Blogslut, who long ago showed her exquisite taste by linking to this blog, has recently shown her exemplary reporting skillz with regard to the Gannon/Guckert scandal.
I can't find any permalinks on her posts, but scroll down to see what she's done; her personal anecdotes help in viewing Gannon in a different light, though in the end it matters little to the true crux of the story: that Gannon was probably a White House plant, and should not have been allowed such easy access by an administration which habitually takes the Paranoid and Fear-Mongering Line in all other aspects of security issues. Still, Gannon seems a bit more human now, and for that we can thank blogslut, who has distinguished herself here in acquiring new information and deserves to be mentioned with the other major breakers of Gannongate, such as Americablog, the Kossacks, and World O'Crap.
Back before my hiatus, I had meant to write an entry on blogslut's "Year Zero" series, which compares figures from the Bush Administration to those of Richard Nixon's. I rather like what she's doing with it, for it goes to show that there's nothing new under the sun -- at least as far as corrupt Republican Adminstrations go. Of course the general analogy is as plain as day; indeed, it's long been observed that Republican Adminstrations have a monopoly on the Most Corrupt in History category, starting with General Grant's and then to Harding's. But Nixon's took it to a whole new level, mixing in the bigotry that is quintessential among reactionaries and the Republican Party's traditional open-legs attitude to Big Business with something that heretofore had been missing from the Republicans since McKinley's assassination: warmongering compounded with dirty tricks on a geopolitical scale. Thus Nixon set the stage for Iran-Contra Reagan and Torture-Friendly Serial-Liar Bush. And at least Nixon had detente going for him; the others we have suffered under have no such mitigating if not saving grace.
Yet where the general analogy might be in danger of becoming worn to the point of banality, blogslut's biographical sketches of the co-conspirators avoid this pitfall and do a huge service in their specificity. She has already found the Nixonian analog to Guckert/Gannon; I wait with excitement (but also a little apprehension for what it will say about the current state of affairs) for her selection of a Bushie analog to Nixon's dread E. Howard Hunt who was, in my opinion, tied with Gordon Liddy as the most odious of an already very sorry lot.
*Edited a bit for clarity.
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 2:36 AM
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