LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NOVEMBER

Like the Tyrone family who remains stuck in the past, the Republican Party finds comfort there as well.

With the 5th 9/11 anniversary upon us and bascially no good midterm election strategy for Republicans--the economy, at least for middle class Americans, is in the toilet; our foreign policy is creating more foreign mayhem; and our national security is more appropriately national insecurity, ABC decides to release an enormously flawed 9/11 docudrama that pins the blame on Bill Clinton--surprise!surprise!-- and everybody and their grandmother except the Bush administration. With no commercial breaks--you're going to love this one, the network has allowed for one, grand interruption: W, who will--I'm sure--beat his war drum as if he were Keith Moon in the flesh. I'm not kidding. And what's even more fascinating, several conservatives inlcuding the likes of Bill Bennet are stepping forward to condemn this "docu fiction." When we are with Bill Bennett, the stars and planets are aligning for who hell knows what.

But we need a little history, quasi literature lesson here: As Eugene O'Neill's Mary Tyrone says, "The Past is the Present, it's the future, too." Remember: the Republicans, especially the neoconservative psychos, love fear, fear, and more fear, especially during an election year. How the hell they made Kerry, a Vietnam Veteran, pale in comparision to chimpy, a Vietnam Dodger, is beyond many of us. Call it "perception management." What's so pathetic (and a bit sacrilegious, I think) here is that they will use the anniversary of a tragic event to make their message loud and clear.

For more information about the controversy: check out media matters: http://mediamatters.org/