Saturday, January 5, 2013

Maureen Dowd, "The Surreal World: Capitol Hill": Less Than a Few Good Men (and Women)

"We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something."

- Jack Nicholson as Colonel Jessep, "A Few Good Men"

"A Few Good Men" is one of my favorite movies, which comes to a climax when the villain, Colonel Jessep, responds to Lieutenant Kaffee's demand for the "truth" in a military court of justice. What's special about this flick? Although Jessep's snide, insolent, arrogant and domineering character is indeed "grotesque," I can't help empathizing with his deep-seated belief in "honor," "code" and "loyalty." Those of us who have served in combat units, when granted a couple of hours of precious sleep while on the line, have needed to believe in the probity of those other exhausted grimy persons beside them when resting their heads in the sand or mud.

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Surreal World: Capitol Hill" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/opinion/sunday/the-surreal-world-capitol-hill.html?_r=0), Maureen Dowd draws our attention to John Boehner's awkwardness during the ceremonial swearing-in for House members, compared with the Joe Biden's bonhomie at the Senate's swearing-in observance. Dowd next observes how it was Biden's flippant ease that allowed the vice president "to save the day on the fiscal cliff":

"Obama radiates contempt at Congress for not being a bunch of high-minded, effective people, and for expecting him to clean up its mess. He thinks reasonable people should see things his way in a reasonable amount of time, and gets impatient when ideology, ego, identity politics and pork-project whining hold up progress.

Biden is a realist. He understands lawmakers' limitations, motivations and needs. He leans right in and speaks -- and speaks and speaks -- their language. That's who he is. And he believes, as creaky and unwieldy as the system is, that it still has integrity."

Does Washington still have integrity? Congress will soon be approving Senator John Kerry, who referred to Syrian dictator and mass murderer Bashar al-Assad as "my dear friend," as Obama's next secretary of state.

Most likely, Congress will also be narrowly approving former Senator Chuck Hagel as Obama's new secretary of defense. Hagel was one of 12 Senators who wouldn't ask the EU to declare Hezbollah, which was responsible for the 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing that killed 241 American soldiers, as a terrorist organization.

Kerry? Hagel? They leave me nauseous and cold inside.

The surreal world of Capitol Hill? Quite right. "Honor," "code" and "loyalty" have been replaced by "narcissism," "vanity" and "conceit."

"You can't handle the truth!" Indeed, and there's nothing I can do to change it.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Jeff, there is a difference between reality and rhetoric. And when there was "honor" and "loyalty?" At the time of Joe Kennedy, Prescott Bush and the entire sick State Department? Or earlier - at the time of Southern gentlemen with their preferences for strange fruits, such as Leo Frank? When, when, when?

    ReplyDelete