HOPING TO FILL THE DANCE CARD WITH FOLKS NAMED STUPID

Here is a bit more on Washington Congressman Jim McDermott.

But read everything written here please...

Dazed and disoriented, not seen since the Iraq war began, he emerged talkative yet defiant. Saddam Hussein? No, Rep. Jim McDermott.

The Washington Democrat told a Seattle radio station Monday that the U.S. military could have found Saddam "a long time ago if they wanted." An incredulous host asked whether the congressman really thought Saturday's capture was timed to help President Bush.

"Yeah. Oh, yeah," McDermott replied. "There's too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing."

Yes, we really haven't heard from the Seattle lawmaker since he turned up in Saddam's Iraq last year to call the president — Bush, not Saddam — a liar. Now "Baghdad Jim" is back, accusing Bush of staging Saddam's snare for political reasons. The past year seems to have been as tough for McDermott as it has been for Saddam. One has lost his country; the other has lost his mind.

McDermott has contributed to greater bipartisanship. Washington state Republicans blasted his "crazy talk." His Democratic colleague from Washington, Norm Dicks, said: "With all due respect to my colleague, that is a fantasy. That just is not right. ... It's one thing to criticize this administration for having done this war. ... But to criticize them on the capture of Saddam, when it's such a big thing to our troops, is just ridiculous."

Exactly, but Dicks' sane words are out of sync in a Democratic Party that increasingly suffers a kind of psychological affliction: It's ready to believe the most hateful charges against George Bush but unwilling to even acknowledge evidence of Saddam's links to al-Qaida.

It would be one thing if McDermott were alone in concocting these anger-filled phantasms. But the Capitol Hill backbencher has eye-catching company. Consider the recent musings of Howard Dean on National Public Radio. He was asked about charges that Bush is holding back information that he had been warned about Sept. 11.

"The most interesting theory that I have heard so far ... is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis," Dean replied. "Now who knows what the real situation is?"

He admitted this "most interesting theory" couldn't be proved and, in later days, said he didn't actually believe it. But here was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination trafficking in a theory that, according to his staff, the candidate just picked up "out there" in the political atmosphere — a theory that accuses Bush of knowing in advance about the terror attacks and doing nothing to stop the slaughter of thousands of Americans.

Will Dean be favoring us with other "most interesting" theories or just the ones that accuse Bush of treason or worse?

We've been talking a lot lately about folks paying attention, or not, as the case may be. Simultaneously, we've also kept an eye on the reporting "styles" of the main stream media.

This story of Jim McDermott's assertions the Saddam capture is a political stunt is, of course, absurd.

More absurd...way more absurd...is the notion uttered by Howard Dean and widely reported in the press that President Bush was warned in advance about the attacks of September 11th.

But consider please...I doubt seriously that Howard Dean is a certifiable idiot...meaning I doubt that he for a moment believes the President sat by and let 3000 people die and billions vanish from the US Economy.

If this is true...that Dean is not an idiot...why would he say it?

The results of this poll might just be an insight. Taken in 2002 the bottom line on the poll is this:

The public's news habits have been largely unaffected by the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent war on terrorism. Reported levels of reading, watching and listening to the news are not markedly different than in the spring of 2000.

So...let me proffer this. Certainly the political parties have their own polls to research the best means of reaching the public. As a result of such polling they have found what you and I know to be true...most folks just aren't paying attention.

They get their news from "headline news" type TV while getting dressed...or the 90 seconds of news that most radio stations play at the top of the hour.

Or they get it from reading the newspaper headlines as they walk by the newspaper machine.

Or they get it from word of mouth...

If that is all the opportunity one has to influence an opinion then one will never sufficiently inform the Amercan populous of the nuances of one's stance vis a vis anothers.

So the best one can do is to create a bogus but compelling story and let it make the headlines to be further spread by word of mouth.

I mean - supermarket tabloids make a fortune by making up stories that anyone with an IQ higher than a celery stalk would never believe. But a whole bunch of folks buy the tabloids (and presumably believe them...or want to believe them).

So...is Dean trafficking in tabloid style campaigning? It would seem so.

I theorize that we can agree that most of us don't believe the President sat back and allowed the attacks on the World Trade Center to happen...

I believe that most reasonably intelligent Americans think we found Saddam Hussein one week ago...and pulled him from a hole...

If my theory is correct then why do Dean and others say wild stuff?

They are courting the stupid vote.

That is the long and short of it. If it makes no rational sense (here I'm not talking about genuine disagreements over tax policy or even the existence/not of WMDs...I'm talking about the irrationals such as uttered by Dean, Mcdermott and even Madelaine Albright for crying out loud...)...if it makes no rational sense (and I presume them to be rational folks) then the only conclusion that can be drawn is this is a strategy to gain the vote of stupid Americans.

Does that scare you as it scares me? That the next election...not just the Presidential election...any of them...getting stupid people to vote and to vote on the basis of WORLD WEEKLY tabloid style stories (PRESIDENT'S DOG INFECTS WHITE HOUSE STAFF WITH BRAIN WITHERING DISEASE!)...isn't that frightening?

Those of us who are paying attention need to recruit more folks to pay attention.

Because we have to out-vote the stupid people.