November 7, 2006: D-Day

On the eve of D-Day June 6, 1944, the Allied Supreme Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, wrote a short statement to be released to the press. He hoped that wouldn't be necessary. Eisenhower wrote, "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack [at Normandy] at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone." As it turned out the Normandy landing and D-Day was a success and the contingency statement written by Eisenhower was tucked away and discovered years later.

I too am writing a contingency statement. This one regarding the potential failure of the Democrats to win enough seats to take over the House and/or the Senate. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times thinks about this and writes today, "It is so important that the Republicans lose, because if the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice team can get away with the grotesque incompetence they have exhibited in Iraq...it makes this country look like a banana republic. If on the morning after the election these people come out smirking that their efforts to scare the public into voting again for their candidates worked, and therefore they can just stay the present course in Iraq - which is not working - it will send a terrible message about our democracy. It will tell us that the country is so divided, and so many districts gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, that performance does not matter any longer. Unless you are caught sending e-mail to a Congressional page soliciting sex, your seat is safe."

I'll put it a different way. Here's my rough draft of the day after if Republicans are still in control of the House and Senate. "Despite all efforts to help the Democrats take back the House and/or Senate, we have failed. The people of this country motivated by fear and faith have willingly tightened the Republicans' stranglehold on America. Our nation may one day emerge from this political darkness but not anytime soon. I wish you all well. And when your children can't get Pell grants or Stafford loans to go to college, I'll just smile and say I told you so. When gas is $5.00 a gallon because this country has no energy policy, I'll just smile and say I told you so. When your taxes go up and your government services go down to pay for tax cuts for the richest 1% in this country, I'll just smile and say I told you so. When you can't afford health insurance, I'll just smile and say I told you so. When you're stopped and strip searched in your car, your home, a mall, a train station, all in the name of national security, I'll just smile and say I told you so. When big brother knows what you read, watch, where you go, what you buy, what your HIV status is all in the name of protecting the homeland, I'll just smile and say I told you so. But hey, at least some gay couples, who you've never met in some state you've never been to and whose relationship to each other has zero affect on your life, can't get married right? Good choice. Bravo. I wish you all the best in your new world. I bid you all adieu"

I could have said you won't have The Daily Curmudgeon to kick around anymore but that's so Nixonian.