- CounterPunch.org - https://www.counterpunch.org -

Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can

 

In the spirit of Trent (“Strom Thurmond should have been President)” Lott, George W. (“he’s a major league asshole”) Bush, and Dick (“big time”) Cheney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh, two linchpins of the neo-con/neo-Nazi Republican Party, have tried to outdo one another in being as outrageous as possible.

Limbaugh, who hails from John Ashcroft territory in southern Missouri, imported Cape Girardeau’s finest down-home racism, via his “Excellence in Broadcasting” network, to ESPN and professional football. Sorry, Rush, but your incessant blathering about African-Americans getting special treatment is a throwback to a thankfully bygone era. Maybe you should graduate from morphine-based pain killers and try LSD. That way you might be able to “trip” back to the 1960s and kibitz with the late American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell about your racist views.

Then there is the steroid-enhanced Arnold Schwarzenegger demonstrating more GOP family values. His latest outrage is to have been quoted as saying he admired the late Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. Of course he does. Arnold almost got teary eyed when he complained about attacks against his father who, he said, served in the [German] army. Poor Arnold must have been sleeping in history class. The Brown Shirt auxiliary of the Nazi Party was never considered to be part of the German Army, even by the German Army! Old Arnold certainly has led an interesting life though. Between gang rapes, musing about the failure of poorly-endowed men to “rise to the occasion,” groping women on movie sets and in gyms, Arnold has had the time to contemplate what it would be like to be some kind of “savior like Jesus or a dictator.” (Calls into mind another dim-witted politician who, on more than one occasion, said his job would be much easier if he were a dictator and that Jesus was his favorite “philosopher”).

It is now apparent that Arnold, who admired Hitler for giving a great speech at Nuremberg’s main stadium, seems to favor Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Linz over Rabbi Jesus ben David of Nazareth. All I can say about that is, “watch out Kayleeforniah.” I can hear the strains of the remake of “The Producers” now — “Springtime for Schwarzenegger and Kayleeforniah.” And with Schwarzenegger in the California State House, he could be represented in the Senate in Washington by actor Kelsey Grammer, a fellow Republican. Grammer is talking about running for the Senate against one of the two incumbent Democratic senators. It could be a Schwarzenegger deja vu race. Grammer, a two-time graduate of the Betty Ford clinic, convicted drunk driver and cocaine user, probation violator, and under investigation by Arizona and New Jersey authorities in 1995 for statutory rape involving a 17 year old girl, would certainly introduce more Republican family values into the American political scene.

But back to Conan the Barbarian. I guess Arnold is just trying to emulate the last Austrian emigre who ran for office in another country in a rigged election. Hey Nevada, be careful. Arnold may start talking about “Anschluss,” if he is elected. How about Arnold’s swearing-in ceremony in Sakramento? I can almost visualize Kurt Waldheim holding the Bible.

But as outrageous as Limbaugh and Schwarzenegger are, nothing can top Missouri Republican Senator Christopher Bond’s now former communications director, Ernie Blazar. He decided to set up an anti-Democrat web site called “N8354N,” the tail number of the plane that carried Missouri Democratic Governor Mel Carnahan, his son, and his assistant. All were killed in the crash. The plane crashed just prior to the 2000 election that pitted Carnahan against the incumbent John Ashcroft. Carnahan, whose name remained on the ballot, beat Ashcroft anyway.

Blazar just exemplified a party that is now under the spell of dirty tricksters like Bush’s guru, Karl Rove. Maybe someone should check Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman’s staff to see if they have a web site called “N41BE,” the tail number of the plane that crashed killing Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife, daughter, three staff assistants, and two pilots. Maybe the Republican National Committee has a web site called “N9253N,” the tail number of the plane flown by John F. Kennedy, Jr., which crashed off Martha’s Vineyard, killing him, his wife, and sister-in-law. Naming web sites after tail numbers of planes in which Democratic leaders died has the appearance that some Republicans are gleeful over these tragic deaths.

Perhaps the FBI should expand its probe of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby for the leaking of the name of Ambassador Joe Wilson’s CIA wife (an outrage in itself) to include an investigation of Republican dirty tricks operatives for their possible involvement in multiple counts of murder.

Next Tuesday’s California recall election and next year’s presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial races must be seen by every American as contests between democracy and fascism. It boils right down to that and the future of the country is at stake.

WAYNE MADSEN is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist. He wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth. He is the co-author, with John Stanton, of the forthcoming book, “America’s Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II.”

Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com