Politics as Cinema: Republicans Die Harder IV

This point in the 2006 Election Cycle is starting to remind me of that scene near the end of the action/thriller movie where the really bad guy has trapped our hero and is pointing a gun at him. Up to now the really bad guy has proven he's really bad by killing hundreds and hundreds of people without even thinking about it, but NOW instead of simply emptying a full clip into our hero he instead starts talking about how he has outfoxed the hero, his really bad guy future plans for unmitigated evil, what he had for dinner the night before, etc., whereupon our hero somehow saves himself or is saved by a deus ex machina, often a woman in a tight-fitting getup.

As I said, the 2006 Election Cycle is starting to remind me of this scene.

The cornered hero is the Republican Party, our really bad guy the Democrats and "Conventional Wisdom", and let's say that Karl Rove is the woman is a tight-fitting getup...just for the visual it provides. Watching, listening, reading anything about Election 2006 right now is all about the Democrats taking over one or both houses of Congress. Will it happen? Who will be the Democratic Speaker of the House if it does? Will Lieberman switch parties to keep the Republicans in control of the Senate?

All this while the metaphorical gun continues to be pointed at a cornered, trapped Republican Party, while Liberals in the movie audience scream "Shoot! Shoot! Kill the bastard! Quit talking, just take him out! Now!"

I am one of those shouting.

We shout because we just know that Karl Rove (who, let's face it, is more of a mythical creature at this point than a an actual human being...that is if he ever truly was a human being) will spring behind our loquacious gun-toting antagonist, say "Judo chop!" or "October Surprise!", and that will be that.

Of course I realize that in this warped analogy the firing of the gun is the Election itself, and that it is impossible to hurry that along. Bummer. Stupid Constitution. And maybe the Democratic wave is cresting a tiny bit too early to accomplish the maximum impact necessary to take over the House and/or Senate. Maybe all the cornered Republicans will snarl there way back from their supposed moral outrage regarding Foley, etc. and show up in significant numbers to keep things in this diabolical status quo that has people buying "I Never Thought I Would Miss Nixon" bumper stickers.

I said it in 2004, and I'll say it again now...I don't know if I can take another two years of this. "Shoot! Shoot! Stop Talking ! Kill!"