Frank Rich and The Bush PR Theater Company

Indented below are a few key sentences from Frank Rich's editorial today in the NY Times which I borrowed from AMERICAblog.

First, a word of praise for Frank Rich. Rich's incisive dissections of the taxpayer-supported Bush Public Relations Theater Company, a key node of the military-industrial-defense-energy-infotainment complex, are always welcome. Mr. Rich, longtime theater critic, is clearly well-suited to reviewing the latest improvisations of the Bush troupe since we no longer have a functioning democracy but instead have this very well-funded theatrical enterprise, which, for the benefit of its many investors in the corporate complex, puts on spectacular shows of dissembling, disinformation, and deception. Without further introduction, here's Rich's quote:

The highest priority for the Karl Rove-driven presidency is...to preserve its own power at all costs. With this gang, political victory and the propaganda needed to secure it always trump principles, even conservative principles, let alone the truth. Whenever the White House most vociferously attacks the press, you can be sure its No. 1 motive is to deflect attention from embarrassing revelations about its incompetence and failures.

As much as I am grateful for Rich's columns -- one of the last voices, along with Krugman's, of the Times' once-proud bourgeoisie brownstone liberal tradition -- I find myself shaking my head at his last sentence. He seems to imply that the Bush administration might be "embarrassed" by "incompetence and failures."

Rich, perhaps because he seems to be a person with strong moral and professional values, seems to believe that Bush and his supporting cast might share his belief in professional, if not moral values. I commend him for his charitableness in this; but Bush and his henchmen, immoral, are incapable of embarassment over "incompetence. "

They are instead very capable of sniffing the political winds and sensing what their audiences need. They know when others think they should be embarrrassed, and depending upon whom they wish to discipline or stimulate, will put on a performance to draw attention to themselves and, if necessary, shine a harsh interrogatory spotlight on anyone in the crowd who dares to respond to their latest show with a sigh, a snore, a catcall or Bronx cheer.

You can only be embarrassed at incompetence and failure if you believe you have been shown to be incomptent or to have failed. And since, as part of the Bush troupe's image they cannot admit to failure, they must lash out or humiliate anyone who might suggest a mistake was made.

Recall if you will Bush's inability to admit to making a mistake in his Presidency a couple of years ago. Many liberal commmentators saw that as an example of his inability to look inward or to examine a new set of facts, draw new conclusions and make new plans. But, in fact, he was playing to an audience elsewhere. He used this moment, and very skillfully I might add, to humiliate and mock a representative of "liberal media" for the pleasure of his base. As the president of Good and Evil, Bush doesn't make mistakes. His word is The Word.

Bush's recent "softer focus" pre-Christmas speech suggesting that there might have been "wrong" intelligence about Iraq but that attacking Iraq was still the best course of action was not an admission of failure or incompetence; it was a small off-Broadway one-man designed to mollify a press that was suddenly waking up to Bush's low poll ratings and felt emboldened enough to begin to wonder about the usual performance. Only these critics really noticed Bush's attempt to try a "stretch" role.

Can an administration that is always talking in high moral terms about Good and Evil really be so cynical as to see the world as merely a stage for the launching of lies and cover stories? Much as Mr. Rich might expect or wish otherwise, yes. Yes, indeed.