The Republican slime machine has unleashed the hounds on Wesley Clark. Only one day after Clark announces his candidacy, we've got Rich Lowry, George Will, and Rush Limbaugh immediately jumping into the fray.
Their arguments, analyses and command of the facts, are, as always, specious and embarassing. But the importance of these strikes lies not in how obviously these Lying Liars can spin. The importance of these initial shots across the bow lies in the quickness and uniformity of the attacks.
The conservative slime machine fears General Clark.
Clark barely registers on any polls yet, but the Republicans know that he is a living, breathing counterargument to the unfair perception that Democrats are weak on defense and national security. They know that Bush, with his priviledged assignment to the Texas Air National Guard, a duty he ignored for an entire year, and his botched handling of post-war Afghanistan and Iraq, sandwiching a premature dress-up stunt on the USS Abraham Lincoln, is at risk of looking feeble before the former Supreme Commander of NATO Allied Forces. As well they should.
The attacks will increase and intesify, and pretty soon any petense of honest criticism will be relegated to the distant horizon. How Clark handles it will be important. But his advisors include former Clinton and Gore advisors, who know the right wing mud slingers more intimately than anyone. None of this should be a surprise for him. And according to Joe Conason, this campaign has been war-gamed.
What I have seen of Clark, he has shown amazing elequence and charm. His response to Tom DeLay calling him a "blow-dried Napoleon" was to expose the obvious humor in DeLay criticizing anyone's hair. Bush's minions are about to roll out the bug guns. I have reason to hope that Clark will be ready.
11:31:18 PM 
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