A spy in the Bushes?

As the U.S. presidential elections draw ever closer, we’ll be compelled to pay a bit of attention out here. The Commonwealth’s future will be determined, in part, by which party’s man takes the White House helm. November 7–election day–ain’t far off.

On the media’s periphery, quite a scandal is brewing. As reported by Matt Drudge–who is wrong a bit of the time but who also has the guts to be the first to break big stories–the Gore camp evidently planted a mole–a spy–in Bush’s upper echelons. Allegations of a cover up, lying, and so on are being mentioned. The FBI is said to have started asking questions.

Gee, dirty tricks during a political campaign? And a cover up no less? Say it ain’t so.

If the Grand Old Party thinks this story is going to wash the nation in a tide of moral outrage, and therefore raise a tide of support for George W. Bush, it’s probably off-target. Cynic that I am, I can’t help but point out that either guy–Bush or Gore–as top dawg in the White House would be faced with keeping his inner circles free of spies. That’s got to go along with the job.

A leaky campaign may betray a potentially leaky administration…which is why this story could boomerang and hurt Bush more than Gore. Of course, Gore can’t say this explicitly, but can certainly make the point behind the scenes, and his media sycophants will do the rest.

The tiny slice of the media that isn’t a shameless pack of Euro-style creepy Socialists is not, for its part, unified behind Bush. Bush is sort of selling himself as a Democrat Lite in an attempt to snare the “middle of the road” voters. Well, what kind of morons play on the middle of roads? Bush’s campaign is going to be roadkill if he loses everything to court a bunch of neurotic, Prozac-sucking soccer moms and if he shamelessly kisses the wrinkled butt of every oldster who feels entitled to free medicine for all eternity.

But a small–and it is small–element of the media is in Bush’s camp, perhaps mainly because he’s not Gore. And this element seems to be reaching to desperate lengths to psyche itself into thinking that maybe, just maybe, Dubya can win this one. In other words, perhaps he can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, which would be quite a feat given that he essentially snatched defeat from the jaws of victory earlier on.

Personally, I’d rather see Bush as Prez than Gore, but, also personally, I think Gore had the savvy to out politic Bush. Gore can, and will, promise more freebies, more big government programs, more feel good paternalism, than Bush will promise. So why did Bush start playing that game to begin with?

If these guys are supposed to be opposite ends of the political spectrum, the spectrum is sure tiny. And it was the GOP–not the Democrats–that shrank it.

Meanwhile, business and policy leaders here in the Commonwealth have to confront the notion that they may very well be dealing with a Democratic administration for years and years to come.