Via Instapundit and OxBlog, The Nation’s William Greider writes that his first reaction to the news that a small airplane had crashed into a Manhattan apartment building was to think that the White House was behind it:
Yet the least little thing jerks away my optimism, like ripping off a scab that’s not quite healed. When I heard the news flash that a plane had crashed into a Manhattan apartment tower, I didn’t think, how horrible. I said to myself: those rotten bastards in the White House.
I wasn’t thinking terrorists. I was thinking the Bush regime had gone to new extremes in its search for a believable “red alert.” That tactic is worn out, it’s been used so many times in election seasons. Instead, why not blow up a chunk of New York City to remind folks how scary life can be in these United States? Okay, that thought is irrational (also slanderous). But office conversations the next day told me I was not alone.
I have to confess that I experienced a similar moment last night. Watching Charlie Rangel on The O’Reilly Factor, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Republicans had kidnapped the real Charlie Rangel and replaced him with a robot programmed to terrify the American people into pulling the lever for the GOP. But that is the real Charlie Rangel.