The Rise and Fall of Mark Penn and The Spiders from Hope (AR)

Conrad Thompson muses on the self immolation of Karl Rove's bastard child:

"Rationalizing the Loss of a Nemesis, Where to Go From Here

When the mighty fall they tend not to fall at all, so much as stumble and resign one of their several posts, retreating humbled into relative exhile for some time. Nixon died before he could ever really emerge again, but alas, Mark Penn has many miles to go.

So will we ever see his smug, monster-like face again? Perhaps my fear of losing such a nemesis makes me doubt the possibility that Penn is Really Gone. After all, his polling firm will continue to work for Clinton. Penn himself is merely no longer in charge of "the message."

Will this mean a reduction in the politics of race? Will Clinton surrogates suddenly stop uttering hateful and crazy nonsense, apologizing with fingers crossed the following day? Has Operation Stupid been aborted?

It's hard to believe such a thing would be possible. A train hurtling along at 300 mph doesn't derail this quietly. Imagine Penn as a conductor hoisted from the train for reasons unrelated to his driving ability. Naturally, someone else will take the controls. But will that really change anything?

No! The train is on tracks, after all, and so the Mark Penn Directive will still hurtle toward the same inevitable conclusion. The question is, which is more terrifying: an unstoppable campaign exercise in bad taste with a puppetmaster in full view, or the very same show with no clear Man Behind the Curtain? When there is no one to blame, who do you blame?"

Part Two:

"Western Civilization has a wonderful tradition of killing monsters: David slew Goliath, Beowulf slew Grendel, Al Gore slew a world without the Internet, and so on. But when the Winners close the books on Mark Penn, they will have to conclude that this was not merely a continuation of the Great Tradition, no. Mark Penn took himself out-- for playing both sides of the same game is the height of arrogance.

It has always been a mystery to me whether Penn's arrogance stemmed from his ignorance, or if his ignorance was merely the outward projection of his arrogance. Unfortunately it seems to be the former. So how do you explain how this pug-ugly beast has slouched along for so long?

Simply put-- he was lucky. The American People are Dumb too, and for a while the song-and-dance payed sweeping dividends, but the groundlings are only dumb for so long. When the News Cycle that Wouldn't End really doesn't End, those of us in the cheap seats start to become more and more aware. We learn the buzzwords, and then a cheap sword-fight isn't enough to hold our attention any longer.

The Clinton Camp's strategy of racism and misinformation was already running out of steam as the populace started to get sharper. Clearly, these were not isolated incidents: Geraldine Ferraro, Ed Rendell, Bill Clinton Himself-- the American People smelled blood.

It's only fitting now that some freak accident should take Penn out of the scene rather than his actual misdeeds. This Columbia deal was like Kenneth Lay dying before we ever got a shot at him. Hitler in the Bunker. Right when we wise up and try to make things right, Karma comes along to correct the injustice and deny us our retribution at the same time. It's totally unfair, and yet completely fair.

Another paragraph has ended in the New American Century, but this is still the prelude. Pericles's funeral oration hasn't concluded yet; what plague may yet come our way? These events have yet to amount to much of anything, but perhaps we can get a sense in the coming weeks and months as to where This Thing of Ours is headed.

We have to hope so, because the only thing worse than seeing the mountain you're about to crash into is NOT seeing it, and doing it anyway. Res Ipsa Loquitor."


Update: It does speak for itself, and it says delectatio morosa!