Bush and Cheney in the National Kitchen
If there were one overarching metaphor for the current U.S. political situation I think it would be this. U.S. politics in January 2007 is like a huge stove top, like one might find in an industrial kitchen, with 16 or 20 open burners, a huge frying surface and all sorts of ovens, broilers and grills...all of them in active use. On each cooking surface we can find what we might call one of the "issues and controversies of the day" in various stages of preparation. Iraq...Bush's "surge" and the Congressional anti-surge resolutions...is clearly the main course. Iraq is hot. Minimum wage is simmering on a side burner. As is the Scooter Libby trial, the 2008 Presidential race, the Gonzales recess nominations, the national debt, our nation's health care crisis. There are all sorts of smaller dishes...Jim Webb's speech is cooking right along side Dick Cheney's CNN interview and George Bush's State of the Union address. Pretty much anything one can thi