Statistics and Definitions

There are two Washington Post stories that pretty well define where we are at this stage of the midterm elections. Either story is revealing in and of itself, but when you put them together and create a sort of an Eisensteinian montage, as I'm fond of doing, they reveal a lot more about The Way We Live Now.

The first story is by Jim VandeHei and Chris Cillizza, and concerns how the Republicans are so desperate to hold onto Congress in November that they have given up all pretense of trying to debate the issues. Which makes sense, of course, since they have absolutely nothing to run on. So instead, what they're going to do is spend all their resources and their considerable war chest in smearing their Democratic opponents and hope that that will prove a winning strategy.

I know. You're shocked -- shocked! -- to hear this.

"The National Republican Congressional Committee, which this year dispatched a half-dozen operatives to comb through tax, court and other records looking for damaging information on Democratic candidates, plans to spend more than 90 percent of its $50 million-plus advertising budget on what officials described as negative ads.

The hope is that a vigorous effort to "define" opponents, in the parlance of GOP operatives, can help Republicans shift the midterm debate away from Iraq and limit losses this fall."

90% of their advertising budget. 90%. Does any single statistic better encapsulate the naked desperation and the intellectual bankruptcy of the Republicans at this stage of history than that?

Well, now that I think of it, maybe there is.

And that statistic would come from another Washington Post story. Written by Dana Priest and Scott Tyson, it points out a simple fact.

The fact is that it has been five years since the attack on 9/11, and Osama bin Laden is nowhere to be found. The man who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, the man whom George W. Bush once said he wanted "dead or alive," is still at large.

More than that, the Post article says that:

"The clandestine U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years. Nothing from the vast U.S. intelligence world — no tips from informants, no snippets from electronic intercepts, no points on any satellite image — has led them anywhere near the al-Qaeda leader, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

"The handful of assets we have have given us nothing close to real-time intelligence" that could have led to his capture, said one counterterrorism official, who said the trail, despite the most extensive manhunt in U.S. history, has gone "stone cold.""

So. 90% of Republican assets being used solely to smear Democrats. And Bin Laden still a free man five years after 9/11. Which statistic do you find more revealing?

Tom Moran