Saul Landau
Maureen
Down has cleverly labeled them the Kennebunkport Corrleones. But I think
of the Bushes as the Texas Prizzis, that Mafia branch that has moved to
cowboy country and have successfully filched the 2000 election. Recall in
Prizzi’s Honor how the Mafioso Don, who has stolen billions and murdered countless
people who he decided were enemies, orders Charley, his hit-man, to murder
the very woman he loves. "She’s a thief, she stole our money," screams
the Don.
So,
as the Florida election results came in Don Preppy Georgio gathered his Protestant
primos. Our family deserves this election, he said. And he instructed his
Spin dotores to tell the media: "Al Gore stole the election."
Never mind that Gore won the popular vote by 300 thousand plus; that exit
polls, which don’t lie and they showed Gore as Florida winner; that
thousands of Democratic voters of color were somehow kept from the voting
booth. The Prizzi Bushes found a "traidore," Miami’s mayor, a Democrat
indignant over Clinton’s refusal to keep the little Cuban boy here in
freedom. This turncoat helped stop the recount in Miami. For the media, Bush
spin dotores declared that they had played by the rules — albeit
they invented rules as they went along. Who would believe in human
counting? They asked, even though Texas law admits the good old recount.
Consiglierri,
Big Time Dick, as Dowd named him–he even looks like Robert Duvall–emerged
from his hospital bed and took over. He declared the man that all alert
people knew had won as a sore loser. Indeed, "Sore-Loserman" bumper
stickers appeared.
W
knows who was in charge. In an accidental, spontaneous moment with the press,
he said: "Dick Cheney and I will become President and Vice President."
In that order! Don Preppy Georgio shakes his head, sighs. What to do with
these slips of the tongue?
Poor
W wonders how he can survive this messy time without a drink. He needed
one badly during the debates. He watches his Dad down double martinis to
relax before he delivers his partial sentence orders to his heir to the
throne.
Bush
the elder is content. Payback time came and his team, his family, beat the
hated rivals who had removed him from the Presidency four years before he
was ready. He has now had to designate W, because of age not intelligence
or ability, to become figurehead for the new imperial dynasty. The Bushes
will have thousands of jobs to offer loyal retainers, hundreds of millions
of dollars that they can manipulate for those deemed worthy. That, after all,
was the prize that the Prizzi Bushes sought.
Their
legislative agenda they take from the Reagan days: emote heavy conservative
rhetoric but make money for your family and friends. Given the Senate’s
50-50 split they will not easily repay the National Rifle people who want
each family to place a Howitzer in its back yard. Nor will they satisfy
the fanatic Christian soldiers who demand an overturn of Roe v. Wade. But
the Bush Prizzis will go through the motions, or at least say the right
words while doing little about these peripheral matters.
Don
Preppy Georgio listens to the pundits and judges babble endlessly about the
rule of law. He chuckles. He knows the law of rule. He has played with the
law to his advantage from his CIA days on. His lawyers and spin men have
covered up some outrageous thuggery by claiming they were simply following
the law, by appearing reasonable. They will be well paid. Don Preppy hopes that
some ambitious media character will not catch W drinking or using drugs.
He suspects that the poor lad will not prove able to control those
impulses.
But
revenge against the other team has sweetened his old age. Yes, he thinks,
American democracy, what a wonderful system.
Saul
Landau is the Director of Digital Media and International Outreach Programs
for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences California State
Polytechnic University, Pomona 3801 W. Temple Avenue Pomona, CA 91768 tel:
909-869-3115 fax: 909-869-4858 http://www.saullandau.org
