Catharsis

Later, I'll post some reflections about the underlying meaning of the election, and the new assessments about our nation's electorate that I've been making.

But for those of you still in the "anger" stage of the five, and those who need a good old full-bore rant to help vent your spleen about all this "reaching out" nonsense W. has been spouting, particularly during his press conference this morning, I suggest reading Maureen Dowd's op-ed piece this morning. Here's a taste:

W. doesn't see division as a danger. He sees it as a wingman.

The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.

W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues."

The president says he's "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a "broad, nationwide victory"?

If George wants to start earning my trust, I suggest he stop lying to me. It would help if he would denounce the slimy, vicious tactics used by himself and his partisans during the campaign. Just once, come out and say the Swift Boat Vets went beyond the pale. Then I might try to adjust my expectation that every word out of his mouth is mendacious.

Sadly, based on his press conference this morning, he won't. Though he was at his most jovial, self-deprecating and charming, it became clear that we're in for a bumpy trip. He even chuckled when he repeated his bogus statistic about how his tax cut had helped boost jobs, the one that prompted the infamous "want some wood?" line from his debate with Kerry. He hasn't stopped lying, he's just willing to be seen laughing out loud as he does it. (The White House hasn't posted a transcript yet, so no link. The whitehouse.gov front page has the video.)