catastrophe was being broadcast in real time on television.

more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Frank_Rich_Americas_fearing_fear_itself_0819.html

[knowbody0]

1. and they're all banging their heads

against brick walls wondering why we are not shivering with fright. It's because we've been de-sensitised by Snakes on a Plane!

[Cha]

4. motherfuc*in' right!

Rich makes a good point about chertoff not being able to figure out Katrina when it was broadcast on live tv.

Hope some people get to read this column..what section is it in the nyt?

[The Icon Painter]

6. Editorials -

The section is called "Week in Review".

[Cha]

7. THanks! And a kick

for Rich's column.

[TacticalPeek]

2. K & R

:patriot:

[malaise]

3. Tell them Frank

It's over. What's more any terra will be blamed on them. They cried wolf once too often.

[AspenRose]

11. Republicans can't help but overreach, they're so far removed

from reality, trying to create their own alternate universe.

They NEVER get when they've gone too far.

[malaise]

12. Well they've gone

way beyond too far this time.

[brer cat]

5. In -your-face words that need to be said over and over and over

and over again to the entire * administration. Go Frank!

[kpete]

8. NYT link (need Registration) but more at Kos

NYT: http://select.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/opinion/20rich.html?hp

more snippets from Rich:

Mr. Lamont's victory in the Connecticut Democratic senatorial primary has been as overhyped as Mr. Stone's movie. As a bellwether of national politics, one August primary in one very blue state is nearly meaningless. Mr. Lieberman's star began to wane in Connecticut well before Iraq became a defining issue. His approval rating at home, as measured by the Quinnipiac poll, had fallen from 80 percent in 2000 to 51 percent in July 2003, and that was before his kamikaze presidential bid turned "Joementum" into a national joke.

The hyperbole that has greeted the Lamont victory in some quarters is far more revealing than the victory itself. In 2006, the tired Rove strategy of equating any Democratic politician's opposition to the Iraq war with cut-and-run defeatism in the war on terror looks desperate. The Republicans are protesting too much, methinks. A former Greenwich selectman like Mr. Lamont isn't easily slimed as a reincarnation of Abbie Hoffman or an ally of Osama bin Laden. What Republicans really see in Mr. Lieberman's loss is not a defeat in the war on terror but the specter of their own defeat. Mr. Lamont is but a passing embodiment of a fixed truth: most Americans think the war in Iraq was a mistake and want some plan for a measured withdrawal. That truth would prevail even had Mr. Lamont lost.


KOS: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/19/18481/0107

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. They can't explain

How the occupation in Iraq is help the fight against terrotists.

- It didn't deter it
- It didn't detect it
- It didn't disrupt it

All they could try and do is try and grab some credit for it - then came the stories about how the US interfered with the British investigation by pushing for pre-mature arrests. They count on getting a boost in the first news cycle, but the more people know, the less effective they look.

[tlsmith1963]

10. About Time, Too

At least most people have stopped falling for Bushco's tricks. Every time Bush is in trouble, they bring out the terror-warnings. I don't think the terrorists would help Bush get his approval-rating up. I'm glad that Americans are finally starting to figure out what's really going on.

Tammy