Chris Floyd At Saloon: The Democrats' Year Of Living Disastrously

Glenn Grennwald has booked a week off from his gig at Saloon dot com in order to finish his latest novel. While he's away, his readers will enjoy a golden opportunity -- to read Chris Floyd.

I've been reading Chris every day since way back when, and I've seen how he tends to rise to the occasion. So it's no surprise that his first column for Saloon is a tour-de-force.

Here's an excerpt from Unhappy Birthday: The Democrats' year of living disastrously:

Outrage follows outrage, surrender follows surrender: Every day the unreality of our political discourse worsens, even as the reality on the ground grows more bitter and uncontainable. As we approach the anniversary of the Democrats' recapture of Congress -- an event that was supposed to mark the repudiation of the Bush administration's lawless, blood-soaked enterprise -- it is undeniable that the situation is actually worse now than before.

The prospect of a Democratic victory in 2006 was for many people the last, flickering hope that the degradation of the republic could be arrested and reversed within the ordinary bounds of the political system. This was always a fantasy, given the strong bipartisan nature and decades-long cultivation of greed, arrogance and militarism that has now come to its fullest bloom in the Bush administration. But desperation can crack the shell of the most hardened cynic, and no doubt there were few who did not harbor somewhere deep inside at least a small grain of hope against hope that a slap-down at the polls would give the Bush gang pause and confound its worst depredations.

One year on, we can all see how the Democrats have made a mockery of those dreams. Their epic levels of unpopularity are richly deserved. At every step they evoke the remarks of the emperor Tiberius, who, after yet another round of groveling acquiescence from the once-powerful Roman Senate, dismissed them with muttered contempt: "Men fit to be slaves." The record of the present Congress provides copious and irrefutable evidence for this judgment.

Now that you've started, you may as well go read the whole thing, thanks to Saloon dot com.

And while you're there, click a few of the links. There's a treasure trove of good stuff linked to this piece.

Take your time, Glenn. The saloon is in good hands!