Purge One Scourge

Well, this is a first: a post with comments. That's so we can play the cool game that Michigan phil grad students Josh Brown and Tim Sundell came up with (named by yours truly -- other suggestions welcomed).

Here's the game: If you had the power to oust a single member of the current administration below GW, who would it be? Rationales encouraged.

My answer: Gosh, how to choose? They're each so horrible, in so many different ways. First I thought Wolfowitz, because he's the one whose war-mongering ideology drove the train into Iraq; so technically speaking he's responsible for the most deaths (20K, give or take a few thou). But as Josh points out, oust him and another Wolfie would ooze up from the Project for a New American Century or American Enterprise Institute.

I also thought Karl Rove might be a good candidate, mainly because he is the Svengali who has Bush's inner ear: "Stick with principle! Stick with principle! Stick with..." . (These guys really do look and speak straight out of a horror movie...) But Bush is such an ignorant wimp, probably anyone with a strong personality in the right place at the right time could have been his "number one strategist".

Of course, there's John Ashcroft, who's primarily responsible for the general dismantling of the Constitution and also has tons of uncharged detainee and "if they won't talk here, let's see what they say in Syria" blood on his hands, and Tommy Thompson, who has done his best, as director of Health and Human Services, to impose policies that are unhealthy and inhuman. And Condi and Powell have so far sold their souls that they are both beneath contempt. Donald Rumsfeld would be good to go, since he's got such an itchy war finger, and all those ties to the defense industry. But of course Cheney hand-picked Rummy for the job, and all things considered at the end of the day I guess I have to go with (drum roll)

Dick Cheney, the Supreme Expression of the Corporate Terrorist, as scourge I'd most like to purge. I stole "Corporate Terrorist" from someone commenting on this recent article, where Cheney maintains that "the jury is still out" on WMD in Iraq. Even Kay has come clean on that one. Cheney also admits to being evil in this story; more evidence in favor of my choice.

I choose Cheney (a.k.a. "the Enforcer") because, as Jackson Thoreau put it, he knows the possibilities. That is, more than anyone else he realizes how much he can get away with, and is clearly having a sadistically great time getting away with it. Most recent example (besides the unbelievable "jury still out" claim): the "to the moon" play, which would net Halliburton oh, around a trillion or so. Lest you forget, Cheney's stock options come due in 2009. Until then, be very very scared.

Comments

[DJ Baker]

What's up, Jessica?
I'd get rid of Asscroft. The PATRIOT Act is too much for me.
-Dave

[Josh]

The fun--or, rather, depressing--thing about the game is how deceptively hard it is. Wolfowitz, the (pseudo-)intellectual architect of Bushie ideology? Cheney, the man with his hands on the strings? Rove, who is, perhaps, most responsible for Bush's ascent to power? Ashcroft, the man directly assaulting the Constitution on a daily basis?

I flip-flop whenever I think about it again. Right now, my gut says Cheney.

[Benj]

OK, since Josh took Cheney, I'll take Rove. Cheney may be an evil genius and architect of corporate terrorism, but Rove's the political pointman and wizard of manipulation that makes it all possible.