Down With The Downing Street MemoTod Lindberg covers the small furor in the fever swamps over the "fixed language".
For smoking-gun enthusiasts, the key to the plot is that word "fixed," as in, the fix is in. As in, the intelligence and facts weren't what Bush needed, so he fixed them. The problem with this analysis, if you can call it that, is quite simple: If what is being described is chicanery and wrongdoing in the form of the Bush administration fabricating intelligence, how come nobody in the room with Blair when C drops this bombshell is sufficiently perturbed to do so much as ask a follow-up question? How come Blair's "sofa cabinet" just goes on earnestly discussing the military options?Even I know what the goofballs would respond to that: Because Blair is Bush's poodle! Of course, exactly why Blair has agreed to this arrangement is never quite explained.
In fact, exactly how is it that the official note-taker at this meeting, Blair's thirtysomething private secretary for foreign affairs--far junior to all others in the room--decided to record this momentous revelation with a colloquialism worthy of a James Cagney gangster movie? The answer is that he is doing no such thing. "Fix" here is clearly meant in its traditional sense, in the sort of English spoken by Oxbridge dons and MI6 directors--to make fast, to set in order, to arrange.It's striking that the [London] Times's story hyping the memo makes no mention of the "fixed" passage until roughly its 26th paragraph, where the term goes unremarked. Far be it from me to suggest that the Brits have done a better job as custodians of the English language than Americans. But the Brits do at least know how they speak it.But that's okay, lefties. There's always another conspiracy out there. I hear there's a new rumor about Jeff Gannon having sex with Jenna Bush's boyfriend's uncle's landlord!
The sun'll come out, tomorrow,
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, come what may
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow, you're always a day away!
