The Peking Duck reprints Thomas Frank’s column in the New York Times. Apparently Frank is subbing for MoDo through August. He’s on the money, as usual.
‘President Bush operates in Washington like the head of a small occupying army of insurgents,’ the pundit Fred Barnes writes in his recent book, ‘Rebel-in-Chief.’ ‘He’s an alien in the realm of the governing class, given a green card by voters.’Let’s see: These insurgents today control all three branches of government; they are underwritten by the biggest of businesses; they are backed by a robust social movement with chapters across the radio dial. The insurgency spreads before its talented young recruits all the appurtenances of power — a view from the upper stories of the Heritage Foundation, a few years at a conquered government agency where expertise is not an issue, then a quick transition to K Street, to a chateau in Rehoboth and a suite at the Ritz. For the truly rebellious, princely tribute waits to be extracted from a long queue of defense contractors, sweatshop owners and Indian casinos eager to remain in the good graces of the party of values.
What a splendid little enterprise American conservatism has turned out to be.
