Shake and Baker

Those damnable realists are at it again. I thought this White House manufactured its own reality.

Though they were expected to depart from Bush's lofty, dreamy, ultimately doomed yet entirely empty rhetoric about a democracy in Iraq, former Secretary of State James Baker and his bipartisan commission on Iraq have now completely ruled out any kind of victory there or even the notion that democracy will develop under the tutelage of US occupying forces. The only realistic options they cite are "stability first," meaning stabilisation of Baghdad and accomodation of the insurgency, and "redeploy and contain," which sounds suspicioulsy like a combination of cut-n-run and what we were doing to Hussein before the invasion.

Only yesterday, Bush said that he looked forward to what Baker and the panel would have to say about "getting the job done." He probably will be displeased to hear that there won't be any happy talk about getting any job done other than getting the hell out. And Bush's reaction to this commission's recommendations is expected to be petualant, replete as it will be with a series of "I disagree" statements. This petulance will derive from the Bush narcissism, which often has appeared in his own speeches wherein "staying the course" was more about what not doing so would make him look like rather than what was best for Iraq or the United States.

I doubt that this finding by Baker's commission is the least bit surprising to anyone. In fact, various of the unhinged in right blogostan apparently don't think it is the slightest bit interesting. They're all busy fretting about Muslim outrage, laughing about Air America, and painfully analysing Harry Reid's land deal, something that appears to be no worse than the kind of shady dealing Hastert was involved with in his home state. They all pooh-poohed that, of course.

But what, really, are they going to say about a guy like Baker? the man they all credit with helping fix the election in Florida that got Bush installed in the first place. Nothing. Not even Rove is going to touch this guy. Baker doesn't just have friends in high places, he is one of those people in high places whom people like Rove say they are friends with.

[via hotpotatomash]