No way out?
More and more, the current drama of the dysfunctional executive branch of the US government reads like a novel rather than a non-fiction book, as we’ve recently had occasion to note. No doubt there are many senior Democrats, elected and otherwise, who are now scared to death of the disaster that likely awaits them a very long 14 months from now. It could destroy the party for a generation. But what can they do? Their guy won’t resign. A primary challenge would alienate the party’s most loyal voting bloc, without whom they can never win a national election. But what if all this really were a fictional tale. Is there no way out?
We imagine a meeting at maybe the Cosmos Club, though more likely the meeting place would be in New York. (In a clever bit of filmmaking in The Godfather, the building exterior for the meeting of the heads of the five families is the New York Fed.) This meeting of the heads of the Democrats’ five families of fundraising, media, industry, finance, etc. would conclude that the president must be brought down by scandal in order to save the party. Maybe they’d start the campaign with medical rumors in the party’s paper of record. Small beer, but you gotta start someplace. But then they get lucky. There are real scandals that they can use, and lots of them.
To date the media’s policy had been to mostly ignore the scandals or write them off to partisan politics as usual. But these are desperate times and desperate measures are called for. At the meeting they decide that they are willing to use their ultimate weapon, a secret and a scandal so shocking — and one that they’ve known since 2007 by the way — that it would shake American society like it’s 1861 again. They dispatch a grandfatherly CEO to Washington to deliver the news, that if their guy won’t resign, they’ll go nuclear. But they give him a way out, letting him blame the crony capitalism scandals, and then announcing a dramatic decision to cement his legacy as one of the greatest leaders in American history.
The president accedes to the five families’ demands. As a result, over the next month story after story breaks about shady deals between certain companies and the government, all of which make the jobs picture even more uncertain. The administration takes bold action, proposing vast new bi-partisan transparency in government and regulatory reform legislation that is swiftly agreed to by the GOP. But it’s at the joint press conference — the president, vice president and speaker of the house — where the real news is made. The president says that not only does he take full responsibility for any scandals that have occurred on his watch, he and his administration owe it to the young people of America to be the nation’s best examples in putting country before party and in bringing true bi-partisanship to a divided nation. Whereupon he and the vice president announce that they are resigning, effective immediately. A stunned speaker of the house is now in charge.
The GOP is thrown for a loop, since the leading presidential contenders are competing for a job already held by a Republican. The Democrats are able to run the candidate (and her husband) that they really wanted all along, and are simultaneously able to claim the mantle of bi-partisanship, sacrifice and true patriotism. The former speaker is in no way qualified for the new job he has, and it quickly shows. And the media and Democratic incumbents have been freed up to even more loudly excoriate their opponents as mean-spirited, science-denying, rich-favoring, bigoted ignoramuses who are now responsible for everything wrong with the economy and the world. A happy ending that saves the Democratic party’s bacon.
(Of course this reads much less like a novel than a fairy tale. Indeed, a much happier fairy tale than we’re likely to see unfold over the next 400 days.)
September 17th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
[...] Dinocrat writes a scenario that could give you insomnia… [...]
September 17th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Wow, that’s a whole lot of wishful thinking and whistling past the graveyard.
Everything Obama does now looks panicked, reactionary and politically motivated.
Why? Because he has FAILED at virtually everything he’s promised.
Sorry guys, but the notion that Obama could be a 2 termer is over. That shipped has sailed. Obama failed for three years and destroyed the economy and became the most anti ISRAEL President in history.
The only question that remains is: How many down-ticket Democrats will Obama bring down with him??
I’d like to see a fair analysis on that – because it does NOT look good.
September 17th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Why don’t the comments show up right away?
Afraid of the truth?
September 17th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Add AUDIT THE FED …
Dear Jack,
Eyesight and health problems have put my “messengering” of comprehensive emails on hold, but going to get this one out as it imperitive that there is a plan for such an eventuality.
May Boehner be humble and accept as only caretaker until the election.
May he also put on hold all the regulations and funding for legislation passed by the DEMS.
The resignations will have admitted to running a corrupt admin. Therefore, caretaker POTUS will have reason to executive order such a hold on implementation of OBAMACARE, DODD FRANK, EPA REGS, NLB ORDERS et al.
Hope you’ll follow up this post with your own plan/recommendations. Will check back later
September 18th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
It may be a “happy ending” for the “progressive” Democrat plan, but a rather grim fairy tale for the rest of us. The government remains our evil stepmother, and we Cinderallas remain her servant, never getting to go to the DC ball.
But perhaps the success or failure of Obama’s regime should be viewed in light of his goals. He likes the Marxist prof’s best, and he and Valerie Jarret are so proud of communist Van Jones and his admiration of Chavez. Obama is a dismal failure for the traditional America. But we see a brash transitional step toward a brave new fascist world, for the man Oprah ordained as “The One”.
Obama’s fundamental transformation of America may best be understood as a slow motion coup against congress and we the people. His campaign was a Trojan Horse, wheeled in by an adoring and compliant media. Now he uses the power of office to throw billions to his friends (eg. Solyndra, and GM union bosses versus GM bondholders), and punishes his political enemies (eg. Gibson Guitar or Boeing in SC).
Nearly every action has weakened our private enterprise economy, and grown the federal government, while suing several states, even as he imposes unfunded mandates on them. This is war for Obama, and the 70% that demand less government are his enemy.
And internationally we are constantly made weaker … our allies are trashed, our missile defense weakened, most recently damaging GPS technology is pushed through against all advice. Arab Spring is heralded and supported, as thousands of shoulder fired rockets go missing, and radical Islam prepares to take Egypt, and Israel is marginalized.
Gee .. this could go on endlessly … but the “coup” interpretation makes more sense. Obama is growing the public sector, and billing the private sector, while demonizing them in his holy war against “the rich”. Slow motion for a coup, but a blitzkrieg of regulatory overstep, and “emergency, pass this bill now”, crisis mismanagement.
But if the coup fails, the fallback position may be to the more gradual takeover by the Hillary progressives, who have gained political ground with Obamacare and other fortified positions.
Hopefully they’ve awakened a sleeping giant, and Cinderella doesn’t put on phony glass ceiling slippers … instead she organizes some Tea Party rallies, and wins public office. Then we can start investigating the big bad wolf, for what he did to grandma, and his stalking of Little Red Riding Hood.