{"id":2452,"date":"2005-10-21T14:57:47","date_gmt":"2005-10-21T21:57:47","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-10-21T14:57:47","modified_gmt":"2005-10-21T21:57:47","slug":"norm-ornstein-and-the-heat-death-of-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2005\/10\/21\/norm-ornstein-and-the-heat-death-of-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"Norm Ornstein and the Heat Death of the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norman Ornstein<\/a> in the HuffPuff:<\/p>\n

“Americans all have to consider the implications now of a worst case scenario– the problems of scandal and polarization result in a meltdown of the W. Administration and a collapse of governance in Washington.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Since Ornstein and his crowd<\/a> are little orbs that move in relation to the glowing sun of Washington, the meltdown of Imperial authority would be — for them — the equivalent of the heat death of the universe<\/a>. For the rest of us, of course, it would be a liberation — a fact that old Norm recognizes when he follows up his remarks with:<\/p>\n

“No doubt some hard core partisans and ideologues would exult. But with the domestic and foreign policy challenges the country faces, it would be a disaster for all of us.”<\/i><\/p>\n

It would be no such thing. Life would go on. People — real people, ordinary people, the farthest from “partisans” and “ideologues” as it is possible to get — would go about their lives, unencumbered, for once, by the knowledge that the warlords of Washington could start a new war (think Syria, think Iran), or come up with a fresh reason to restrict what is left of our traditional liberties. Naturally, such a state could not be allowed to persist for too long — after all, where there is a chance to seize power, can any politician resist? — but it would be good (good fun, that is) while it lasted. <\/p>\n

That aside, however, take a look at Ornstein’s scenario of what happens next:<\/p>\n

“1. Vice President Cheney resigns– and President Bush replaces him not with Condoleeza Rice, as the rumors in Washington speculate, but with his father, George H.W. Bush.<\/p>\n

“2. President Bush resigns, allowing his father to move up to the presidency.<\/p>\n

“3. Bush 41\/44 chooses his best buddy and surrogate son Bill Clinton (42, that is) to be Vice President. Talk about a fusion White House. Talk about bringing us together. Talk about compassionate triangulation.<\/p>\n

“Keep this roadmap in your back pocket for now. And remember, you heard it here first.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Earth to Norm, re: 2 – 3: it ain’t gonna happen. Just remember, however, where you heard the “Cheney resigns” prediction first — on Antiwar.com, of course. Waaaay back in October 2003<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“”If Libby is implicated as having anything to do with Plame’s ‘outing,’ then that, in turn, implicates Cheney, who must take responsibility. The vice president’s resignation, under these circumstances, is a distinct possibility.””<\/i><\/p>\n

UPDATE: Ornstein emailed me shortly after this post went up: <\/p>\n

“Earth to Justin: it was a joke\u00ad, a parody. Like the last one. I guess I have to write PARODY around these posts.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Who can tell, these days ….?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norman Ornstein in the HuffPuff: “Americans all have to consider the implications now of a worst case scenario– the problems of scandal and polarization result in a meltdown of the W. Administration and a collapse of governance in Washington.” Since Ornstein and his crowd are little orbs that move in relation to the glowing sun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}